Fullerenes and PAH:s - properties and reactions

We will study fullerenes and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), their inherent properties, formation and destruction processes and interactions with atoms, other molecules and with radiation.

We are interested in how fullerenes are formed in natural processes and to what extents PAHs, PAH-clusters or other aggregates of matter, are involved in fullerene formation processes in space.

So far it has been assumed that only large PAHs survive in the harsh so-called photo dissociation regions in the interstellar medium.

However, it has recently been shown that small internally hot PAHs may cool surprisingly fast via photo-emission from low-lying electronically excited states. We will measure the cooling rates of a range of internally hot PAHs to find out if this is a general feature.

If so, we may have to alter our view of the molecular composition of our universe and reconsider possible fullerene formation scenarios. Related to this, we will study molecular growth inside clusters of small PAHs and other carbon bearing molecules.

We will use ion- and cluster-ion sources, collision gas cells and the two cryogenic ion-beam storage rings at DESIREE to study ion-cooling and to perform merged-beams experiments. The project will be pursued in close collaboration with in-house  theoretical and computational expertise.

We will study molecular properties and reactions for the development of fundamental atomic, molecular and chemical physics and for applications in astrophysics.