Issue |
A&A
Volume 534, October 2011
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | A64 | |
Number of page(s) | 6 | |
Section | Interstellar and circumstellar matter | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201117494 | |
Published online | 03 October 2011 |
Hydrogenation of solid hydrogen cyanide HCN and methanimine CH2NH at low temperature
1
Université de Provence, Laboratoire de Physique des Interactions Ioniques et Moléculaires, Centre de St-Jérôme, Avenue Escadrille Normandie-Niémen, 13397 Marseille, France
e-mail: patrice.theule@univ-provence.fr
2
Sciences Chimiques de Rennes, École Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Rennes, CNRS, UMR 6226, Avenue du Général Leclerc, CS 50837, 35708 Rennes Cedex 7, France
Received: 16 June 2011
Accepted: 7 August 2011
Context. Hydrogenation reactions dominate grain surface chemistry in dense molecular clouds and lead to the formation of complex saturated molecules in the interstellar medium.
Aims. We investigate in the laboratory the hydrogenation reaction network of hydrogen cyanide HCN.
Methods. Pure hydrogen cyanide HCN and methanimine CH2NH ices are bombarded at room temperature by H-atoms in an ultra-high vacuum experiment. Warm H-atoms are generated in an H2 plasma source. The ices are monitored with Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy in reflection absorption mode. The hydrogenation products are detected in the gas phase by mass spectroscopy during temperature-programmed desorption experiments.
Results. HCN hydrogenation leads to the formation of methylamine CH3NH2, and CH2NH hydrogenation leads to the formation of methylamine CH3NH2, suggesting that CH2NH can be a hydrogenation-intermediate species between HCN and CH3NH2.
Conclusions. In cold environments the HCN hydrogenation reaction can produce CH3NH2, which is known to be a glycine precursor, and to destroy solid-state HCN, preventing its observation in molecular clouds ices.
Key words: astrochemistry / ISM: molecules / molecular processes
© ESO, 2011
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