Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons With Aliphatic Sidegroups: Intensity Scaling For The C-H Stretching Modes And Astrophysical Implications, Xuejuan Yang, Aigen Li, Rainer Glaser, Jianxin Zhong

Chemistry Faculty Research & Creative Works

The so-called unidentified infrared emission (UIE) features at 3.3, 6.2, 7.7, 8.6, and 11.3 μm ubiquitously seen in a wide variety of astrophysical regions are generally attributed to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) molecules. Astronomical PAHs may have an aliphatic component, as revealed by the detection in many UIE sources of the aliphatic C-H stretching feature at 3.4 mm. The ratio of the observed intensity of the 3.4 mm feature to that of the 3.3 μm aromatic C-H feature allows one to estimate the aliphatic fraction of the UIE carriers. This requires knowledge of the intrinsic oscillator strengths of the 3.3 …