Abstract
A recent study of soft x-ray absorption in native and hydrogenated coronene cations, , led to the conclusion that additional hydrogen atoms protect (interstellar) polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) molecules from fragmentation [Reitsma et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 053002 (2014)]. The present experiment with collisions between fast (30–200 eV) He atoms and pyrene (, 6, and 16) and simulations without reference to the excitation method suggests the opposite. We find that the absolute carbon-backbone fragmentation cross section does not decrease but increases with the degree of hydrogenation for pyrene molecules.
- Received 3 June 2015
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.92.050702
©2015 American Physical Society