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Hydrogen Abstraction/Acetylene Addition Revealed
Author(s) -
Parker Dorian S. N.,
Kaiser Ralf I.,
Troy Tyler P.,
Ahmed Musahid
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
angewandte chemie international edition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.831
H-Index - 550
eISSN - 1521-3773
pISSN - 1433-7851
DOI - 10.1002/anie.201404537
Subject(s) - phenylacetylene , acetylene , naphthalene , chemistry , hydrogen atom abstraction , mechanism (biology) , photochemistry , hydrogen , computational chemistry , mass spectrometry , astrobiology , combustion , ionization , chemical physics , physics , organic chemistry , ion , quantum mechanics , catalysis , chromatography
For almost half a century, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) have been proposed to play a key role in the astrochemical evolution of the interstellar medium (ISM) and in the chemistry of combustion systems. However, even the most fundamental reaction mechanism assumed to lead to the simplest PAH naphthalene—the hydrogen abstraction–acetylene addition (HACA) mechanism—has eluded experimental observation. Here, by probing the phenylacetylene (C 8 H 6 ) intermediate together with naphthalene (C 10 H 8 ) under combustion‐like conditions by photo‐ionization mass spectrometry, the very first direct experimental evidence for the validity of the HACA mechanism which so far had only been speculated theoretically is reported.