Hydrogen dynamics in hydrated chitosan by quasi-elastic neutron scattering

Hirota, Yuki*; Tominaga, Taiki*; Kawabata, Takashi*; Kawakita, Yukinobu; Matsuo, Yasumitsu*

Bioengineering (Internet), 9(10), p.599_1 - 599_17, 2022/10

https://doi.org/10.3390/bioengineering9100599

Revealing the ion dynamics in LiGePS by quasi-elastic neutron scattering measurements

Hori, Satoshi*; Kanno, Ryoji*; Kwon, O.*; Kato, Yuki*; Yamada, Takeshi*; Matsuura, Masato*; Yonemura, Masao*; Kamiyama, Takashi*; Shibata, Kaoru; Kawakita, Yukinobu

Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 126(22), p.9518 - 9527, 2022/06

https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.2c01748

Evaluation of sample cell materials for aqueous solutions used in quasi-elastic neutron scattering measurements

Tominaga, Taiki*; Sahara, Masae*; Kawakita, Yukinobu; Nakagawa, Hiroshi; Yamada, Takeshi*

Journal of Applied Crystallography, 54(6), p.1631 - 1640, 2021/12

https://doi.org/10.1107/S1600576721009687

Dynamics of water in a catalyst layer of a fuel cell by quasielastic neutron scattering

Ito, Kanae; Yamada, Takeshi*; Shinohara, Akihiro*; Takata, Shinichi; Kawakita, Yukinobu

Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 125(39), p.21645 - 21652, 2021/10

https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.1c06014

Conformational dynamics of a multidomain protein by neutron scattering and computational analysis

Nakagawa, Hiroshi; Saio, Tomohide*; Nagao, Michihiro*; Inoue, Rintaro*; Sugiyama, Masaaki*; Ajito, Satoshi; Tominaga, Taiki*; Kawakita, Yukinobu

Biophysical Journal, 120(16), p.3341 - 3354, 2021/08

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpj.2021.07.001

A multi-domain protein can have various conformations in solution. Interactions with other molecules result in the stabilization of one of the conformations and change in the domain dynamics. SAXS, a well-established experimental technique, can be employed to elucidate the conformation of a multi-domain protein in solution. NSE spectroscopy is a promising technique for recording the domain dynamics in nanosecond and nanometer scale. Despite the great efforts, there are still under development. Thus, we quantitatively removed the contribution of diffusion dynamics and hydrodynamic interactions from the NSE data via incoherent scattering, revealing the differences in the domain dynamics of the three functional states of a multi-domain protein, MurD. The differences among the three states can be explained by two domain modes.

Corrosion of aluminum-based containers for neutron studies with aqueous samples under low temperatures

Tominaga, Taiki*; Sahara, Masae*; Kawakita, Yukinobu; Nakagawa, Hiroshi; Shimamoto, Naonobu*

JPS Conference Proceedings (Internet), 33, p.011094_1 - 011094_5, 2021/03

BB2019-2098.pdf:5.18MB

https://doi.org/10.7566/JPSCP.33.011094

In quasielastic neutron scattering studies, aluminum or aluminum alloys are frequently employed as sample cells. With the increasing incident-neutron flux, the research area currently continues to expand; thus, obtaining data has become quicker than ever for dilute conditions. One such area is the water-containing systems. In this study, we investigated the effect of temperature on Al and found that even in a low temperature atmosphere, Al corrosion can occur. This was attributed to the different thermal expansion coefficients of Al as a base substrate and Al oxide as a passivating film.

Position-encoded automatic cell elevator for BL02, J-PARC MLF

Tominaga, Taiki*; Kobayashi, Makoto*; Yamada, Takeshi*; Matsuura, Masato*; Kawakita, Yukinobu; Kasai, Satoshi*

JPS Conference Proceedings (Internet), 33, p.011095_1 - 011095_5, 2021/03

BB2019-1955.pdf:1.33MB

https://doi.org/10.7566/JPSCP.33.011095

A vertical movement type of sample changer for the neutron spectrometer BL02, J-PARC MLF was developed for our top-loading type cryostat. The sample changer, termed as "PEACE", can control reproducibility of the irradiated position using guides made of polyether ether ketone. The variation between the background scattering profiles of three sample positions was found to be less than plus minus 1.6%. This result is reasonable, considering the deviation of sample position of less than plus minus 0.3 mm from the vertical axis.

Local- and intermediate-range order in room temperature superionic conducting Ag-GeSe glasses

Hosokawa, Shinya*; Kawakita, Yukinobu; Stellhorn, J. R.*; Pusztai, L.*; Blanc, N.*; Boudet, N.*; Ikeda, Kazutaka*; Otomo, Toshiya*

JPS Conference Proceedings (Internet), 33, p.011070_1 - 011070_7, 2021/03

BB2019-1957.pdf:3.47MB

https://doi.org/10.7566/JPSCP.33.011070

Local- and intermediate-range atomic order in Ag ion conducting glasses Ag(GeSe) with x = 0.15, 0.28, 0.33, and 0.50 were investigated by using a combination of AXS, XRD, ND, and RMC modeling. By adding the ND pdf to AXS and XRD results, reasonable partial structure factors and partial pdf were obtained by the RMC procedure. In contrast to the previous AXS and RMC study, a large number of Ag-Ge and Ge-Ge correlations are observed in the first coordination shell region, which is consistent with an MD simulation. The coordination numbers around the Ge and Se mostly follow the 8- rule over all Ag concentrations if Ag is not taken into account. With increasing the Ag concentration, the partial coordination numbers with Ge and Se atoms around Ag remarkably increases, while the Ag-Ag coordination number increases only slightly, indicating that the Ag conducting path is formed through the second neighboring Ag-Ag correlations.

Detailed investigations on short- and intermediate-range structures of Ge-Se glasses near the stiffness transition composition

Hosokawa, Shinya*; Kawakita, Yukinobu; Pusztai, L.*; Ikeda, Kazutaka*; Otomo, Toshiya*

Journal of the Physical Society of Japan, 90(2), p.024601_1 - 024601_12, 2021/02

https://doi.org/10.7566/JPSJ.90.024601

Dynamics of proteins with different molecular structures under solution condition

Inoue, Rintaro*; Oda, Takashi*; Nakagawa, Hiroshi; Tominaga, Taiki*; Saio, Tomohide*; Kawakita, Yukinobu; Shimizu, Masahiro*; Okuda, Aya*; Morishima, Ken*; Sato, Nobuhiro*; et al.

Scientific Reports (Internet), 10, p.21678_1 - 21678_10, 2020/12

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-78311-4

Incoherent quasielastic neutron scattering (iQENS) is a fascinating technique for investigating the internal dynamics of protein. However, both low flux of neutron beam and absence of analytical procedure for extracting the internal dynamics from iQENS profile have been obstacles for studying it under physiological condition (in solution). Thanks to the recent development of neutron source, spectrometer and computational technique, they enable us to decouple internal dynamics, translational and rotational diffusions from the iQENS profile. The internal dynamics of two proteins: globular domain protein (GDP) and intrinsically disordered protein (IDP) in solution were studied. It was found that the average relaxation rate of IDP was larger than that of GDP. Through the detailed analyses on their internal dynamics, it was revealed that the fraction of mobile H atoms in IDP was much higher than that in GDP. Interestingly, the fraction of mobile H atoms was closely related to the fraction of H atoms on highly solvent exposed surfaces. The iQENS study presented that the internal dynamics were governed by the highly solvent exposed amino acid residues depending upon protein molecular architectures.