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Key to Cleaner Combustion? Look to the Stars 6H 6, the benzene ring – an elegant, hexagonal molecule comprised of 6 carbon and 6 hydrogen atoms. Astrophysicists say that the benzene ring could be the fundamental building block of polycylic aromatic hydrocarbons or PAHs, the most basic materials formed from the explosion of dying, carbon-rich stars. That swirling mass of matter would eventually give shape to the earliest forms of carbon – precursors to molecules some scientists say are connected to the synthesis of the earliest forms of life on Earth. Paradoxically, PAHs have a dark side, too. The industrial processes behind crude oil refineries and the inner-workings of gas-powered combustion engines can emit PAHs, which can snowball into toxic air pollutants like soot. ....
3·, gave rise to the first aromatic ring, benzene. The current study is the first demonstration of the so-called “radical propargyl self-reaction” under astrochemical and combustion conditions. Using a high-temperature, coin-sized chemical reactor called the “hot nozzle,” the researchers simulated the high-pressure, high-temperature environment inside a combustion engine as well as the hydrocarbon-rich atmosphere of Saturn’s moon Titan, and observed the formation of isomers – molecules with the same chemical formula but different atomic structures – from two propargyl radicals leading up to the benzene ring. The hot-nozzle technique, which co-senior author Musahid Ahmed, senior staff scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Chemical Sciences Division, adapted 10 years ago at Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source (ALS) for synchrotron experiments, relies on vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) spectroscopy to detect individual isomers. The ALS is a type of particle accelerator kno ....