Mass Spectral Analysis of PAMPRE Tholins

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

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Scientific paper

The destruction of N2 and CH4 and subsequent complex chemical processes lead to the formation of organic aerosols in Titan's atmosphere. To further the understanding of the formation and composition of these aerosols, laboratory experiments have been designed to produce aerosols under Titan atmospheric conditions. We have characterized tholins generated by the PAMPRE (Production d'Aérosols en Microgravité par Plasma REactif) experiment. The PAMPRE experiment uses capacitively coupled RF plasma discharge to initiate the chemistry between N2 and CH4 that leads to the production of solid particles (tholins). The tholins form and grow while levitated in the plasma, which minimizes any possible wall effects. Tholins were generated using 3 different N2/CH4 gas mixtures: 98/2, 95/5, 90/10. The tholins were characterized using the LTQ-Orbitrap XL mass spectrometer, which has a resolving power of 1.e5 at 400 amu and accuracy in exact mass determination of 2 ppm. Thousands of molecules have been identified ranging in mass from 50 to 800 amu. The spectra exhibit groups of peaks with a mass periodicity of 13.5, which provides insight into the chemical processes involved in tholin synthesis. The application of the knowledge gained from these experiments to the study of corresponding processes on Titan will be briefly discussed.

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