DMITRY MATYUSHOV

Associate Professor
Ph.D., Kiev's State University (Ukraine), 1989

  Office: F-348  Lab: C-232
  Phone: (480)965-0057  
  Fax: (480) 965-2747
  Email: dmitrym@asu.edu

 DMITRY MATYUSHOV's Lab Website
Web page at Physics Dept (physics2.asu.edu/people/DmMatyushov)
Web page at Center for Biological Physics (biophysics.asu.edu/CBP/person.php?ID=77)

Research and Teaching Interests

Electron transfer reaction viewed as tunneling between donor and acceptor potential wells.

Most reactions of importance in chemistry and biology take place in disordered condensed media (liquids, glasses, proteins) or interfaces. The effect of these media on reaction rates amounts orders of magnitude and is often critical for mechanisms and energetics of chemical activation. Our research is concerned with theoretical modeling of chemical reactions and spectroscopy in soft condensed solvents. The research strategy combines the use of computer simulations of realistic systems with the development of theoretical models which can be directly applied to interpreting the experimental data. Two areas of current research include solvation and electron transfer reactions in complex solvents and the solvent effect on optical spectra.

The goal of electron transfer research is to study possibilities of ``soft'' control of electron transfer reactions, i.e. a substantial change in the reaction rate by small changes of external parameters. Experimentally, varying electron transfer rates is commonly achieved by ``hard'' control when the chemical nature of the reactants is altered by chemical design. The same approach is taken by the nature which has achieved high efficiency of photosynthetic separation by chemical selection. The ability to change the rate by small variations of environment is critical for a variety of applications including molecular electronics, molecular switching, and solar energy conversion. Our principal approach is to study systems were the reaction is coupled to a macroscopic collective mode undergoing phase transition or kinetic arrest when global restructuring may strongly affect the rate.

Charge transfer in DNA hairpins

Solvation greatly affects chemical equilibria. Effective calculation of solvation energetics for large systems of biological importance is still a very challenging problem. We are developing algorithms of calculating solvation energies of biopolymers. Current projects include calculation of redox potentials of redox proteins and polypeptides and studies of charge mobility in DNA fragments.

Another general area of research involves theoretical modeling of steady-state and time-resolved optical spectra. Apart from the fundamental interest in the understanding and modeling of the interaction of the quantum electronic subsystem of an optical dye with a condensed solvent, optical dyes are often used as static or dynamic probes of complex environments in chemistry and biology. The goal of this research is to develop efficient algorithms of band-shape analysis to learn about the microscopic dynamics and thermodynamics of solute-solvent interactions.

Representative Publications

"Energetics of Electron Transfer Reactions in Soft Condensed Media ," D. V. Matyushov, Acc. Chem. Res. 40, 294 (2007).

"Model energy landscapes of low-temperature fluids: Dipolar hard spheres," D. V. Matyushov, Phys. Rev. E 76, 011511 (2007).

"Reorganization Asymmetry of Electron Transfer in Ferroelectric Media and Principles of Artificial Photosynthesis ," D. V. Matyushov, J. Phys. Chem. B 110, 10095 (2006).

"Solvent reorganization of electron transitions in viscous solvents," P. K. Ghorai and D. V. Matyushov, J. Chem. Phys. 124, 144510 (2006).

"Understanding the Optical Spectroscopy: Coumarin-153 Steady-State Spectroscopy," D.V. Matyushov and M.D. Newton, J. Phys. Chem. A 105, 8516-8532 (2001).