Chakraborty, S and Yurchenko, SN and Georges, R and Simon, A and Lacinbala, O and Chandrasekaran, V and Jayaram, V and Dartois, E and Kassi, S and Gusdorf, A and Lesaffre, P and Jagadeesh, G and Arunan, E and Biennier, L (2024) Laboratory investigation of shock-induced dissociation of buckminsterfullerene and astrophysical insights. In: Astronomy and Astrophysics, 681 .
|
PDF
Ast_ast_681_2024.pdf - Published Version Download (44MB) | Preview |
Abstract
Fullerene C60 is one of the most iconic forms of carbon found in the interstellar medium (ISM). The interstellar chemistry of carbon-rich components, including fullerenes, is driven by a variety of energetic processes including UV and X-ray irradiation, cosmic-ray (CR) bombardment, electron impact, and shock waves. These violent events strongly alter the particle phase and lead to the release of new molecular species in the gas phase. Only a few experimental studies on the shock processing of cosmic analogs have been conducted so far. We explored in the laboratory the destruction of buckminsterfullerene C60 using a pressure-driven shock tube coupled with optical diagnostics. Our efforts were first devoted to probing in situ the shock-induced processing of C60 at high temperatures (�4500 K) by optical emission spectroscopy. The analysis of the spectra points to the massive production of C2 units. A broad underlying continuum was observed as well and was attributed to the collective visible emission of carbon clusters, generated similarly in large amounts. This proposed assignment was performed with the help of calculated emission spectra of various carbon clusters. The competition between dissociation and radiative relaxation, determined by statistical analysis, alludes to a predominance of clusters with less than 40 carbon atoms. Our laboratory experiments, supported by molecular dynamics simulations performed in the canonical ensemble, suggest that C60 is very stable, and that high-energy input is required to process it under interstellar low-density conditions and to produce C2 units and an abundance of intermediate-sized carbon clusters. These results provide some insights into the life cycle of carbon in space. Our findings hint that only J-type shocks with velocities above �100 km s�1 or C-type shocks with velocities above 9 km s�1 can lead to the destruction of fullerenes. Observational tracers of this process remain elusive, however. Our work confirms the potential of shock tubes for laboratory astrophysics. © 2024 EDP Sciences. All rights reserved.
| Item Type: | Journal Article |
|---|---|
| Publication: | Astronomy and Astrophysics |
| Publisher: | EDP Sciences |
| Additional Information: | The copyright for this article belongs to Author. |
| Keywords: | Dissociation; Fullerenes; Laboratories; Life cycle; Molecular dynamics; Optical emission spectroscopy; Shock tubes, Astrochemistry; Buckminsterfullerenes; Fullerene C60; Induced dissociation; Laboratory investigations; Method: laboratory: molecular; Methods:laboratory; Molecular process; Shock induced; Shock-waves, Cosmology |
| Department/Centre: | Division of Chemical Sciences > Solid State & Structural Chemistry Unit |
| Date Deposited: | 04 Mar 2024 07:11 |
| Last Modified: | 04 Mar 2024 07:11 |
| URI: | https://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/84205 |
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |
