Europlanet Science Congress 2021
Virtual meeting
13 – 24 September 2021
Europlanet Science Congress 2021
Virtual meeting
13 September – 24 September 2021
EPSC Abstracts
Vol. 15, EPSC2021-51, 2021, updated on 21 Jul 2021
https://doi.org/10.5194/epsc2021-51
European Planetary Science Congress 2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Photon and thermal processing of CH3NH2-bearing ices. Synthesis of prebiotic species at low temperature (such as formamide, ethylamine, and methylcyanide), and N-heterocycles during warm up.

Héctor Carrascosa1, Cristóbal González Díaz1, Guillermo M. Muñoz Caro1, Pedro C. Gómez2, and María Luz Sanz3
Héctor Carrascosa et al.
  • 1(hcarrascosa@cab.inta-csic.es) Centro de astrobiología (CSIC-INTA), Ctra de Ajalvir, km 4, Torrejón de Ardoz, 28850 Madrid, Spain
  • 2Dep. Química física, fac. química, Univ. Complutense, 28040 Madrid, Spain
  • 3Department of instrumental analysis and environmental chemistry, IQOG-CSIC, Juan de la Cierva, 3, 28006 Madrid, Spain

Hexamethylentetramine has drawn a lot of attention due to its potential to produce prebiotic species. This work aims to gain a better understanding in the chemical processes concerning methylamine under astrophysically relevant conditions. In particular, this work deeps into the formation of N-heterocycles in interstellar ice analogs exposed to UV radiation, which may lead to the formation of prebiotic species.

Experimental simulations of interstellar ice analogs were carried out in ISAC. ISAC is an ultra-high vacuum chamber equipped with a cryostat, where gas and vapour species are frozen forming ice samples. Infrared and ultraviolet spectroscopy were used to monitor the solid phase, and quadrupole mass spectrometry served to measure the composition of the gas phase. The variety of species detected after UV irradiation of ices containing  methylamine revealed the presence of 12 species which have been already detected in the ISM, being 4 of them typically classified as complex organic molecules: formamide (HCONH2), methyl cyanide (CH3CN), CH3NH and CH3CHNH. Warming up of the irradiated CH3NH2-bearing ice samples lead to the formation of trimethylentriamine (TMT), a N-heterocycle precursor of HMT, and the subsequent synthesis of HMT at temperatures above 230 K.

How to cite: Carrascosa, H., González Díaz, C., Muñoz Caro, G. M., C. Gómez, P., and Sanz, M. L.: Photon and thermal processing of CH3NH2-bearing ices. Synthesis of prebiotic species at low temperature (such as formamide, ethylamine, and methylcyanide), and N-heterocycles during warm up., European Planetary Science Congress 2021, online, 13–24 Sep 2021, EPSC2021-51, https://doi.org/10.5194/epsc2021-51, 2021.