New quantum chemical computations of formamide deuteration support a gas-phase formation of this prebiotic molecule

Abstract

Based on recent work, formamide might be a potentially very important molecule in the emergence of terrestrial life. Although detected in the interstellar medium for decades, its formation route is still debated, whether in the gas phase or on the dust grain surfaces. Molecular deuteration has proven to be, in other cases, an efficient way to identify how a molecule is synthesised. For formamide, new published observations towards the IRAS16293-2422 B hot corino show that its three deuterated forms have all the same deuteration ratio, 2--5%, and that this is a factor 3--8 smaller than that measured for H2CO towards the IRAS16293-2422 protostar. Following a previous work on the gas-phase formamide formation via the reaction NH2 + H2CO -> HCONH2 + H, we present here new calculations of the rate coefficients for the production of monodeuterated formamide through the same reaction, starting from monodeuterated NH2 or H2CO. Some misconceptions regarding our previous treatment of the reaction are also cleared up. The results of the new computations show that, at the 100 K temperature of the hot corino, the rate of deuteration of the three forms is the same, within 20%. On the contrary, the reaction between non-deuterated species proceeds three times faster than that with deuterated ones. These results confirm that a gas-phase route for the formation of formamide is perfectly in agreement with the available observations.

MNRAS in press

References in corpus (8)

• The ALMA Protostellar Interferometric Line Survey (PILS): First results from an unbiased submillimeter wavelength line survey of the Class 0 protostellar binary IRAS 16293-2422 with ALMA
• Formation of complex organic molecules in cold objects: the role of gas phase reactions
• Shedding light on the formation of the pre-biotic molecule formamide with ASAI
• Molecules with a peptide link in protostellar shocks: a comprehensive study of L1157
• Simultaneous Hydrogenation and UV-photolysis Experiments of NO in CO-rich Interstellar Ice Analogues; linking HNCO, OCN-, NH2CHO and NH2OH
• The census of complex organic molecules in the solar type protostar IRAS16293-2422
• Formation of the prebiotic molecule NH${}_2$CHO on astronomical amorphous solid water surfaces: accurate tunneling rate calculations
• History of the solar-type protostar IRAS16293-2422 as told by the cyanopolyynes

Cited by in corpus (55)

