LABORATORY PHOTO-CHEMISTRY OF PAHs: IONIZATION VERSUS FRAGMENTATION
- Sackler Laboratory for Astrophysics, Leiden Observatory, University of Leiden, P.O. Box 9513, NL-2300 RA Leiden (Netherlands)
- Synchrotron SOLEIL, L’Orme des Merisiers, F-91192 Gif sur Yvette Cedex (France)
- Universitè de Toulouse, UPS-OMP, IRAP, Toulouse (France)
Interstellar polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are expected to be strongly processed by vacuum ultraviolet photons. Here, we report experimental studies on the ionization and fragmentation of coronene (C{sub 24}H{sub 12}), ovalene (C{sub 32}H{sub 14}) and hexa-peri-hexabenzocoronene (HBC; C{sub 42}H{sub 18}) cations by exposure to synchrotron radiation in the range of 8–40 eV. The results show that for small PAH cations such as coronene, fragmentation (H-loss) is more important than ionization. However, as the size increases, ionization becomes more and more important and for the HBC cation, ionization dominates. These results are discussed and it is concluded that, for large PAHs, fragmentation only becomes important when the photon energy has reached the highest ionization potential accessible. This implies that PAHs are even more photo-stable than previously thought. The implications of this experimental study for the photo-chemical evolution of PAHs in the interstellar medium are briefly discussed.
- OSTI ID:
- 22518994
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 804, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 2041-8205
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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