The atmosphere of Titan is home to a number of complex chemical species including benzene, polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) as well as nitrogen bearing molecules, and it has drawn strong investigative attention due to its possible similarities with the atmosphere of primordial Earth. It is composed mostly of N2 but it contains a small percentage of CH4 and a plethora of other trace gases. One topic in the investigation of Titan's atmospheric evolution which has been dealt with in some detail are the mechanisms and the rates for processes leading to PAH formation. However, although PAH forming processes depend on the growth of the carbon-skeleton starting from methane in the first place, the initial carbon growth in Titan's atmospheric chemical evolution is yet to be investigated in great detail. Out of the numerous processes which may serve to initiate this carbon-skeleton growth on Titan the reactions between the extremely reactive ground state methylidyne radical, CH (X2?), with the smallest hydrocarbons seems like a worthwhile investigational effort. This is due to the fact that the CH (X2?) radical is formed from the most abundant hydrocarbon, methane, and due to the fact that the two-carbon hydrocarbons are some of the most abundant trace gases in Titan's atmosphere. We thus present here the results of ab initio dynamics and kinetics of the bimolecular entrance channel reactions between CH (X2?) and methane, ethane, ethene and ethyne in the low temperatures relevant to Titan.

Low temperature dynamics and kinetics of the bimolecular reactions between CH (X2?) and CH?4?, C?2?H?6?, C?2?H?4?, C?2?H?2?: An ab initio study

248th National Meeting (2014)

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