Many complex organic molecules have now been detected in star forming regions. Those molecules that are of prebiotic interest contain H, N, C, and O, the same elements found in amino acids. A few unsaturated HCNO molecules, such as formamide (HCONH2), have been detected in the interstellar medium. Observing saturated molecules that contain this same set of atoms would reveal the next step in prebiotic molecular complexity in the interstellar medium. The completely saturated molecules of the HCNO family, such as aminomethanol (HOCH2NH2), are predicted to form via grain surface radical-radical recombination chemistry in interstellar clouds. Their identification in space, however, has been precluded by the lack of high resolution spectral information due to their terrestrial instability. We propose to produce these molecules using O(1D) insertion reactions; for aminomethanol, the specific reaction would be O(1D) insertion into methylamine. A new molecular source coupled with laser photolysis and a (sub)millimeter spectrometer have been implemented to produce these molecules on the fly and probe their pure rotational transitions. Once these spectra have been analyzed, interstellar searches can be conducted. We will report on the first results from this experiment, and compare these results to line surveys of several star-forming regions.

Investigation of prebiotic molecules using O(<sup>1</sup>D) insertion reactions

247th National Meeting (2014)

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Investigation of prebiotic molecules using O(1D) insertion reactions

Investigation of prebiotic molecules using O(¹D) insertion reactions