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The adsorption of helium atoms on coronene cations

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journal contribution
posted on 2016-10-10, 11:39 authored by Thomas Kurzthaler, Bilal Rasul, Martin Kuhn, Albrecht Lindinger, Paul Scheier, Andrew M. Ellis
We report the first experimental study of the attachment of multiple foreign atoms to a cationic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH). The chosen PAH was coronene, C24H12, which was added to liquid helium nanodroplets and then subjected to electron bombardment. Using mass spectrometry, coronene cations decorated with helium atoms were clearly seen and the spectrum shows peaks with anomalously high intensities (“magic number” peaks), which represent ion-helium complexes with added stability. The data suggest the formation of a rigid helium layer consisting of 38 helium atoms that completely cover both faces of the coronene ion. Additional magic numbers can be seen for the further addition of 3 and 6 helium atoms, which are thought to attach to the edge of the coronene. The observation of magic numbers for the addition of 38 and 44 helium atoms is in good agreement with a recent path integral Monte Carlo prediction for helium atoms on neutral coronene. An understanding of how atoms and molecules attach to PAH ions is important for a number of reasons including the potential role such complexes might play in the chemistry of the interstellar medium.

History

Citation

Journal of Chemical Physics, 2016, 145 (6), 064305

Author affiliation

/Organisation/COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING/Department of Chemistry

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Published in

Journal of Chemical Physics

Publisher

AIP Publishing

issn

0021-9606

eissn

1089-7690

Acceptance date

2016-07-27

Copyright date

2016

Available date

2016-10-10

Publisher version

http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/jcp/145/6/10.1063/1.4960611

Language

en

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