Invited Talk

A Review on Amorphous Carbon and Carbon-rich Compounds in Space

¹Franco Cataldo, ²D. Anibal Garcia-Hernandez, ²Arturo Manchado (¹INAF - Osservatorio Astrofisico di Catania, Italy, ²Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, Tenerife, Spain)

About 1% of the total mass of the interstellar medium in the Galaxy is trapped under the form of solid particles known as interstellar dust. The grains have dimensions comprised from few nanometers to several microns and, in this wide distribution of sizes, also organic molecules are included. The interstellar dust is responsible for a series of still not fully understood spectra phenomena in Astrophysics like the diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs), the "bump" at 217 nm of the interstellar light extinction curve, the unidentified infrared emission features (UIRs) and the extended red emission (ERE). This review is dedicated to the chemical structure and spectral properties of a series of well-known and less known carbon materials and macromolecules which may be the carrier of certain spectral features recorded in the ISM. Starting from the carbon soot model we will pass to discuss the hydrogenated carbon (HAC), the quenched carbon condensate (QCC) and the very large polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (VLPAHs) moving then to a wider discussion about the structure and spectral properties of coal, heavy petroleum fractions and kerogen especially in relation to the UIRs. Concerning the carbon-rich compounds in space a special part of the review will be dedicated to fullerenes, hydrogenated fullerenes (fullerAnes) and graphene, as well as to nanodiamonds and polyynes.

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