Homochiral or Heterochiral: A Systematic Study of Threonine Clusters Using a FT ICR Mass Spectrometer

The strong chiral preferences of some magic clusters of amino acids have attracted continually increasing interests due to their unique structures, properties and possible roles in homochirogenesis. However, how chirality can influence the generation and stability of cluster ions in a wild range of cluster sizes is still unknown for most amino acids. In this study, the preference for threonine clusters to form homochiral and heterochiral complex ions has been investigated by electrospray ionization (ESI) mass spectrometry. Abundant cluster [Thrn+mH]m+ ions (7 ≤ n ≤ 78, 1 ≤ m ≤ 5) have been observed for both samples of enantiopure (100% L) and racemic (50:50 L:D) threonine solutions. Further analyses of the spectra show that the [Thr14+2H]2+ ion is characterized by its most outstanding homochiral preference, and [Thr7+H]+ and [Thr8+H]+ ions also clearly exhibit their homochiral preferences. Although most of the triply charged clusters (20 ≤ n ≤ 36) are characterized by heterochiral preferences, the quadruply charged [Thrn+4H]4+ ions (40 ≤ n ≤ 59) have no obvious chiral preference in general. On the other hand, a weak homochiral preference exists for most of the quintuply charged ions observed in the experiment.

Revealing stable geometries and magic clusters of hexagonal boron nitride in the nucleation of chemical vapor deposition growth on Ni(111)/Cu(111) surfaces: a theoretical study

The stable geometries of both different-sized and magic clusters of CVD-prepared hexagonal BN on Ni(111)/Cu(111) are revealed based on DFT simulations.

Structure, stability, absorption spectra and aromaticity of the singly and doubly silicon doped aluminum clusters AlnSim0/+ with n = 3–16 and m = 1, 2

The isoelectronic “magic” clusters with 40 shell electrons have enhanced thermochemical stability.

ZnO nested shell magic clusters as tetrapod nuclei

Experimentally found magic clusters, built of nested Goldberg polyhedra and subjected to Jahn–Teller distortion, were suggested as ZnO tetrapod nuclei.