2020/09/28 by Michael McCarthy, McCarthy, Michael C., Kin Long Kelvin Lee +23 · 3 citations
Chemistry · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Chemical Physics Studies #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) #Chemical Reactions and Mechanisms #FOS: Physical sciences #Molecular Spectroscopy and Structure
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2009.13546
openalex publication_date 2020/09/28 · openalex created_date 2022/07/25 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Much like six-membered rings, five-membered rings are ubiquitous in organic\nchemistry, frequently serving as the building blocks for larger molecules,\nincluding many of biochemical importance. From a combination of laboratory\nrotational spectroscopy and a sensitive spectral line survey in the radio band\ntoward the starless cloud core TMC-1, we report the astronomical detection of\n1-cyano-1,3-cyclopentadiene, c-C5H5CN, a highly polar, cyano\nderivative of cyclopentadiene, c-C5H6. The derived abundance of\nc-C5H5CN is far greater than predicted from astrochemical models which\nwell reproduce the abundance of many carbon chains. This finding implies either\nan important production mechanism or a large reservoir of aromatic material may\nneed to be considered. The apparent absence of its closely-related isomer,\n2-cyano-1,3-cyclopentadiene, may arise from its lower stability or be\nindicative of a more selective pathway for formation of the 1-cyano isomer,\nperhaps one starting from acyclic precursors. The absence of N-heterocycles\nsuch as pyrrole and pyridine is discussed in light of the astronomical finding.\n