From left, Professor Fujii, Specially Appointed Professor Otto Dopfer, IIR Director-General Koyama

<Brief introduction of collaborative research and aims at Tokyo Tech WRHI>

Our group collaborates with the group of Prof. Masaaki Fujii at Tokyo Institute of Technology since almost two decades. This intense collaboration is documented in several joint project proposals (DFG/JSPS) and many joint publications and review articles in highly-ranked journals (>35 since 2005). The major scientific collaboration topic is the determination of the structure and dynamics of solvation around aromatic solute molecules, which is fundamental for all chemical reactions in solution as well as protein hydration. To this end, we apply complementary, state-of-the-art, and worldwide unique methods of laser spectroscopy and mass spectrometry available in the two laboratories in Berlin and Tokyo to size-selected, isomer-selected, and energy-selected aromatic clusters. In this way, we unraveled precisely at the molecular level, the migration dynamics of the motion of a single water ligand around several biomolecular building blocks (such as peptide linkages) in real time. The parameters determined for the first time include (i) competing solvent reaction pathways and mechanisms, (ii) reaction rates and branching ratios, (iii) occurrence and lifetime of reaction intermediates, (iv) dependence on internal energy, and (v) dependence on solute properties (functional groups, hydrogen bond acceptors or donors).

In the coming period of my appointment within WRHI, we will employ the same experimental strategy to elucidate the important effects of solvent-solvent interactions on the hydration dynamics around aromatic biomolecules. To this end, we will investigate clusters with more than one water ligand. Together with the knowledge of water-solute dynamics, we aim at a complete picture of solvation dynamics at the molecular level.

<Collaborative Researcher>

Dr. Masaaki Fujii(Professor, Institute of Innovative Research, Tokyo Tech)