Journal
CHEMPHYSCHEM
Volume 20, Issue 6, Pages 791-797Publisher
WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH
DOI: 10.1002/cphc.201801154
Keywords
gas-phase chemistry; hydrogen abstraction-vinylacetylene addition (HAVA); interstellar medium; mass spectrometry; polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
Funding
- US Department of Energy, Basic Energy Sciences [DE-FG02-03ER15411, DE-FG02-04ER15570]
- Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation [14.Y26.31.0020]
- Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, of the U.S. Department of Energy, through the Gas Phase Chemical Physics Program, Chemical Sciences Division [DE-AC02-05CH11231]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
For the last decades, the hydrogen-abstraction-acetylene-addition (HACA) mechanism has been widely invoked to rationalize the high-temperature synthesis of PAHs as detected in carbonaceous meteorites (CM) and proposed to exist in the interstellar medium (ISM). By unravelling the chemistry of the 9-phenanthrenyl radical ([C14H9](.)) with vinylacetylene (C4H4), we present the first compelling evidence of a barrier-less pathway leading to a prototype tetracyclic PAH - triphenylene (C18H12) - via an unconventional hydrogen abstraction-vinylacetylene addition (HAVA) mechanism operational at temperatures as low as 10 K. The barrier-less, exoergic nature of the reaction reveals HAVA as a versatile reaction mechanism that may drive molecular mass growth processes to PAHs and even two-dimensional, graphene-type nanostructures in cold environments in deep space thus leading to a better understanding of the carbon chemistry in our universe through the untangling of elementary reactions on the most fundamental level.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available