C60+ as a diffuse interstellar band carrier; a spectroscopic story in 6 acts

Unimolecular decomposition of methyl ketene and its dimer in the gas phase: theory and experiment

“…1 Ultracold gas phase reaction kinetics measurements have, however, shown that chemical kinetics display significantly anti-Arrhenius kinetics at temperatures approaching that of the interstellar medium (ISM). 9,10 The recent detection of cyanobenzene in the TMC-1 molecular cloud, 11 and the assignment of several of the diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs) to transitions within the C 60 + Buckyball cation, 12 have now challenged our basic notions of molecular complexity in space and the upper limits to interstellar molecular complexity are quickly extending.…”

VUV photoionization dynamics of the C60 buckminsterfullerene: 2D-matrix photoelectron spectroscopy in an astrophysical context

“…For a long time C 3 was the largest pure carbon species identified in diffuse clouds 16,17 and thus, the detection of C 60 + substantially stretches the size-limit for carbon-containing molecules in the diffuse ISM which could hold the key to unravelling the rest of the DIB mystery which has remained unsolved for almost a century at the time of writing. [18][19][20][21] The question of how C 60 forms in interstellar space has given rise to some convincing hypotheses, 22 especially in light of the apparent inverse relationship between the abundance of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and C 60 at decreasing distances towards stars. 23 Among the formation mechanisms for interstellar fullerenes that have gained much traction are (i) dehydrogenation of hydrogenated amorphous carbon nanoparticles 24 and (ii) the formation of graphene through photo-stripping H-atoms off larger PAHs.…”

Roadmap on dynamics of molecules and clusters in the gas phase

“…This allows a wide range of clusters consisting of one or more species to be grown within the cold liquid that can be extracted to the gas phase for further studies [146,166]. In addition to producing cold clusters for experiments using mass spectrometry, the weak interactions between He atoms and the solvated species make helium nanodroplets an ideal matrix for spectroscopic studies of cold, complex molecules and ions [146,166,167].…”

“…However, the low binding energy of He to other species means that temperatures on the order of a few kelvin are required to form He-tagged ions. This has been achieved in, e.g., cryogenic ion traps, and the method was particularly well demonstrated when the C + 60 ion became the first identified carrier of diffuse interstellar bands [167,176].…”

“…Helium-tagged ions are readily produced from doped He droplets, and this method was successfully used to confirm the spectrum of C + 60 [167,177]. With He droplets, it is possible to form ions solvated in essentially any number of He atoms, which allows the action spectrum of ions to be studied as a function of the degree of solvation (see Fig.…”