• Astrochemistry During the Formation of Stars
• Formation of complex organic molecules in hot molecular cores through nondiffusive grain-surface and ice-mantle chemistry
• The ALMA-PILS survey: Inventory of complex organic molecules towards IRAS 16293-2422 A
• Seeds Of Life In Space (SOLIS): The organic composition diversity at 300--1000 au scale in Solar-type star forming regions
• The genealogical tree of ethanol: gas-phase formation of glycolaldehyde, acetic acid and formic acid
• Seeds of Life in Space (SOLIS) III. Formamide in protostellar shocks: evidence for gas-phase formation
• Can Formamide Be Formed on Interstellar Ice? An Atomistic Perspective
• Astrochemical evolution along star formation: Overview of the IRAM Large Program ASAI
• The census of interstellar complex organic molecules in the Class I hot corino of SVS13-A
• Chemical modelling of complex organic molecules with peptide-like bonds in star-forming regions
• Interstellar formamide (NH${}_2$CHO), a key prebiotic precursor
• The formation of peptide-like molecules on interstellar dust grains
• Reactivity of HCO with CH3 and NH2 on Water Ice Surfaces. A Comprehensive Accurate Quantum Chemistry Study
• The ALMA-PILS survey: Formaldehyde deuteration in warm gas on small scales toward IRAS 16293-2422 B
• Evolutionary study of complex organic molecules in high-mass star-forming regions
• Complex organic molecules in low-mass protostars on Solar System scales -- II. Nitrogen-bearing species
• Interstellar dimethyl ether gas-phase formation: a quantum chemistry and kinetics study
• Identification of pre-biotic molecules containing Peptide-like bond in a hot molecular core, G10.47+0.03
• The family of amide molecules toward NGC 6334I
• Formation of NH2CHO and CH3CHO upon UV photoprocessing of interstellar ice analogs
• The GUAPOS project II. A comprehensive study of peptide-like bond molecules
• Deuteration of ammonia with D atoms on oxidized partly ASW covered graphite surface
• Thermal desorption of formamide and methylamine from graphite and amorphous water ice surfaces
• Seeds of Life in Space (SOLIS) V. Methanol and acetaldehyde in the protostellar jet-driven shocks L1157-B0 and B1
• N-bearing complex organics toward high-mass protostars: Constant ratios pointing to formation in similar pre-stellar conditions across a large mass range
• The evolution of grain mantles and silicate dust growth at high redshift
• Seeds of Life in Space (SOLIS). X. Interstellar Complex Organic Molecules in the NGC 1333 IRAS 4A outflows
• Amides inventory towards the G+0.693-0.027 molecular cloud
• The Role of State-of-the-Art Quantum-Chemical Calculations in Astrochemistry: Formation Route and Spectroscopy of Ethanimine as a Paradigmatic Case
• Digging into the Interior of Hot Cores with ALMA (DIHCA). III: The Chemical Link between NH${}_2$CHO, HNCO, and H${}_2$CO
• Organic complexity in protostellar disk candidates
• The GRETOBAPE gas-phase reaction network: the importance of being exothermic
• Destruction of dimethyl ether and methyl formate by collisions with He${}^{+}$
• Stratified Distribution of Organic Molecules at the Planet-Formation Scale in the HH 212 Disk Atmosphere
• Sulphur-rich cold gas around the hot core precursor G328.2551-0.5321. An APEX unbiased spectral survey of the 2 mm, 1.2 mm, and 0.8 mm atmospheric windows
• The hunt for formamide in interstellar ices: A toolkit of laboratory infrared spectra in astronomically relevant ice mixtures and comparisons to ISO, Spitzer, and JWST observations
• ALMA Observations of Molecular Complexity in the Large Magellanic Cloud: The N105 Star-Forming Region
• Dust Motions in Magnetized Turbulence: Source of Chemical Complexity
• Hydrogen abstraction reactions in formic and thioformic acid isomers by hydrogen and deuterium atoms. Insights on isomerism and deuteration
• Formation of the simplest amide in molecular clouds: formamide (NH${}_2$CHO) and its derivatives in H${}_2$O-rich and CO-rich interstellar ice analogs upon VUV irradiation
• CH${}_3$CN deuteration in the SVS13-A Class I hot-corino. SOLIS XV
• Exploring the formation pathways of formamide near young O-type stars
• Chemical models of adenine precursors cyanamide and carbodiimide in the interstellar medium
• Millimeter- and submillimeter-wave spectroscopy of thioformamide and interstellar search toward Sgr B2(N)
• Streamers feeding the SVS13-A protobinary system: astrochemistry reveals accretion shocks?
• The HH 212 interstellar laboratory: astrochemistry as a tool to reveal protostellar disks on Solar System scales around a rising Sun
• Molecular Distributions of the Disk/Envelope System of L483: Principal Component Analysis for the Image Cube Data
• Peptide Bonds in the Interstellar Medium: Facile Autocatalytic Formation from Nitriles on Water-Ice Grains
• Neutral-Neutral Synthesis of Organic Molecules in Cometary Comae
• Expanding the submillimeter wave spectroscopy and astronomical search for thioacetamide (CH3CSNH2) in the ISM
• A Molecular Line Survey around Orion at Low Frequencies with the MWA
• Complex Organic Molecules towards the central molecular zone of NGC 253
• CAB: Towards the RNA-world in the interstellar medium -- detection of urea, and search of 2-amino-oxazole and simple sugars
• One-dimensional and time-dependent modelling of complex organic molecules in protostars
• Could Nucleobases form in the ISM? A Theoretical Study in the Hoursehead nebula