2026ApJ...998..104B

Quantum chemistry provides accurate and reliable methods to investigate reaction pathways of reactive molecular systems relevant to the interstellar medium. However, the exhaustive exploration of a reactive network is often a daunting task, resulting in unexplored reactive channels that affect kinetic outcomes and branching ratios. Here, an automated workflow for exploring reactive potential energy surfaces (PESs) is employed for the first time to study the oxirane (C₂H₄O) plus methylidyne (^•CH) reaction. The ultimate goal is to comprehensively map its PES and, subsequently, derive rate constants for the most important reaction channels. In addition to its astrochemical relevance, this reaction has been considered because it is a challenging test case, its network being very extended, with 60 exothermic bimolecular products lying below the reactant's energy. Kinetic simulations indicate that the main product of the reaction is the HCO radical plus ethene (C₂H₄), while formation of s-trans-propenal (acrolein) and 2H-oxetene is also possible, but to a lesser extent. Based on the present study and other references in the literature, we suggest that the slightly higher relative abundance of s-trans-propenal compared to methyl ketene in the interstellar medium is a gas-phase kinetic effect, the former being a more easily accessible product on the C₃H₅O^• PES.