1. Stability of C59 Knockout Fragments from Femtoseconds to Infinity
- Author
-
Michael Gatchell, Naemi Florin, Suvasthika Indrajith, José Eduardo Navarro Navarrete, Paul Martini, MingChao Ji, Peter Reinhed, Stefan Rosén, Ansgar Simonsson, Henrik Cederquist, Henning T. Schmidt, and Henning Zettergren
- Subjects
Interstellar molecules ,Fullerenes ,Collision physics ,Ion-storage rings ,Astrophysics ,QB460-466 - Abstract
We have studied the stability of C _59 anions as a function of time, from their formation on femtosecond timescales to their stabilization on second timescales and beyond, using a combination of theory and experiments. The ${{\rm{C}}}_{59}^{-}$ fragments were produced in collisions between C _60 fullerene anions and neutral helium gas at a velocity of 90 km s ^−1 (corresponding to a collision energy of 166 eV in the center-of-mass frame). The fragments were then stored in a cryogenic ion beam storage ring at the DESIREE facility, where they were followed for up to 1 minute. Classical molecular dynamics simulations were used to determine the reaction cross section and the excitation energy distributions of the products formed in these collisions. We find that about 15% of the ${{\rm{C}}}_{59}^{-}$ ions initially stored in the ring are intact after about 100 ms and that this population then remains intact indefinitely. This means that C _60 fullerenes exposed to energetic atoms and ions, such as stellar winds and shock waves, will produce stable, highly reactive products, like C _59 , that are fed into interstellar chemical reaction networks.
- Published
- 2024
- Full Text
- View/download PDF