Fragmentation channels of non-fullerene cationic carbon clusters

Ferrari, Piero; Hansen, Klavs; Lacinbala, Ozan; Janssens, Ewald; Lievens, Peter

doi:10.1039/d3cp03930g

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…S5 shows two energy barriers at 2.2 eV above the energy of S 8 , corresponding to the breaking of the two S-S bonds, placing a higher, kinetic energy limit for fragmentation. Further, it should be considered that fragmentation rates are not only dependent on energetics, but also on the associated entropy change favoring pathways towards trimers over dimer loss 35 . Nevertheless, the key observations are the experimentally determined fragmentation pathways S 8 → S 5 + S 3 and S 8 → S 6 + S 2 .…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Laboratory infrared spectra and fragmentation chemistry of sulfur allotropes

Ferrari,

Berden,

Redlich

et al. 2024

Nat Commun

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Sulfur is one of six life-essential elements, but its path from interstellar clouds to planets and their atmospheres is not well known. Astronomical observations in dense clouds have so far been able to trace only 1 percent of cosmic sulfur, in the form of gas phase molecules and volatile ices, with the missing sulfur expected to be locked in a currently unidentified form. The high sulfur abundances inferred in icy and rocky solar system bodies indicate that an efficient pathway must exist from volatile atomic sulfur in the diffuse interstellar medium to some form of refractory sulfur. One hypothesis is the formation of sulfur allotropes, particularly of the stable S8. However, experimental information about sulfur allotropes under astrochemically relevant conditions, needed to constrain their abundance, is lacking. Here, we report the laboratory far-infrared spectra of sulfur allotropes and examine their fragmentation pathways. The spectra, including that of cold, isolated S8 with three bands at 53.5, 41.3 and 21.1 µm, form a benchmark for computational modelling, which show a near-perfect match with the experiments. The experimental fragmentation pathways of sulfur allotropes, key information for astrochemical formation/destruction models, evidence a facile fragmentation of S8. These findings suggest the presence of sulfur allotropes distributions in interstellar space or in the atmosphere of planets, dependent on the environmental conditions.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%