Speaker
Description
Thanks to radio telescope observations, numerous prebiotic precursors, such has hydroxylamine1, have been detected in the interstellar medium. These species may participate in the formation of more complex organic compounds observed in space. Our previous work [2] showed that IR-induced processes can indeed trigger the formation of new complex molecules. Revealing the structure of ion/molecule complexes and their behavior under IR activation is therefore essential to identifying potential reaction pathways of interstellar organic matter.
In this study, we investigate possible IR-reactive ion/molecule complexes formed between hydroxylamine and two distinct carboxylic acids, malonic acid (a diacid) and phenylacetic acid, giving rise to complexes (1) and (2), respectively. IRMPD spectroscopy was used to record the IR spectra of both complexes in the 800-2000 cm⁻¹ region with FELIX facility, and in the 2800-3000 cm⁻¹ region using a table-top OPO-OPA laser for complex (2). Comparison with quantum chemical calculations at DFT level allowed us to propose structural assignments for both complexes. Complex (1) could be unambiguously attributed to a single structure, while complex (2) appears to correspond to a conformational mixture as shown on Figure 1.
Finally, in an interesting way, IR irradiation of complex (1) leads to the formation of new organic photoproducts through the loss of H₂O or NH₃.
References
1 V. M. Rivilla, J. Martín-Pintado, I. Jiménez-Serra, S. Martín, L. F. Rodríguez-Almeida, M. A. Requena-Torres, F. Rico-Villas, S. Zeng, and C. Briones, “Prebiotic Precursors of the Primordial RNA World in Space: Detection of NH2OH,” Astrophys. J. Lett. 899, L28 (2020).
[2] D. Scuderi, A. Pérez‐Mellor, J. Lemaire, S. Indrajith, J. Bardaud, A. Largo, Y. Jeanvoine, and R. Spezia, ”Infrared‐Assisted Synthesis of Prebiotic Glycine,” ChemPhysChem 21, 503 (2020)
