1 An intermembrane ion trap D.A. Morton-Blake* School of Chemistry, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland Abstract Molecular ion channels consisting of covalently stacked crown ether (CE) rings are mounted in a membrane bilayer between two ion-containing aqueous layers. Molecular dynamics shows that due to a large negative electrostatic potential on the axis of the channel, the cations (but not anions) in the electrolyte layers enter the channel. Calculations suggest that the cations encounter an energy barrier at the mouth of the channel and occupy axial sites between which they may undergo a dynamic redistribution. The application of electric fields sweep the ions to one end of the channel but fields of electrolytic strengths effect neither the exit of the cations nor the admission of anions. The retention of the ions M+ show that the CE channel acts as a trap for cations from the electrolyte layers. Key words: Passive transport, Ion migration, Ion channel, Molecular dynamics, Electrostatic potentials, Solvation. 1. Introduction The passage of ions across membranes is a central feature in the functioning of living cells. Exciting developments in the manufacture and studies of molecular components of the synthetic nanoworld [1] demand an understanding of how ions could also be conveyed through artificial channels [2]. In biosystems the processes usually involve voltage-gated channels and ionophores comprising proteins embedded in the membrane [3]. The process involves conformational changes in the protein chains, resulting in an active transport event. Although the transport mechanisms are known and have been atomistically simulated for many of these processes [4] they are at present too complex to use for the purpose of designing synthetic systems. In the work described here we atomistically simulate the passive transmembrane transport of ions through a proposed synthetic channel. Consider a two-dimensional lattice of molecular channels, each molecule of which comprises a set of fourteen stacked 15-crown-ether-5 (CE) rings which are mutually bonded by -NH- units [5] (Fig. 1). In a later section of this work Fig. 1 the channels will be embedded in a bilayer membrane of two C12H23COOH alkanoic acid monolayers with each end in an aqueous electrolyte layer so as to form a * email: tblake@tcd.ie telephone: 353 18961943 2 sandwich of two solutions separated by the membrane. The 40Å-long channels would thus provide possible migration paths for the cation and anion species between the aqueous layers. 2. Atomistic parameters Bond lengths and bond angles in the carboxylic acid, the amine groups linking adjacent CE rings and in the alkanoic acid chains, were the same as those used in an earlier work [5] and were taken from literature values of diffraction and computed quantities on model compounds [6]. In view of the importance of coulombic effects, which will be shown in this work, a particular concern was the set of partial atomic charges, particularly those on the CE ring atoms. These were obtained from Hartree-Fock calculations using the DL_POLY package [7] either with or without Møller-Plesset corrections for electron correlation (depending on the sizes of the molecules used for modelling). The latter compounds consisted of ethers, amines and alkyl-chain fatty acids. The values of the oxygen charges q(O) in crown ether rings and model ether compounds were found to vary significantly with the method selected to compute them. Increasing the basis set usually leads to higher negative charges: a Mullikan calculation of q(O) at MP2 level using a 6-311G basis set extended to d and f functions gave charges q(O) 0.72e, but those calculated by other definitions of partial atom charges on a similar level Merz-Kollman-Singh scheme [8], Natural Population Analysis [9], and the Breneman scheme [10] were significantly less negative (0.3 to 0.4e). We assigned a value of 0.60e to the CE oxygen atoms. The charge neutrality of the HCOCH segment was conserved by placing compensating positive charges of q(C) = +½q(O) to the adjacent C atoms and zero charges to the H atoms of the segment. The five electronegative oxygen atoms in each crown ether (CE) ring will associate with an axially migrating cation M+. While this may be less likely to occur for an anion migrant A a study of the electrostatics of the system in the next section will note the effects of the partial positive charges on the ten carbon atoms which adjoin the five oxygen atoms of the CE ring. The molecular dynamics (MD) calculations were performed using DL_POLY Smith and Forester [11] together with custom-written programs for data processing. 3 The simulation cell contains the molecular units defined in the previous section, consisting of twenty-five 645-atom channels embedded in a bilayer composed of 1750 C12H23COOH molecules whose carboxylic ends were in contact with layers of aqueous M+A solutions containing 7000 to 8000 water molecules and a varying number of ions. The atomistic potentials used for the non-bonded atom pair interactions were DREIDING (6, 12) potentials [12] except those for the ions, for which those of Åquist [13] were used for Li+, Na+ and K+ and those of Lee and Rasaiah [14] were employed for F. Water molecules were simulated as Berendsen’s SPC model [15]. Potential functions for heteroatomic pairs were calculated by the geometric mean rule. DREIDING values were used for all A-B-C atom triads to define the energies associated with three-atom ‘bond bending’. No four-atom torsional potentials, such as those describing bond torsions, were deployed. 3. Idealized ion channels The molecular dynamics calculations, which will be described in subsequent sections of the report, will be for the CE-channel structure defined above. But if synthetic ion channels ion channel systems are to be designed it would be useful first to find optimisable features in a simple model that exercise a fine control over the passage of the ions. As a prelude to the work, therefore, we examine the extent to which the electrostatic potential along the axis of the channel governs the channel migration of the ions. This will be done by considering (1) a tube of n thin concentric charged shells or hollow tubes each of different diameters but equal lengths to represent the atom charges and (2) the electrostatics of a rigid single channel of linked CE rings. (1) Charged shells Fig. 2 Fig. 2 depicts the concentric tubes (‘shells’) in the model used. The ith shell has radius ri and charge Qi and the channel has zero overall charge ( Qi 0 ). The i electrostatic potential dV at a point P distance p from the centre of a thin ring of hickness dl with radius r bearing a charge dQ (Fig. 2a) is [16] 4 dV ( x) 1 40 1 p2 r 2 where is the surface charge density. .dQ 1 40 1 p2 r 2 . 2rdl If the ring is at a distance l from one end of a charged cylindrical shell then the potential at a point P at a distance p from the end (Fig. 2b) is V r 2 0 dl (l p) 2 r 2 Integrated over the cylinder’s surface from l = 0 to l = L, we have r 1 Yl V ( p) ln 2 0 1 Yl l L (1) l 0 pl 1 Yl t a n t a n1 r 2 where (2) Parameters In the present molecular channel the innermost shell models the five oxygen atoms in each crown ether ring at a radius r1 = 2.0 Å. The next shell, with r2 = 3.0 Å, simulates the ten carbons C1 in Fig. 1 which flank the oxygen atoms of the first shell. The 3rd shell contains the ten carbon atoms C2 at r3 = 3.8 Å that are bonded in pairs to the five nitrogen atoms N in the 4th shell, for which r4 = 4.6 Å. The outermost shell, with radius r5 =5.6 Å, represents the five amine hydrogen atoms H1. Surface charge density values {i} were based on a comparison of partial atomic charges calculated by the quantum chemical methods on model molecules as described in the previous section. Selected charges were varied in a manner that preserved the ratios of the calculated charges of the atoms in the different shells. Consequently the negatively charged five oxygen atoms per ring in the 1st shell were taken to be compensated by the ten equivalent positively charged C1 atoms in the 2nd shell according to q(O):q(C1) = 2 : 1 and the charges on the five amine units C2NH1C2 per ring in shells 3 to 5 were distributed as q(N):q(C2):q(H1) = 5 : 2 : 1. The remaining atoms (the hydrogens bonded to the amine C2 atoms) were deemed to be uncharged. (2) Atomistic charges 5 We now represent the atoms by their electrical charges whose distributions are governed by the same procedure as in the charged shell model. Each CE ring therefore consists of five charges q(O) on the oxygen atoms, ten q(C1) on the C1 lying on either side of these, five q(N), ten q(C2) and five q(H) on the on the amino groups that interlink the CE rings. This defines the axial electrostatic potential at a distance p from the end ring as 14 5 V ( p) i 1 j 1 qj 40 r j2 ( z i p) 2 (3) where rj is the distance of charge qj from the axis in each CE ring and zi is the axial position of the ith ring. Results Eqs. (1) and (2) were used to calculate the electrostatic potentials V(p) along the axis of the channel fixing q(O) = 0.60e on shell 2 and q(C) = +0.30e on shell 1 for various values of q(N) on shell 4 which in turn determined the charges on shells 3 Fig. 3 and 5. Parts (a) and (b) of Fig. 3 compare the values obtained for the potential along the channel axis obtained respectively by the shell and by the atomistic model for q(O) = 0.60e and with different charges on the outer rings that relate to the amino CNHC unit. The vertical lines on the horizontal axis at 0 and 40 indicate the positions of the ends of the channel that is being simulated. The variations of the electrostatic