Photodissociation of organic molecules in star-forming regions

II. Acetic acid

¹ Observatório do Valongo, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Ladeira Pedro Antônio 43, CEP 20080-090, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil e-mail: pilling@ov.ufrj.br
² Instituto de Química, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Ilha do Fundão, CEP 21949-900, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
³ Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Caixa Postal 68528, CEP 21941-972, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

Received: 27 July 2005
Accepted: 29 November 2005

Abstract

Fragments from organic molecule dissociation (such as reactive ions and radicals) can form interstellar complex molecules like amino acids. The goal of this work is to experimentally study photoionization and photodissociation processes of acetic acid (CH₃COOH), a glycine (NH₂CH₂COOH) precursor molecule, by soft X-ray photons. The measurements were taken at the Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory (LNLS), employing soft X-ray photons from a toroidal grating monochromator (TGM) beamline (100–310 eV). Mass spectra were obtained using the photoelectron photoion coincidence (PEPICO) method. Kinetic energy distribution and abundances for each ionic fragment have been obtained from the analysis of the corresponding peak shapes in the mass spectra. Absolute photoionization and photodissociation cross sections were also determined. We have found, among the channels leading to ionization, that only 4–6% of CH₃COOH survive the strong ionization field. CH₃CO⁺, COOH⁺ and CH ions are the main fragments, and the presence of the former may indicate that the production-destruction process of acetic acid in hot molecular cores (HMCs) could decrease the H₂O abundance since the net result of this process converts H₂O into OH + H⁺. The COOH⁺ ion plays an important role in ion-molecule reactions to form large biomolecules like glycine.