Revealing The Chemistry Of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons By Plasma Sources

Loru, Donatella

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/111455 Copy

Description

Title

Revealing The Chemistry Of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons By Plasma Sources

Author(s)

Loru, Donatella

Contributor(s)

• Schnell, Melanie
• Steber, Amanda
• Gruet, Sébastien
• Rap, Daniel

Issue Date

2021-06-25

Keyword(s)

Astronomy

Abstract

Detected through the aromatic infrared bands (3-20 $\mu$m), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are considered to lock up a large fraction of the carbon in the interstellar medium (ISM) and to significantly impact its physics and chemistry. Despite their importance, much is unknown about their formation and reactivity under the harsh conditions of the ISM. We are looking at the reactivity of these molecules in the laboratory by means of an electrical discharge nozzle coupled with chirped-pulse Fourier transform microwave (CP-FTMW) spectroscopy in the 2-12 GHz frequency range. Under such energetic conditions, PAHs are expected to undergo fragmentation processes and/or a recombination chemistry. The formed species are then unambiguously identified via their unique microwave signature. Herein, we present our results obtained from discharge experiments on the PAHs naphthalene (C$_{10}$H$_{8}$) and phenanthrene (C$_{14}$H$_{10}$), both pure and in mixture with acetonitrile (CH$_{3}$CN), a simple nitrogen-containing interstellar molecule. An interesting chemistry has been observed for the investigated PAHs, which will be compared and discussed.

Publisher

International Symposium on Molecular Spectroscopy

Type of Resource

Text

Language

eng

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/111455

DOI

10.15278/isms.2021.FC02

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