Surface formation routes of interstellar molecules: hydrogenation reactions in simple ices

Ioppolo, Sergio; Cuppen, H. M.; Linnartz, H.

doi:10.1007/s12210-011-0135-3

Cited by 24 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 59 publications

(75 reference statements)

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“…Observations revealed that H 2 O is the most abundant constituent of such icy mantles [50]. As gas-phase synthesis of H 2 O turned out to be too inefficient with respect to the detected abundances it is proposed that H 2 O is formed directly on dust grains via surface reactions [e.g., 51].…”

Section: Quantum Tunnelling At the Basis Of Chemical Evolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Quantum Tunnelling to the Origin and Evolution of Life

Trixler

2013

COC

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Quantum tunnelling is a phenomenon which becomes relevant at the nanoscale and below. It is a paradox from the classical point of view as it enables elementary particles and atoms to permeate an energetic barrier without the need for sufficient energy to overcome it. Tunnelling might seem to be an exotic process only important for special physical effects and applications such as the Tunnel Diode, Scanning Tunnelling Microscopy (electron tunnelling) or Near-field Optical Microscopy operating in photon tunnelling mode. However, this review demonstrates that tunnelling can do far more, being of vital importance for life: physical and chemical processes which are crucial in theories about the origin and evolution of life can be traced directly back to the effects of quantum tunnelling. These processes include the chemical evolution in stellar interiors and within the cold interstellar medium, prebiotic chemistry in the atmosphere and subsurface of planetary bodies, planetary habitability via insolation and geothermal heat as well as the function of biomolecular nanomachines. This review shows that quantum tunnelling has many highly important implications to the field of molecular and biological evolution, prebiotic chemistry and astrobiology.

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Section: Quantum Tunnelling At the Basis Of Chemical Evolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…CO ice grows on top of a water-rich layer on interstellar dust grains when the density increases in a dark cloud [50]. This CO ice can be hydrogenated via the successive addition of hydrogen atoms according to the following sequence [58]: CO → HCO → H 2 CO → CH 3 O → CH 3 OH …”

Section: Quantum Tunnelling At the Basis Of Chemical Evolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantum Tunnelling to the Origin and Evolution of Life

Trixler

2013

COC

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“…This approach makes it possible to derive fundamental and molecule specific parameters, like reaction rates and diffusion barriers, which can then be included in astrochemical models to simulate the ice evolution under much longer timescales (10 5 yr) than accessible in the laboratory (<1 day). Here we follow a bottom-up approach and summarize a representative sample of relevant experiments mainly by our group (see e.g., Fuchs et al 2009;Ioppolo et al 2008Ioppolo et al , 2010aIoppolo et al , 2011aCuppen et al 2010;Romanzin et al 2011), but it should be explicitly stated that other groups -such as the groups of Watanabe, Lemaire and Dulie -are very active in this field as well. These experiments prove that species like H 2 CO, CH 3 OH and H 2 O can be formed at low temperatures by simple hydrogenation (i.e., without the need for thermal, UV or cosmic ray processing) and provide the basic molecular data to simulate their formation on astronomical timescales (e.g., Cuppen et al 2009), even though the ice as a whole is not fully representative for a realistic astronomical ice.…”

Section: Hydrogenation Reactions In Interstellar Ice Analoguesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It continues with surface processes induced by H-atom addition reactions and vacuum ultraviolet irradiation, and concludes with experiments studying molecular complexity in ice. The hydrogenation and UV irradiation part of this proceeding are based on highlights presented by Ioppolo et al 2011c, and in a upcoming book chapter on solid state laboratory astrophysics.…”

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confidence: 99%

Solid State Pathways towards Molecular Complexity in Space

et al. 2011

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Abstract. It has been a long standing problem in astrochemistry to explain how molecules can form in a highly dilute environment such as the interstellar medium. In the last decennium more and more evidence has been found that the observed mix of small and complex, stable and highly transient species in space is the cumulative result of gas phase and solid state reactions as well as gas-grain interactions. Solid state reactions on icy dust grains are specifically found to play an important role in the formation of the more complex "organic" compounds. In order to investigate the underlying physical and chemical processes detailed laboratory based experiments are needed that simulate surface reactions triggered by processes as different as thermal heating, photon (UV) irradiation and particle (atom, cosmic ray, electron) bombardment of interstellar ice analogues. Here, some of the latest research performed in the Sackler Laboratory for Astrophysics in Leiden, the Netherlands is reviewed. The focus is on hydrogenation, i.e., H-atom addition reactions and vacuum ultraviolet irradiation of interstellar ice analogues at astronomically relevant temperatures. It is shown that solid state processes are crucial in the chemical evolution of the interstellar medium, providing pathways towards molecular complexity in space.

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“…120 Numerous surface chemistry experiments have validated many of these addition processes. [121][122][123]…”

Section: Cold Grain-surface Reactionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Complex Organic Molecules in Star-Forming Regions of the Magellanic Clouds

Sewiło

Charnley

Schilke

et al. 2019

ACS Earth Space Chem.

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The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC and SMC), gas-rich dwarf companions of the Milky Way, are the nearest laboratories for detailed studies on the formation and survival of complex organic molecules (COMs) under metal poor conditions. To date, only methanol, methyl formate, and dimethyl ether have been detected in these galaxies -all three toward two hot cores in the N113 star-forming region in the LMC, the only extragalactic sources exhibiting complex hot core chemistry. We describe a small and diverse sample of the LMC and SMC sources associated with COMs or hot core chemistry, and compare the observations to theoretical model predictions. Theoretical models accounting for the physical conditions and metallicity of hot molecular cores in the Magellanic Clouds have been able to broadly account for the existing observations, but fail to reproduce the dimethyl ether abundance by more than an order of magnitude. We discuss future prospects for research in the field of complex chemistry in the low-metallicity environment. The detection of COMs in the Magellanic Clouds has important implications for astrobiology. The metallicity of the Magellanic Clouds is similar to galaxies in the earlier epochs of the Universe, thus the presence of COMs in the LMC and SMC indicates that a similar prebiotic chemistry leading to the emergence of life, as it happened on Earth, is possible in lowmetallicity systems in the earlier Universe.

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Surface formation routes of interstellar molecules: hydrogenation reactions in simple ices

Cited by 24 publications

References 59 publications

Quantum Tunnelling to the Origin and Evolution of Life

Quantum Tunnelling to the Origin and Evolution of Life

Solid State Pathways towards Molecular Complexity in Space

Complex Organic Molecules in Star-Forming Regions of the Magellanic Clouds

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