INTERACTION OF ATOMIC SILICON AND MOLECULAR HYDROGEN IN THE ENVELOPE OF EVOLVED STARS (ASTROPHYS. J. 2021)

In the atmosphere of carbon-rich (C-rich) asymptotic giant branch stars (AGBs), silicon chemistry plays an important role as is revealed by the detection of silane (SiH4) and organosilicon compounds such as methyl silane (CH3SiH3) and sylil cyanide (SiH3CN). To deepen the understanding on the formation of silicon bearing molecules in…

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INFRA-ICE: SIMULATING THE COSMIC DUST-ICE INTERACTION IN THE INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM (REV. SCI. INSTRUM. 2020)

  The last module of Stardust, INFRA-ICE, is ready! This module is dedicated to simulate the chemistry taking place in the densest regions of the interstellar medium, the so-called dense molecular clouds. As such, INFRA-ICE expands the capabilities of Stardust allowing for the complete journey of cosmic dust to be…

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Surfaces open new routes: unexpected formation of m-PANI oligomers from p-aminophenol (ANGEW. CHEM. 2020)

Surfaces never fail to surprise. Once more, they have demonstrated that chemistry on 2D metallic surfaces behaves differently to that on solution (3D). We have shown that highly unspecific solution-based Michael addition transforms into highly selective when carried out on a Pt(111) surface. In this way, we are able to…

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Surface symmetry and reactivity rule the room-temperature adsorption of p-aminophenol (J. Phys. Chem. C 2020)

Molecular chemisorption on metal surfaces has attracted great interest over the past decades. Both the characteristics of the adsorbed molecules and the surface properties govern the chemisorption processes. We have studied the role of the nature and symmetry of different metallic surfaces, Cu(110), Cu(111) and Pt(111), on the room-temperature adsorption…

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The interaction of atomic carbon and acetylene investigated with STARDUST (Astrophys. J. 2020)

Background image: Spiral structure around the red giant star R Sculptoris. Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/M. Maercker et al.   The formation of interstellar carbon dust in dying stars is still not fully understood. In particular, the interaction of atomic carbon with the most abundant chemical species in the atmosphere of red…

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First results of astrophysical relevance obtained with the Stardust (Nat. Astron. 2020)

The first results of astrophysical relevance obtained with the Stardust machine evidence a prevalence of non-aromatic species in the inner regions of circumstellar envelopes             Image taken from https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/ciencia/fisica/un-viaje-a-la-ultima-frontera-i-las-atmosferas-de-las-estrellas/ This work is part of the results obtained in the framework of the European project ERC…

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Inducing Intermolecular C-C Covalent Bonds between PAHs by Exposure to Atomic Hydrogen (JACS 2019)

The ESISNA group, in collaboration with the Nanotech@surfaces group from Empa (Switzerland), has demonstrated the catalytic role that atomic hydrogen can play in the formation of new intermolecular C-C covalent bonds on relatively inert surfaces. For this purpose, we have annealed a Au(111) surface, previously covered with different PAHs, in…

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