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Combined Experimental And Theoretical Studies On Methane Photolysis At 121.6 Nm And 248 Nm- Implications On A Program Of Laboratory Simulations Of Titan’S Atmosphere, C. Romanzin, E. Arzoumanian, Et. Es-Sebbar, A. Jolly, S. Perrier, M.-C. Gazeau, Y. Bénilan

Dr. Et-touhami Es-sebbar

Methane is, together with N2, the main precursor of Titan’s atmospheric chemistry. In our laboratory, we are currently developing a program of laboratory simulations of Titan’s atmosphere, where methane is intended to be dissociated by multiphotonic photolysis at 248 nm. A preliminary study has shown that multiphotonic absorption of methane at 248 nm is efficient and leads to the production of hydrocarbons such as C2H2 (Romanzin et al., 2008). Yet, at this wavelength, little is known about the branching ratios of the hydrocarbon radicals (CH3, CH2 and CH) and their following photochemistry. This paper thus aims at investigating methane photochemistry …