potential are similar for the two models, particularly for low qN. The role of the charges on the amino group that interlink the CE rings is clear from the Figure: the more negative the charge on the N atom, the less negative is the axial potential. This is because a negatively charged N induces positive charges on its adjacent carbon neighbours C2 according to the q(C) = 52 q(N) rule assumed in the preceding section and the C2 atoms, with their smaller shell radius, are closer to the axis (Fig. 1a). We shall later refer to the finding that for the more negative charges on the amino unit’s N atom the potential is lower at the ends of the channel that at the centre. Consider a 1M aqueous solution of a 1:1 binary electrolyte M+A. Taking into account the hydration of M+ in aqueous solution, if the cation’s closest approach to an ion A is about 2.0Å, it would experience an electrostatic potential q/40r of about 6 7v at this point. The dielectric water molecules cause this negative potential to increase to zero within a Debye length D (in Å) of about 3.04/cM for an aqueous electrolyte solution of molarity cM [17], or over a distance of a few Å. The rise in potential over this distance with separation from A, followed by its subsequent drop to the ca. 10v values on entry to the channel (shown by the electrostatics leading to Fig. 3) indicates that an energy barrier must be overcome by M+ before it can be transported through the low-potential environment of the molecular channel. 4. Molecular dynamics investigations 4.1 Simple lattice of molecular channels (no membrane or water) This sub-section examines the channel motion of the ions in the absence of the bilayer membrane and the aqueous layers. With H atoms terminating the end CE rings (atoms rather than the COOH groups used in the membrane calculations), the length of this channel is 29.5Å. The migrating ions are far less numerous than the remainder of the system to be simulated; the statistics of their dynamics in the molecular channel are therefore subject to uncertainties arising from the paucity of data. We counter this by defining the MD cell to contain multiple copies of the channel and migrants. A square 5 5 two-dimensional lattice is assembled from twenty-five 14-ring channels of the Fig. 4 kind illustrated by Fig. 4. A partial charge of 0.65e was accorded to the O atoms in the CE rings and 0.60e to the N atoms of the inter-ring amino groups. In the absence of a bilayer membrane in this part of the work we prohibited the motion of the channels by fixing the coordinates of one atom at each end-ring. Twenty-five monopositive and an equal number of mononegative ions M+ and A were then assembled near the ends of each channel, first removing the symmetry equivalence of the migration systems by imposing a slight degree of disorder on the initial positions of the ions. But by simply placing all the M+ ions at one end of the channels and all the A at the other ends a ‘ferroelectric’ imbalance would be created. This was avoided by making an alternating ‘head-to-foot’ arrangement of the M+ and A ions so that the electric dipoles change their directions over successive channels, resulting in zero macroscopic dipole moment for the overall simulation cell. 7 Results With the twenty-five Li+ ions initially fixed at their sites near the channel ends, the rest of the lattice was allowed to relax fully. when they are subsequently released. Fig. 5 shows the ions’ trajectories In a brief time interval that occurs before the new lattice system has thermally equilibrated, the ions enter the channel and the regular intervals between their axial positions indicate that they take up positions that correspond to the periodicity of the molecular channel. Fig. 5a records the amplitudes and regularity of their fluctuation at these positions over the first 2000 time steps (2 ps) after thermal equilibrium is deemed to have been established. The Figure shows that the ions undergo periodic dynamical motions between sites with atom ‘snapshot’ plots indicating that these positions are within the channel cavities between the planes of the CE rings. In the course of a longer time interval of Fig. 5 600,000 time steps (0.6 nanoseconds) in Fig. 5b, several transitions between the channel sites are observable. Another feature that is illustrated in the Figure is the greater occupation of channel sites near the ends of the channels (a larger number of traces occur at the top and at the bottom of part (b) than in other parts). We tentatively associate this result with the feature illustrated by those curves in Fig. 3b that were obtained when more negative charges were placed on the N atoms. It was commented at the end of section 3 that these traces indicated that the electrostatic potential was more negative near the ends of the channel than at its centre. 