Communication: vacuum ultraviolet photoabsorption of interstellar icy thiols

Radha Gobinda Bhuin; Bhalamurugan Sivaraman; Jen-Iu Lo; B N Raja Sekhar; Bing-Ming Cheng; Thalappil Pradeep; Nigel John Mason

doi:10.1063/1.4903840

Communication: vacuum ultraviolet photoabsorption of interstellar icy thiols

J Chem Phys. 2014 Dec 21;141(23):231101. doi: 10.1063/1.4903840.

Authors

Radha Gobinda Bhuin¹, Bhalamurugan Sivaraman², Jen-Iu Lo³, B N Raja Sekhar⁴, Bing-Ming Cheng³, Thalappil Pradeep¹, Nigel John Mason⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology - Madras, Chennai, India.
² Space and Atmospheric Sciences Division, Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, India.
³ National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center, Hsinchu, Taiwan.
⁴ B-1, Indus-1, Atomic Molecular Physics Division, BARC at RRCAT, Indore 452013, India.
⁵ Department of Physical Sciences, The Open University, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, United Kingdom.

PMID: 25527912
DOI: 10.1063/1.4903840

Abstract

Following the recent identification of ethanethiol in the interstellar medium (ISM) we have carried out Vacuum UltraViolet (VUV) spectroscopy studies of ethanethiol (CH3CH2SH) from 10 K until sublimation in an ultrahigh vacuum chamber simulating astrochemical conditions. These results are compared with those of methanethiol (CH3SH), the lower order thiol also reported to be present in the ISM. VUV spectra recorded at higher temperature reveal conformational changes in the ice and phase transitions whilst evidence for dimer production is also presented.