2021/05/28 by Ankan Das, Milan Sil, Rana Ghosh +4 · 1 citation
Chemistry · Physics and Astronomy · #Adsorption #Advanced Chemical Physics Studies #Astrochemistry #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Atomic physics #Binding energy #Chemical physics #Chemistry #Condensed matter physics #Cosmic dust #Desorption #Galaxy #Interstellar cloud #Interstellar ice #Interstellar medium #Molecular Spectroscopy and Structure #Molecule #Overlayer #Physical chemistry #Physics #astro-ph.GA #astro-ph.SR
paper · pdf · doi:10.3389/fspas.2021.671622
published as Front. Astron. Space Sci., 2021, 8,78 · 16 pages, 8 Figures
openalex publication_date 2021/05/28 · arxiv created 2021/05/30 · arxiv updated 2021/06/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The abundance of interstellar ice constituents is usually expressed with respect to the water ice because, in denser regions, a significant portion of the interstellar grain surface would be covered by water ice. The binding energy (BE) or adsorption energy of the interstellar species regulates the chemical complexity of the interstellar grain mantle. Due to the high abundance of water ice, the BE of surface species with the water is usually provided and widely used in astrochemical modeling. However, the hydrogen molecules would cover some part of the grain mantle in the denser and colder part of the interstellar medium. Even at around ∼10 K, few atoms and simple molecules with lower adsorption energies can migrate through the surface. The BE of the surface species with H 2 substrate would be very different from that of a water substrate. However, adequate information regarding these differences is lacking. Here, we employ the quantum chemical calculation to provide the BE of 95 interstellar species with H 2 substrate. These are representative of the BEs of species to a H 2 overlayer on a grain surface. On average, we notice that the BE with the H 2 monomer substrate is almost ten times lower than the BE of these species reported earlier with the H 2 O c-tetramer configuration. The encounter desorption of H and H 2 was introduced [with <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="m1"><mml:mrow><mml:msub><mml:mtext>E</mml:mtext><mml:mtext>D</mml:mtext></mml:msub><mml:mrow><mml:mo>(</mml:mo><mml:mrow><mml:mtext>H</mml:mtext><mml:mo>,</mml:mo><mml:msub><mml:mtext>H</mml:mtext><mml:mn>2</mml:mn></mml:msub></mml:mrow><mml:mo>)</mml:mo></mml:mrow><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn>45</mml:mn><mml:mtext> </mml:mtext><mml:mtext>K</mml:mtext></mml:mrow></mml:math> and <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="m2"><mml:mrow><mml:msub><mml:mtext>E</mml:mtext><mml:mtext>D</mml:mtext></mml:msub><mml:mrow><mml:mo>(</mml:mo><mml:mrow><mml:msub><mml:mtext>H</mml:mtext><mml:mn>2</mml:mn></mml:msub><mml:mo>,</mml:mo><mml:msub><mml:mtext>H</mml:mtext><mml:mn>2</mml:mn></mml:msub></mml:mrow><mml:mo>)</mml:mo></mml:mrow><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn>23</mml:mn><mml:mtext> </mml:mtext><mml:mtext>K</mml:mtext></mml:mrow></mml:math> ] to have a realistic estimation of the abundances of the surface species in the colder and denser region. Our quantum chemical calculations yield higher adsorption energy of H 2 than that of H [ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="m3"><mml:mrow><mml:mtext>E</mml:mtext><mml:mtext>D</mml:mtext><mml:mrow><mml:mo>(</mml:mo><mml:mrow><mml:mtext>H</mml:mtext><mml:mo>,</mml:mo><mml:msub><mml:mtext>H</mml:mtext><mml:mn>2</mml:mn></mml:msub></mml:mrow><mml:mo>)</mml:mo></mml:mrow></mml:mrow></mml:math> = 23–25 K and <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="m4"><mml:mrow><mml:mtext>E</mml:mtext><mml:mtext>D</mml:mtext><mml:mrow><mml:mo>(</mml:mo><mml:mrow><mml:msub><mml:mtext>H</mml:mtext><mml:mn>2</mml:mn></mml:msub><mml:mo>,</mml:mo><mml:msub><mml:mtext>H</mml:mtext><mml:mn>2</mml:mn></mml:msub></mml:mrow><mml:mo>)</mml:mo></mml:mrow></mml:mrow></mml:math> = 67–79 K]. We further implement an astrochemical model to study the effect of encounter desorption with the present realistic estimation. The encounter desorption of the N atom [calculations yield <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="m5"><mml:mrow><mml:msub><mml:mtext>E</mml:mtext><mml:mtext>D</mml:mtext></mml:msub><mml:mrow><mml:mo>(</mml:mo><mml:mrow><mml:mtext>N</mml:mtext><mml:mo>,</mml:mo><mml:msub><mml:mtext>H</mml:mtext><mml:mn>2</mml:mn></mml:msub></mml:mrow><mml:mo>)</mml:mo></mml:mrow><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn>83</mml:mn><mml:mtext> </mml:mtext><mml:mtext>K</mml:mtext></mml:mrow></mml:math> ] is introduced to study the differences with its inclusion.