4.2 Other ions Fig. 6 Fig. 6 shows a comparison of the trajectories obtained for Li+, Na+ and K+ from the moment that the cations were released, without permitting them time to thermally equilibrate. They illustrate how the ions (particularly the heavier two), confined by the energy barriers just outside the channel (Section 3), initially undergo ‘explore’ the resulting cavity before taking up their final sites. The oscillations support the importance of the coulombic forces describing the behaviour of the ions in the channel as they are not immediately offset by the steric inhibitions of the ions passing through the CE rings. 8 Similar procedures to investigate the negatively charged ions (F, Cl, ) found that the anions did not enter the channel. As the ionic radius of the smallest of these – the fluoride ion – is only 1.33 Å while that of the K+ ion (which does migrate in the channel) is slightly larger at 1.38 Å [18] we may again conclude that the passage of the anions is determined principally by electrostatic, rather than steric, considerations. 4.3 Membrane-embedded CE channels Fig. 7 In order to study the transport of ions between electrolyte solutions across a membrane, the CE molecular channels are embedded in an amphiphilic bilayer membrane separating the two solutions (Fig. 7). The bilayer membrane is constructed as two sets of aliphatic-tailed carboxylic acid molecules C12H23COOH. In each set the carboxylic COOH units are in the ab plane of the orthogonal MD cell; the molecules are placed tail-to-tail (–CH3H3C–) along the cell’s c axis. The COOH ‘heads’ in each layer are in hydrophilic contact with the external aqueous layers. In order to confer the necessary hydrophilicity on the CE channel’s two end rings which are in contact with the polar electrolyte solutions, five of the ten carbon atoms in each of these rings were provided with electrophilic COOH substituents. After ensuring that there were ions in the electrolyte solutions near the ‘lower’ 25 ends of the channels, the positions of these ions were fixed while the remainder of the atomistic system was thermally relaxed. The MD was then run with the ions released for the same time interval as those in the simple channel lattice in Section 3.1, where the Li+ ions had migrated through a ‘bare’ lattice of 5 5 CE channels that were not in contact with aqueous solutions. When the trajectories for the ions in the Fig. 8 5 5 lattice of [channels + bilayer membrane + aqueous layers] in Fig. 8 are compared with those in Fig. 6a for the bare lattice an important feature is apparent. In the absence of the aqueous layers we saw in Fig. 6a that the Li+ ions, effectively a gaseous phase system, reached their favoured channel lattice sites in a very short time interval of 1000 time steps (1 ps); by the end of the 10000 ts run, all 25 ions had travelled into the channels and many of the sites had been occupied. In contrast, Fig. 9 8 shows that for the membrane-aqueous lattice in the same interval only 9 ions have now entered the channel. We may interpret this by saying that when the Li+ ions are initially in contact with the molecules of the aqueous layers they are solvated so that their migration into the channel is inhibited. In order to be released from their solvated condition the ions must overcome the energy barrier, which was described at the end of Section 3 to be due to a region of high electrostatic potential near the mouth of the channel. The cation’s stability, restored by the marked potential drop near the end CE ring, ensures that once they have entered, the Li+ ions are retained and do not drift back out of the channel. Other cations (Na+ and K+) behaved similarly to Li+, but as expected from remarks made in the previous sub-section we again found that due to the numerically large negative axial potential, F anions failed to enter the channel. The positions shown to be accessed by the Li+ ions in Fig. 8 are always within the channel; MD runs conducted for up to 106 time steps showed no ions exiting. The fact that the Li+ ions are admitted to the channel by a diffusive (passive) migration but precluded from subsequently leaving it implies that the channel is acting as a cation trap. No water molecules were found to have been electrophoretically ‘dragged’ into the channel by the Li+ ions. In the region near the channel mouth an energy barrier is created as the cations are stripped of their hydration. Fig. 9 In efforts to allow the ions to penetrate the channel and subsequently to exit into the second aqueous layer, Fig. 9 displays the results of applying electric fields of intensities 0.1, 0.2 and 0.4 v Å1 along the channel axes. The Figure shows that the action of the field is to sweep the ions into the channel, but not out of it. The intensities of the electric fields applied are of the orders of those found