Disentangling the Reaction Products of O(1d) Insertion Into Methylamine (Ch3nh2)

Abstract

O(1 D) is well known to undergo exothermic insertion reactions into X-H bonds ,where X is C, N, or H. O(1 D) insertion reactions can therefore be used as a tool for the formation of unstable species for collection of their rotational spectrum a. Aminomethanol, predicted to form via insertion into methylamine b,c is an important interstellar prebiotic precursor to the amino acid glycine. However, due to its instability under terrestrial conditions it still evades spectral detection. We have completed a set of experiments examining the products of O(1 D) + methylamine using rotational spectroscopy in the millimeter regime to identify the products. Molecular signals arising from several molecules with known rotational spectra are observed. We also observe spectral lines from at least two molecules for which no spectral matches can be found in public spectral line catalogs. We will present the results of these studies and examine whether these unknown molecular signals could be due to aminomethanol.