2009ApJ...695..317V

Measurements on the dissociative recombination (DR) of protonated acrylonitrile, CH₂CHCNH⁺, have been performed at the heavy ion storage ring CRYRING located in the Manne Siegbahn Laboratory in Stockholm, Sweden. It has been found that at ∼2 meV relative kinetic energy about 50% of the DR events involve only ruptures of X-H bonds (where X = C or N) while the rest leads to the production of a pair of fragments each containing two heavy atoms (alongside H and/or H₂). The absolute DR cross section has been investigated for relative kinetic energies ranging from ∼1 meV to 1 eV. The thermal rate coefficient has been determined to follow the expression k(T) = 1.78x10^–6 (T/300) ^{– 0.80} cm3/s for electron temperatures ranging from ∼10 to 1000 K. Gas-phase models of the nitrile chemistry in the dark molecular cloud TMC-1 have been run and results are compared with observations. Also, implications of the present results for the nitrile chemistry of Titan's upper atmosphere are discussed.