on molecular scales but would result in dielectric breakdown if applied in a laboratory environment. We therefore conclude that inducing the migration of ions through the channel by applying external fields of ‘electrolytic’ strengths is not possible. It might be thought that electric fields that drive the Li+ ions into the channel might do the same for the F ions which were at the opposite ends of the channel from those of the Li+ ions. However molecular snapshots showed that electric fields of up to 1 v Å1 resulted in the admission of F anions to a distance of about 1.0 Å into two of the 25 channels in the system, but even after 106 time steps they failed to proceed 10 any further. In other words, the presence of the positive electrostatic potential on the channel axis, even for the strongest electric fields, did not permit F ions to proceed beyond the COOH atoms on the channel’s first CE ring. In this region they formed an anion layer that offset the overall positive charge that now characterised the channel and its contents. That the bare Li+ ions had indeed entered the molecular channels was ascertained from atomistic ‘snapshots’ of the structure at various time-steps. These pictures showed the ions to be clearly at various (mainly off-axial) positions in the Fig. 10 channels, but no water molecules had entered. Fig. 10 contains a more concise demonstration of the entry of the Li+ ions into the channel in the form of radial pair distribution functions gLi-A (r) for atom pairs Li-A. The greater the amplitude of the peak in the gAB (r) trace when A and B are separated by distance r, the higher the probability of finding the atoms at that separation. The three parts of the Figure show the traces of the radial distribution functions (rdf) for (a) the (Li+water), (b) the (Li+O) and (c) the (Li+N) pairs. Each of (a), (b) and (c) consists of three traces, referring to the Li+ ions in (1) the bulk aqueous solution, (2) when the ions are close to the mouth of the channels and (3) after they had entered the channel. (This investigation was enabled by declaring two Li+ species – one for the ions in the aqueous layer, and another for the Li+ ions that were monitored as they entered the channel. (Similarly, the atom at the ‘water’ end of the rdf pair in (a) was a separate species from the oxygen of the channel rings in the (b) trace.) During the three-stage entry of the Li+ ions into the channel, the sharp depletion and elimination of the (Li+ water) peak in part (a) of the Figure, and the enhanced peaks for (Li+ O) and (Li+ N) in (b) and (c) demonstrate the departure of the ions from the aqueous layers, the shedding of their water atmosphere and their admission as bare cations into the CE rings of the channel. 5. Conclusions and discussion The electrostatic potential calculated by the procedures (1) and (2) in Section 3 led to consistent magnitudes of ca. 10v. As this quantity is for points in the channel relative to the vacuum it does not directly relate to measured transmembrane 11 potential data. The latter have values (usually less than 1v) which are between points in the aqueous media that are inside and outside the cell. Unlike events in biosystems, the rigidity of our crown-ether channel prohibits modifications in its secondary structure to respond to the presence of a migrant. Its transporting character is consequently passive. The five oxygen atoms, and to a lesser extent the five nitrogens, in each CE unit produce the strongly negative electrostatic potential along the axis channel. As a result the channel spontaneously admits cations where, after oscillatory ‘explorations’ they occupy sites in the molecular cavities between the CE rings, between which redistributions (‘transitions’) can occur. The fact that similar behaviour is shown by Li+, Na+ and K+ ions, but not by anions (F) is interpreted as the dominating role played by the electrostatic over steric effects in the molecular system. This is because, despite the similar sizes of the K+ and F ions, the latter species does not enter the channel, even with the inducement of strong axial electric fields. With no electric field applied to the aqueous/membrane/channel system the entry of cations from the electrolyte layer to the channel is significantly slower than from a ‘gas phase’ environment of ions. This observation is consistent with the proposed energy barrier that the M+ ions must overcome when they migrate from their low-potential environment in which they are electrostatically bound to surrounding water molecules (and to A anions) to another low-potential environment that is found on the axis of the molecular channel. In the aqueous layers there is a narrow region between the bulk solution and the channel ends where the M+ ions are hydrated to a greater extent on the aqueous side than on the channel side. (This