Stardust silicate nucleation kick-started by SiO+TiO 2

Dust particles are quintessential for the chemical evolution of the Universe. Dust nucleates in stellar outflows of dying stars and subsequently travels through the interstellar medium, continuously evolving via energetic processing, collisions and condensation. Finally, dust particles are incorporated in the next-generation star or its surrounding planetary system. In oxygen-rich stellar outflows, silicates are observed in the condensation zone (1200–1000 K), but, in spite of several decades of experimental and theoretical study, the stardust nucleation process remains poorly understood. We have previously shown that under these conditions ternary Mg–Si–O clusters may start forming at high enough rates from SiO, Mg and H2 O through heteromolecular association processes. In this reaction scheme, none of the possible initial association reactions was thermodynamically favourable owing to the large entropy loss at these temperatures. Here, we follow a previous idea that the incorporation of TiO2 could help to initiate stardust nucleation. In contrast to these studies, we find that there is no need for TiO2 cluster seeds—instead, one molecule of TiO2 is sufficient to kick-start the subsequent nucleation of a silicate dust particle.