Erlangen 2022 – scientific programme
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SYLA: Symposium Laboratory Astrophysics
SYLA 2: Laboratory Astrophysics
SYLA 2.4: Invited Talk
Monday, March 14, 2022, 17:30–18:00, Audimax
A multifaceted approach to investigate the reactivity of PAHs under electrical discharge conditions — •Donatella Loru1, Amanda L. Steber1, 2, Johannes M. M. Thunnissen3, Daniël B. Rap3, Alexander K. Lemmens3,4, Anouk M. Rijs5, and Melanie Schnell1,6 — 1Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Notkestrasse 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany — 2Departamento de Química Física y Química Inorgánica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Valladolid, 47011 Valladolid, Spain — 3Radboud University, Institute of Molecules and Materials, FELIX Laboratory, Toernooiveld 7c, 6525 ED, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. — 4Van’t Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences, University of Amsterdam, Science Park 904, 1098 XH, Amsterdam, The Netherlands — 5Division of BioAnalytical Chemistry, AIMMS Amsterdam Institute of Molecular and Life Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1108, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands — 6Institute of Physical Chemistry, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Max-Eyth-Straße 1, 24118 Kiel, Germany
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a class of molecules whose presence in the interstellar medium (ISM) has been established via the aromatic infrared bands (AIBs), mid-IR emissions (3 − 20 µm) detected in several interstellar objects. The ubiquitous nature of the AIBs suggests that PAHs are widely spread in the ISM and, as such, they are expected to play an important role in interstellar physics and chemistry. Despite their importance, little is known about the reactivity of PAHs under the harsh energetic conditions of the ISM. To explore the reactivity of PAHs under laboratory conditions, we coupled an electrical discharge nozzle with spectroscopic techniques. Under plasma conditions, PAHs are expected to undergo fragmentation processes and/or recombination chemistry. The species formed are then detected via their mass and their IR signature by IR-UV ion dip spectroscopy, and via their microwave signature by broadband rotational spectroscopy.
Here, we present our results obtained from the electrical discharge experiments on the PAHs naphthalene (C10H8) and phenanthrene (C14H10) with acetonitrile (CH3CN). The different sensitivity of the two spectroscopic techniques revealed an interesting diversity in the resulting species from the electrical discharge experiments of the two investigated PAHs.