Nonplanarity of adenine: Vibrational transition moment angle studies in helium nanodroplets

Abstract

Mid-infrared spectra are reported for adenine monomer in helium nanodroplets. We show that there is only one tautomer of adenine, the global minimum structure, observed in helium nanodroplets and characterized by using ab initio calculations and the measurement of vibrational transition moment angles (VTMAs) for the various vibrational modes of the adenine monomer. On the basis of the VTMA analysis on the amino group of the global minimum tautomer, which gives insights into its nonplanarity, a detailed VTMA study of three lowest-energy amino tautomers of adenine is discussed in this study.