Formation of polyynes and ring-polyyne molecules following fragmentation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

• In this work, we perform molecular dynamic (MD) simulations to investigate the stability and fragmentation processes of vibrationally excited linear polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The program of CP2K in combination with the semi-empirical method PM3 is utilized for the MD simulations. The simulations show that the formation of molecular hydrogens (H-2) is different than previous studies, in particular, different than compact PAHs. At high temperatures, linear PAHs tend to open aromatic rings and convert the sp(3) C-C or sp(2) C=C bonds to sp C C bonds by removing H-2; i.e. polyynes are formed in such process. Besides polyynes, PAHs attached with sp-bonded polyyne chains are commonly observed at high temperatures. We notice that due to the addition of flexible tails (polyynes), the ring-polyyne molecules do not dissociate for a long period of time at high temperatures. Such structures facilitate the molecules to survive in the harsh environment of the interstellar medium. In addition, the ring-polyyne structures induce dipole moments that could, in principle, be detected by radio astronomy.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Kemi -- Teoretisk kemi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Chemical Sciences -- Theoretical Chemistry (hsv//eng)

Keyword

astrochemistry

molecular processes

methods: laboratory: molecular

ISM: molecules

photodissociation region (PDR)

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)