Probing The Chemical Complexity Of Amines In The ISM: Detection Of Vinylamine (C2H3NH2) And Tentative Detection Of Ethylamine (C2H5NH2)

Amines, in particular primary amines (R-NH2) are closely related to the primordial synthesis of amino acids since they share the same structural backbone.

However, only limited number of amines has been identified in the ISM which prevents us from studying their chemistry as well as their relation to pre-biotic species that could lead to the emergence of life.

In this letter, we report the first interstellar detection of vinylamine (C2H3NH2) and tentative detection of ethylamine (C2H5NH2) towards the Galactic Centre cloud G+0.693-0.027. The derived abundance with respect to H2 is (3.3±0.4)×10−10 and (1.9±0.6)×10−10, respectively. The inferred abundance ratios of C2H3NH2 and C2H5NH2 with respect to methylamine (CH3NH2) are ∼0.02 and ∼0.008 respectively. The derived abundance of C2H3NH2, C2H5NH2 and several other NH2-bearing species are compared to those obtained towards high-mass and low-mass star-forming regions.

Based on recent chemical and laboratory studies, possible chemical routes for the interstellar synthesis of C2H3NH2 and C2H5NH2 are discussed.

Shaoshan Zeng, Izaskun Jiménez-Serra, Víctor M. Rivilla, Jesús Martín-Pintado, Lucas F. Rodríguez-Almeida, Belén Tercero, Pablo de Vicente, Fernando Rico-Villas, Laura Colzi, Sergio Martín, Miguel A. Requena-Torres

Comments: 8 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, article accepted in Astrophysical Journal Letters
Subjects: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)
Cite as: arXiv:2110.01791 [astro-ph.GA] (or arXiv:2110.01791v1 [astro-ph.GA] for this version)
Submission history
From: Shaoshan Zeng
[v1] Tue, 5 Oct 2021 02:29:31 UTC (1,308 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2110.01791
Astrobiology, Astrochemistry