G. Vanhaelewyn

Electron magnetic resonance analysis of radiation-induced defects in dipotassium glucose-1-phosphate dihydrate single crystals in situ X-irradiated and measured at 77 K shows that at least seven different carbon-centered radical species are trapped. Four of these (R1−R4) can be fully or partly characterized in terms of proton hyperfine coupling tensors. The dominant radical (R2) is identified as a C1-centered species, assumedly formed by a scission of the sugar−phosphate junction and the concerted formation of a carbonyl group at the neighboring C2 carbon. This structure is chemically identical to a radical recently identified in irradiated sucrose single crystals. Radical species R1 and R4 most likely are C3- and C6-centered species, respectively, both formed by a net hydrogen abstraction. R3 is suggested to be chemically similar to but geometrically different from R4. Knowledge of the identity of the sugar radicals present at 77 K provides a first step in elucidating the formation mechanism of the phosphoryl radicals previously detected after X-irradiation at 280 K. In paper II, the chemical identity, precise conformation, and possible formation mechanisms of these radical species are investigated by means of DFT calculations and elementary insight into the radiation chemistry of sugar and sugar derivatives is obtained.

β-d-Fructose single crystals were in situ X-irradiated at 80 K and measured using electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), electron nuclear double resonance (ENDOR) and ENDOR-induced EPR (EIE) techniques at Q-band (34 GHz) microwave frequencies. The measurements revealed the presence of at least four carbon-centered radicals stable at 80 K. By means of ENDOR angular variations in the three principal crystallographic planes, six proton hyperfine coupling tensors could be determined and were assigned to four different radicals by the aid of EIE. Two of the radicals exhibit only β-proton hyperfine couplings and reveal almost identical EIE spectra. For the other two radicals, the major hyperfine splitting originates from a single α-proton hyperfine coupling and their EIE spectra were also quite similar. The similarity of the EIE spectra and hyperfine tensors led to the assumption that there are only two essentially different radical structures. The radical exhibiting only β-proton hyperfine couplings was assigned to a C3 centered radical arising from H3 abstraction and the other radical suggested to be an open-ring species with a disrupted C2−C3 bond and a double C2−O2 bond. A possible formation mechanism for the latter open-ring radical is presented. By means of cluster density functional theory (DFT) calculations, the structures of the two radicals were determined and a fairly good agreement between the calculated and experimental hyperfine tensors was found.

In this study, density functional theory calculations were used to identify the structure of the radiation-induced radicals in solid state β-d-fructose, using a single molecule approach. Four model radicals were proposed, and the electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) parameters were calculated for the optimized geometries. These calculated parameters were subsequently compared with those of two radical species, observed in an experimental EPR and electron nuclear double resonance study on irradiated fructose (Vanhaelewyn, G.; Lahorte, P.; De Proft, F.; Mondelaers, W.; Geerlings, P.; Callens, F. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 2001, 3, 1729). On the basis of this preliminary comparison, three model structures were rejected. By varying the main degree of freedom of the remaining model, a number of conformations were obtained that yielded isotropic and anisotropic hyperfine tensor components in close agreement with experimental results. To disentangle between these possible conformers, a detailed study was made of the hyperfine tensor eigenvectors. One conformation was found to be in close agreement with the experimental measurement of the hyperfine tensor of the two observed radical species. It was concluded that these experimental species are in fact manifestations of one and the same radical, with a structure conforming to our model but with slightly altered conformations.