Photofragmentation of coronene cations

Sanjana Panchagnula; Jordy Bouwman; Jerry Kamer; Harold Linnartz; Alexander Tielens

doi:10.1017/S1743921319008068

Photofragmentation of coronene cations

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 October 2020

and

Sanjana Panchagnula: Affiliation:
Laboratory for Astrophysics, Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, PO Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden, the Netherlands email: [email protected] Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, PO Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden, the Netherlands
Jordy Bouwman: Affiliation:
Laboratory for Astrophysics, Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, PO Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden, the Netherlands email: [email protected]
Jerry Kamer: Affiliation:
Laboratory for Astrophysics, Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, PO Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden, the Netherlands email: [email protected]
Harold Linnartz: Affiliation:
Laboratory for Astrophysics, Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, PO Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden, the Netherlands email: [email protected]
Alexander Tielens: Affiliation:
Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, PO Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden, the Netherlands

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Abstract

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Recent laboratory studies have shown that PAH cations dehydrogenate to give charged molecules consisting of only carbon atoms. Our experiments using ion-trap time-of-flight mass spectrometry show that a key group of photodissociation fragments from the coronene cation $({{\rm{C}}_{24}}{\rm{H}}_{12}^ + )$ are carbon clusters of ${\rm{C}}_n^ +$ composition. Density functional theory calculations shed light onto potential dissociation pathways leading up to the main ${\rm{C}}_{11}^ +$ and ${\rm{C}}_{12}^ +$ clusters, and highlight the importance of pentagon formations in the carbon backbone of the precursor molecule in generating certain fragments.