Advancing Interstellar Aromatic and Carbon-Based Chemistry: An Integrated Experimental, Theoretical, and Astronomical Approach

碳是一种用途非常广泛的化学元素，因为它能够形成长链和环（即，链接）。这个属性是负责令人难以置信的各种有机化合物在自然界以及生物本身。虽然大的碳基分子，如多环芳烃（PAH）和富勒烯在太空中无处不在，但最近在附近的冷分子云中发现了一个意想不到的丰富的较小链状碳结构。该团队将进行实验室和理论研究（与灵敏的无线电观测相协调），以获得新的光谱来识别新的有机（环状或其他）分子，确定五碳和六碳环-有机化学的组成部分-形成并最终演变为多环芳烃和更复杂的结构的化学途径。实验室工作将利用设备升级以及改进的分析/诊断工具和算法，其中许多应用于天文学之外。这项工作将为本科生和研究生提供研究经验，并促进两名博士后的职业生涯。通过实验室测量，理论计算和天文观测的密切协调计划，研究团队将努力更深入地了解复杂的碳化学，包括形成小芳环的特定途径和导致更大和复杂得多的碳链的后续反应。拟议中的研究将具有广泛的意义，从沿着许多不同视线所见的无处不在的红外和光学特征的来源，到恒星和行星的形成。拟议的实验室研究将产生快速，公正和强大的诊断工具，以从头分析复杂的混合物，并提供基本反应及其产物种类的关键测试。这两个奖项都将适用于广泛的科学学科，超越其直接的天体化学应用。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过评估使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准的支持。

Carbon is an extraordinarily versatile chemical element due to its ability to form long chains and rings (i.e., catenation). This attribute is responsible for the incredible variety of organic compounds in nature as well as biology itself. While large carbon-based molecules such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and fullerenes are ubiquitous in space, an unexpectedly rich reservoir of smaller catenated carbon structures was recently discovered in nearby cold molecular clouds. The team will conduct a combined laboratory and theoretical effort (in coordination with sensitive radio observations) to obtain new spectra to identify new organic (ringed or otherwise) molecules, determine the chemical pathways by which five- and six-Carbon rings – building blocks of organic chemistry - form and eventually evolve into PAHs and more complicated structures. Laboratory work will take advantage of equipment upgrades as well as improved analysis/diagnostic tools and algorithms, many of which with applications outside of astronomy. This work will provide research experience for undergraduate and graduate students as well advancing the careers of two postdocs.Through a closely coordinated program of laboratory measurements, theoretical calculations, and astronomical observations, the research team will strive for a much deeper understanding of complex carbon chemistry, including the specific pathways that form small aromatic rings and the subsequent reactions that lead to much larger and complicated carbon catenates. The proposed research will have wide ranging implications, from the sources of the ubiquitous infrared and optical features seen along many different lines of sight, to the formation of stars and planets. The proposed laboratory studies will result in rapid, unbiased, and robust diagnostic tools to analyze complex mixtures de novo and provide critical tests of fundamental reactions and their product species. Both will have applicability in a wide range of scientific disciplines beyond their immediate astrochemical applications.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.