Etim Emmanuel E, Gorai Prasanta, Ghosh Rana, Das Ankan
Department of Chemical Sciences, Federal University Wukari, Katsina-Ala Road, P.M.B. 1020 Wukari, Taraba State, Nigeria.
Indian Centre for Space Physics, 43 Chalantika, Garia Station Road, Kolkata 700 084, India.
Spectrochim Acta A Mol Biomol Spectrosc. 2020 Apr 5;230:118011. doi: 10.1016/j.saa.2019.118011. Epub 2020 Jan 7.
Electron attachment energy (eAE) and the dipole moment of the neutral molecules are related to the radiative electron attachment (REA) process, which is an important formation route of interstellar anions under various astrophysical environments. Electron attachment energies (eAEs) have been calculated for over 80 carbon chain neutral molecules; C, CX (X = N, O, S, H, Si, P), HCN using ab initio quantum chemical method. Dipole moments of these neutral species and those of their corresponding anions are also theoretically estimated. The anions are found to be significantly more stable than their corresponding neutral analogues in most of the carbon chains considered. The high eAEs and the large dipole moment of most of the neutral species suggest a high detectability of their corresponding anions in the interstellar medium if they are abundant. Members of the CO, CS, CSi, HCN, CP, and C chains with increasing n are good candidates for future astronomical detection including the higher members of the CH and CN groups whose lower members have been observed.