space is reminiscent of the well-known one containing solvent molecules near a phase interface where their stabilizing interactions are less abundant near the interface than on the opposite side, leaving the molecules in a condition of higher potential energy.) The region marks that of a barrier in the energy profile describing the passage of the ions from the bulk liquid layers into the channel. After crossing the barrier the channel presents itself as a deep energy well from which strong electric fields cannot expel the cations. As a result of the channel’s property to occlude these ions it should be characterised as a cation trap rather than as a cation channel. The system investigated in this work was one in which the CE channels are in contact with two different environments; they are therefore amphiphiles, their exterior 12 atoms being selected to match the polarities of their surroundings. The end rings, which were in aqueous layers, were made compatible with the water by giving them hydrophilic carboxylic acid groups (COOH), while the H atoms on the CE rings in the main body of the channel resulted in their hydrophobic consistency with the nonpolar bilayer membrane in which they were embedded. In another structural modification, containing no bilayer membrane, the channel could be made entirely hydrophobic by H or alkyl-chain substituents. In aqueous solutions of M+ A electrolyte the insoluble channels would form a two-phase system. On mixing, the cations would enter the channel, leaving the A outside but bound to the now positively charged channel by electrostatic forces, thereby defining an agent that desalinizes the electrolyte. Work on this aspect of the channel system is in progress. Acknowledgement The computational facilities of An Institúd um Theicneolaíocht Eolais agus Riomhfhorbairt na hÉireann (IITAC) were used to conduct this investigation. 13 References [1] J.–C. Olsen, K. E. Griffiths, J. F. Stoddart , A Short History of the Mechanical Bond, in From Non-Covalent Assemblies to Molecular Machines, J.-P. Sauvage, P. Gaspard (Eds.), Wiley-VCH: Weinheim, Germany (2011), pp 67—139; L. Zhao, Z. Li, S. Kagehie, Y. Y. Botros, J. F. Stoddart, J. I. Zink, pH Operated Nanopistons on the Surfaces of Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 132 (2010) 13016-13025 and references therein. [2] M.J. Doktycz and M. L. Simpson, Nano-enabled synthetic biology, Molecular Systems Biology 3 (2007), 125 (online publication). [3] B. Hille, Ion channels of excitable membranes (3rd ed.), Sinauer Associates, Sunderland Mass. (2001). [4] H. Park, W. Im and C. 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Eldredge, Chemistry: Principles, Patterns and Applications, Pearson, San Francisco 2006, p 310. 16 Figures Fig. 1 (a) The basic crown ether unit and (b) the stacked components that comprise the molecular ion-channel. Fig. 2 The shell model of ion channel migration. Fig. 3 A comparison of the axial electrostatic potential in the ion channel for the two models considered for different charges corresponding to the N atom in ring 4. In the shell model (a) the charge on the inner ring corresponds to a charge of 0.60e on the CE oxygen atoms in the atomistic model (b). Fig. 4 An ion channel of 14 CE rings linked by NH units. Fig. 5 (a) Short- and (b) long- interval migration of Li+ ions through a lattice of CE ion channels. Fig. 6 The channel dynamics of (a) Li+, (b) Na+ and (c) K+. Plotting symbols distinguish the 25 channels. Fig. 7 ac-plane cut-away section through the lattice to reveal the 1st row of the 25 CE ion channels embedded in a C12H23COOH bilayer, separating two aqueous layers containing a 1:1 electrolyte (top and bottom). Fig. 8 The entry of Li+ ions into the CE channels when the channels are embedded in a bilayer membrane between two aqueous layers. No external electric field is applied. Compare the result with the spontaneous entry shown by Fig. 5(a). Fig. 9 The migration of a Li+ ion through a bilayer lattice between aqueous electrolyte layers in the presence of electric fields of different strengths E. Fig. 10. Pair radial distribution functions for Li+ with water, ring-O and ring-N monitoring three stages of the ingress of the Li+ ions from the bulk aqueous solution into the molecular channel. ( ) describes the Li+ ions in the bulk aqueous solution, 17 (----) is when the ions are close to the mouth of the channels and () is the rdf for the Li+ ions after they have entered the channel and equilibrated. 18 (a) (b) Fig. 1 19 Fig. 2 20 (a) (b) Fig. 3 21 Fig. 4 22 ch 1 ch 2 ch 3 ch 4 ch 5 ch 6 ch 7 ch 8 ch 9 ch10 ch11 ch12 ch13 ch14 ch15 ch16 ch17 ch18 ch19 ch20 ch21 ch22 ch23 ch24 ch25 25 axial migration (Å) 20 15 10 5 0 0 500 1000 Timesteps (units fs) (a) (b) Fig. 5 1500 2000 23 (a) (b) 24 (c) Fig. 6 25 Fig. 7 26 Fig. 8 27 Fig. 9 28 (a) (b) (c) Fig. 10