title: Hydrogen abstraction/acetylene addition revealed.
abstract: 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 (C8 H6 ) intermediate together with naphthalene (C10 H8 ) 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.
authors: Department of Chemistry, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96822, (USA) http://www.chem.hawaii.edu/Bil301/welcome.html.
authors: Dorian S N
authors: DS
authors: Parker
authors: Ralf I
authors: RI
authors: Kaiser
authors: Tyler P
authors: TP
authors: Troy
authors: Musahid
authors: M
authors: Ahmed
keywords: combustion; gas-phase chemistry; mass spectrometry; polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons; radicals