GC-MS and FTIR analyses of products from atmospheric pressure glow discharge generated in nitrogen-methane gas mixture with CO2 addition

conference paper

English

The exploration of planetary atmosphere is being advanced by the exciting results of the Cassin-Huygens mission to Saturn and Titan, its most famous moon. The complex chemistry revealed in such atmospheres leading to the synthesis of bigger molecules is providing new insights into our understanding of how life on Earth developed. In our experiments Titan‘s atmosphere is simulated in a glow-discharge formed from a mixture of N2-CH4-CO2 gas. Samples of the discharge gas were analysed by GC-MS and FTIR. The major products identified in the GC-MS spectra were: hydrogen cyanide, acetylene, acetonitrile, ethane, ethane, propene-nitrile and small amount of toluene. The same compounds were detected in the FTIR mostly hydrogen cyanide, acetylene and ammonia, it was not detected by GC-MS. Various hydrocarbons and nitriles were the other determined gaseous products. Whilst many of these compounds have been predicted and/or observed in the Titan atmosphere, the present plasma experiments provide evidence of both the chemical complexity of Titan atmospheric processes and the mechanisms by which larger species grow prior to form the dust that should cover much of the Titan’s surface.

GC - MS, FTIR, kinetic model

TRUNEC, D.; TÖRÖKOVÁ, L.; JANČÍKOVÁ, K.; MAZÁNKOVÁ, V.; KRČMA, F.; MASON, N.

1. 2. 2016

Innsbruck university press

Innsbruck

978-3-903122-04-8

XX th Symposium on Atomic, Cluster and Surface Physics 2016, Contributions

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