Interstellar Chemistry: A Strategy for Detecting Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Space

Published

March 1, 2005

Author(s)

Francis J. Lovas, R J. McMahon, J-U Grabow, M Schnell, J Mack, L T. Scott, R L. Kuczkowski

Abstract

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) represent important targets for radio astronomy because they offer the possibilities of validating the PAH hypothesis and revealing new insight into the chemistry of interstellar space. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) have long been postulated as constituents of the interstellar gas and circumstellar disks. Observational IR emission spectra have been plausibly interpreted in support of this hypothesis, but, unfortunately, the small (or zero) dipole moments of planar, unsubstituted PAHs preclude their definitive radio astronomical identification. Polar PAHs, such as corannulene, thus represent important targets for radio astronomy because they offer the possibilities of validating the PAH hypothesis and revealing new insight into the chemistry of interstellar space. Toward this objective, the high-resolution rotational spectrum of corannulene has been obtained by FT-microwave spectroscopy and the dipole moment (2.07 D) of this exceptionally polar PAH has been measured by Stark spectroscopy.

Citation

Journal of the American Chemical Society

Volume

127

Issue

No 12

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

corannulene, dipole moment, microwave spectrum, PAH-polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, rotational spectrum, symmetric top

Citation

Lovas, F. , McMahon, R. , Grabow, J. , Schnell, M. , Mack, J. , Scott, L. and Kuczkowski, R. (2005), Interstellar Chemistry: A Strategy for Detecting Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Space, Journal of the American Chemical Society (Accessed October 16, 2025)