The effect of H2O on ice photochemistry

TL;DR

This study investigates how water concentration in ices influences UV-driven photochemistry, revealing significant effects on destruction rates, product composition, radical trapping, and diffusion barriers relevant to astrochemical processes.

Contribution

It provides new experimental data on how H2O affects volatile ice photochemistry, highlighting four major effects that impact complex organic molecule formation in space.

Findings

Increased H2O enhances volatile destruction efficiency.

Higher H2O shifts product formation towards oxygen-rich species.

Radical trapping and diffusion barriers are significantly affected by H2O concentration.

Abstract

UV irradiation of simple ices is proposed to efficiently produce complex organic species during star- and planet-formation. Through a series of laboratory experiments, we investigate the effects of the H2O concentration, the dominant ice constituent in space, on the photochemistry of more volatile species, especially CH4, in ice mixtures. In the experiments, thin (~40 ML) ice mixtures, kept at 20-60 K, are irradiated under ultra-high vacuum conditions with a broad-band UV hydrogen discharge lamp. Photodestruction cross sections of volatile species (CH4 and NH3) and production efficiencies of new species (C2H6, C2H4, CO, H2CO, CH3OH, CH3CHO and CH3CH2OH) in water-containing ice mixtures are determined using reflection-absorption infrared spectroscopy during irradiation and during a subsequent slow warm-up. The four major effects of increasing the H2O concentration are 1) an increase of the destruction efficiency of the volatile mixture constituent by up to an order of magnitude due to a reduction of back reactions following photodissociation, 2) a shift to products rich in oxygen e.g. CH3OH and H2CO, 3) trapping of up to a factor of five more of the formed radicals in the ice and 4) a disproportional increase in the diffusion barrier for the OH radical compared to the CH3 and HCO radicals. The radical diffusion temperature dependencies are consistent with calculated H2O-radical bond strengths. All the listed effects are potentially important for the production of complex organics in H2O-rich icy grain mantles around protostars and should thus be taken into account when modeling ice chemistry.