| Issue |
A&A
Volume 688, August 2024
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | A140 | |
| Number of page(s) | 5 | |
| Section | Astrophysical processes | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202346642 | |
| Published online | 12 August 2024 | |
Formation pathways of formic acid (HCOOH) in regions with methanol ices⋆
1
Universidad Autónoma de Chile, Facultad de Ingeniería, Instituto de Ciencias Aplicadas, Núcleo de Astroquímica & Astrofísica, Av. Pedro de Valdivia 425, Providencia, Santiago, Chile
e-mail: natalia.inostroza@uautonoma.cl
2
Universidad de Chile, Facultad de Ciencias Físicas y Matemáticas, Departamento de Astronomía, Camino el observatorio 1515, Las Condes, Santiago, Chile
3
Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi, 830011, China.Key Laboratory of Radio Astronomy, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, China
Received:
12
April
2023
Accepted:
25
April
2024
We modeled the collisions between OH+ projectiles with kinetic energies ranging from 10 to 22 eV and an amorphous cold (CH3OH)10 substrate using Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics (BOMD) simulations. We conducted the simulations for a collision time of 400 femtoseconds (fs), during which we followed multiple bond-forming and breaking reactions. Here, we report four new pathways for the formation of formic acid HCOOH. We find new precursors such as CH3(OH)2+, HC(OH)2+, CH2OH+, and CH2(OH)2, which are essential in these pathways for the formation of formic acid. The methanodiol CH2(OH)2 and hydroxymethyl CH2OH+ cations have previously been identified as key precursors of formaldehyde. These pathways suggest new ways to form formic acid in methanol ice mantles on dust grains, offering alternative mechanisms leading to the formation of complex organic molecules (COMs) in space.
Key words: astrochemistry / accretion / accretion disks / molecular processes / ISM: abundances / ISM: molecules
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© The Authors 2024
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.
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