Atomistic Modeling of Methyl Formate and Glycolaldehyde Formation on Interstellar Dirty Ice Mantles via a "Radical + Ice" Mechanism.

ABSTRACT: Methylformate (MF) and glycolaldehyde (GA) are two primogenital organic molecules detected in both cold and warm regions of the interstellar medium (ISM). Both gas-phase and grain-surface pathways have been proposed to explain their abundances, yet uncertainties remain, since prevailing grain-surface mechanisms favor the formation of GA over MF, which mismatch observations in different ISM regions. In this work, MF and GA synthetic reactions are atomistically modeled on surfaces containing variable H 2$_2$ O and CO percentages (interstellar dirty ices), in which one of the reactants coming from the gas phase reacts with an icy CO, thus adopting the following two-step "radical + ice" mechanism: for MF, OCH 3$_3$ + CO(ice)$${\mathrm{CO}}_{(\mathrm{ice})}$$ →$\to$ COOCH 3$_3$ + H →$\to$ HCOOC

SUBMITTER: Perrero J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12605693 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature