Issue |
A&A
Volume 652, August 2021
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | A29 | |
Number of page(s) | 10 | |
Section | Atomic, molecular, and nuclear data | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202140579 | |
Published online | 04 August 2021 |
Ammonia snow lines and ammonium salts desorption
1
Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, CNES, LAM,
Marseille,
France
e-mail: fkrucz@mpe.mpg.de
2
CY Cergy Paris Université, Observatoire de Paris, PSL University, Sorbonne Université, CNRS, LERMA,
95000
Cergy,
France
3
Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik,
Gießenbachstraße 1,
Garching,
85748,
Germany
Received:
16
February
2021
Accepted:
16
April
2021
Context. The nitrogen reservoir in planetary systems is a long-standing problem. Some of the N-bearing molecules are probably incorporated into the ice bulk during the cold phases of the stellar evolution, and may be gradually released into the gas phase when the ice is heated, for example in active comets. The chemical nature of the N-reservoir should greatly influence how, when, and in what form N returns to the gas phase, or is incorporated into the refractory material forming planetary bodies.
Aims. We present the study of the thermal desorption of two ammonium salts, ammonium formate and ammonium acetate, from a gold surface and from a water ice substrate.
Methods. Temperature-programmed desorption experiments and Fourier transform infrared reflection spectroscopy were conducted to investigate the desorption behavior of ammonium salts.
Results. Ammonium salts are semi-volatile species releasing neutral species as major components upon desorption, namely ammonia and the corresponding organic acid (HCOOH and CH3COOH), at temperatures higher than the temperature of thermal desorption of water ice. Their desorption follows a first-order Wigner-Polanyi law. We find the first-order kinetic parameters A = 7.7 ± 0.6 × 1015 s−1 and Ebind = 68.9 ± 0.1 kJ mol−1 for ammonium formate and A = 3.0 ± 0.4 × 1020 s−1 and Ebind = 83.0 ± 0.2 kJ mol−1 for ammonium acetate. The presence of a water ice substrate does not influence the desorption kinetics. Ammonia molecules locked in salts desorb as neutral molecules at temperatures much higher than previously expected, and that are usually attributed to refractory materials.
Conclusions. The ammonia snow line has a smaller radius than the water snow line. As a result, the NH3/H2O ratio content in Solar System bodies can be a hint to where they formed and subsequently migrated.
Key words: astrochemistry / molecular processes / methods: laboratory: solid state / ISM: molecules / protoplanetary disks / comets: general
© F. Kruczkiewicz et al. 2021
Open Access article, published by EDP Sciences, under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Open Access funding provided by Max Planck Society.
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