Low-temperature gas-phase formation of indene in the interstellar medium.

ABSTRACT: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are fundamental molecular building blocks of fullerenes and carbonaceous nanostructures in the interstellar medium and in combustion systems. However, an understanding of the formation of aromatic molecules carrying five-membered rings-the essential building block of nonplanar PAHs-is still in its infancy. Exploiting crossed molecular beam experiments augmented by electronic structure calculations and astrochemical modeling, we reveal an unusual pathway leading to the formation of indene (C9H8)-the prototype aromatic molecule with a five-membered ring-via a barrierless bimolecular reaction involving the simplest organic radical-methylidyne (CH)-and styrene (C6H5C2H3) through the hitherto elusive methylidyne addition-cyclization-aromatization (MACA) m

SUBMITTER: Doddipatla S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7775774 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature