A missing link in the nitrogen-rich organic chain on Titan

Abstract

Context. The chemical building blocks of life contain a large proportion of nitrogen, an essential element. Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, with its dense atmosphere of molecular nitrogen and methane, offers an exceptional opportunity to explore how this element is incorporated into carbon chains through atmospheric chemistry in our Solar System. A brownish dense haze is consistently produced in the atmosphere and accumulates on the surface on the moon. This solid material is nitrogen-rich and may contain prebiotic molecules carrying nitrogen. Aims. To date, our knowledge of the processes leading to the incorporation of nitrogen into organic chains has been rather limited. In the present work, we investigate the formation of nitrogen-bearing ions in an experiment simulating Titan’s upper atmosphere, with strong implications for the incorporation of nitrogen into organic matter on Titan. Methods. By combining experiments and theoretical calculations, we show that the abundant N2+ ion, produced at high altitude by extreme-ultraviolet solar radiation, is able to form nitrogen-rich organic species. Results. An unexpected and important formation of CH3N2+ and CH2N2+ diazo-ions is experimentally observed when exposing a gas mixture composed of molecular nitrogen and methane to extreme-ultraviolet radiation. Our theoretical calculations show that these diazo-ions are mainly produced by the reaction of N2+ with CH3 radicals. These small nitrogen-rich diazo-ions, with a N/C ratio of two, appear to be a missing link that could explain the high nitrogen content in Titan’s organic matter. More generally, this work highlights the importance of reactions between ions and radicals, which have rarely been studied thus far, opening up new perspectives in astrochemistry.

Decomposition of Benzene during Impacts in N2-dominated Atmospheres

“…Benzene plays an important role in the production of hazeforming aerosols in anoxic CH 4 -rich N 2 -dominated atmospheres, such as on Titan (Coustenis et al 2003). Specifically, methane in its atmosphere is exposed to radiation (UV photons, electrons, protons, or ions) and undergoes a set of reactions leading to the formation of benzene and subsequently PAHs and N-PAHs (Carrasco et al 2022). These PAHs are likely responsible for Titan's typical orange-brownish haze and can be expected on the early Earth or on young Earth-like exoplanets (Arney et al 2016).…”

“…Titan possesses a relatively dense atmosphere (1.5 bar at the surface) mainly composed of molecular nitrogen (95%-98%) with methane (2%-5%) as the second most abundant gas (Hanel et al 1981;Fulchignoni et al 2005;Niemann et al 2010). Solar UV photons and energetic particles trigger complex organic chemistry between N 2 and CH 4 , resulting in the formation of light hydrocarbons such as acetylene (C 2 H 2 ), heavier hydrocarbons such as benzene (C 6 H 6 ), nitriles such as hydrogen cyanide (HCN), as well as polycyclic aromatic and heteroaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs, PHAHs; see Horst 2017;Carrasco et al 2022;Nuevo et al 2022 and references therein). A low-temperature photochemical formation mechanism of simple PAHs-anthracene and phenanthrene-from benzene was proposed in a theoretical study by Zhao et al (2018).…”