PMID- 37494436
OWN - NLM
STAT- PubMed-not-MEDLINE
LR  - 20230729
IS  - 2375-2548 (Electronic)
IS  - 2375-2548 (Linking)
VI  - 9
IP  - 30
DP  - 2023 Jul 28
TI  - Molecular growth of PANH via intermolecular Coulombic decay.
PG  - eadi0230
LID - 10.1126/sciadv.adi0230 [doi]
LID - eadi0230
AB  - Nitrogen-bearing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PANHs) are ubiquitous in 
      space. They are considered precursors to advanced biomolecules identified in 
      meteorites. However, their chemical evolution into biomolecules in 
      photodestructive astrophysical mediums remains a paradox. Here, we show that 
      light can efficiently initiate the molecular mass growth of PANHs. 
      Ultraviolet-photoexcited quinoline monomers, the smallest PANH, were observed to 
      associate and intermolecular Coulombic decay between the associating monomers 
      formed the cations of quinoline-dimer. Molecular rearrangements in the dimer 
      cation lead to a dominant formation of cations heavier than quinoline. The 
      enrichment of these heavier cations over all the other cations reveals the 
      efficiency of this route for the mass growth of PANHs in space. This mechanism 
      also leads to a highly reactive unsaturated PANH-ring via CH loss, a hitherto 
      unknown channel in any photon-driven process. The occurrence of this efficient 
      pathway toward complex molecules points to a rich chemistry in dense interstellar 
      clouds.
FAU - Barik, Saroj
AU  - Barik S
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0001-6755-5527
AD  - Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India.
FAU - Behera, Nihar Ranjan
AU  - Behera NR
AD  - Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India.
FAU - Dutta, Saurav
AU  - Dutta S
AD  - Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India.
FAU - Kushawaha, Rajesh Kumar
AU  - Kushawaha RK
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0002-8134-9030
AD  - Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, India.
FAU - Sajeev, Y
AU  - Sajeev Y
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0002-2250-5101
AD  - Theoretical Chemistry Section, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, India.
FAU - Ramabhadran, Raghunath O
AU  - Ramabhadran RO
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0001-9938-5446
AD  - Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Tirupati, India.
FAU - Aravind, G
AU  - Aravind G
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0003-4648-7136
AD  - Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20230726
PL  - United States
TA  - Sci Adv
JT  - Science advances
JID - 101653440
SB  - IM
PMC - PMC10371028
EDAT- 2023/07/26 19:11
MHDA- 2023/07/26 19:12
PMCR- 2023/07/26
CRDT- 2023/07/26 14:03
PHST- 2023/07/26 19:12 [medline]
PHST- 2023/07/26 19:11 [pubmed]
PHST- 2023/07/26 14:03 [entrez]
PHST- 2023/07/26 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - adi0230 [pii]
AID - 10.1126/sciadv.adi0230 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Sci Adv. 2023 Jul 28;9(30):eadi0230. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adi0230. Epub 2023 Jul 
      26.