Study of the formation of interstellar CF+ from the HF + C+ → CF+ + H reaction.

The detection of the carbon monofluoride cation CF+ was considered as a support of the theories of the fluorine chemistry in the interstellar medium. This molecule is formed by the reaction of HF with $${\rm C^+}$$. The rates of this reaction have been estimated previously by two different groups. However, these two estimations led to different results. The main goal of this work is to study the $${\rm HF + C^+}$$ reaction and determine new reactive rate coefficients. A large set of ab initio energies at the MRCI-F12/cc-pVQZ-F12 level was computed. The first reactive potential energy surface for the HF + C+ → CF+ + H reaction was developed using a reproducing kernel Hilbert space based method. The dynamics of the reaction was followed from quasi-classical trajectories. The results of such calculations showed that CF+ is produced in excited vibrational states. The rate coefficients for the $${\rm HF} + {\rm C^+} \rightarrow {\rm CF^+} + {\rm H}$$ reaction from 50 K to 2000 K are reported. The impact of these new data in the astrophysical models for the determination of the interstellar conditions is also explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]