2024ApJ...964...26H

The molecule 2-aminopropionitrile (2-APN; H₃CCH(NH₂)CN) is a chiral precursor of the amino acid alanine and could play an important role in the emergence of the homochirality of life. To date, 2-APN has not yet been detected in the interstellar medium. To address the question of its absence, possibly through destruction by vacuum ultraviolet radiation in astrophysical media, we studied its photoionization and dissociative photoionization in the 9-14 eV (89-137 nm) energy range using photoelectron-photoion coincidence spectroscopy with velocity map imaging. Density functional theory calculations were performed at the PBE0/aug-cc-pVTZ level to determine structures for the various cationic fragments identified experimentally. Their appearance energies were calculated. The adiabatic ionization energy (AIE) of 2-APN is AIE = (9.85±0.01) eV and the appearance energy (AE) of the major fragment ion N≡CC(H)NH₂⁺ is AE = (10.57±0.01) eV. Both ions, 2-APN⁺ and N≡CC(H)NH₂⁺, make up more than 90% of the formed ions. N≡CC(H)NH₂⁺, an isomer of the protonated HCN dimer, is also formed with high yield in the dissociative photoionization of aminoacetonitrile (NH₂CH₂CN), another α-aminonitrile observed in Sgr B2(N). Photoion yield spectra have been calibrated to absolute ionization cross sections. From these, we derive photoionization rates in several typical radiation fields relevant to different astrophysical objects. The rates show that, under almost all explored radiation fields, dissociative ionization is the dominant pathway for photoionization, leading to the loss of a methyl group (CH₃) to form the planar thermodynamically stable amino cyano methylidynium ion N≡CC(H)NH₂⁺. The observed absence of 2-APN in Sgr B2 could thus be due to dominant dissociative photoionization.