Long Carbon Chain Molecules in the Laboratory and in Space

The unsaturated long carbon chain molecules of the type HC2n+1N (with n=1,2..) have the remarkable property of being very stable under a wide variety of different laboratory and interstellar conditions. In fact, they can be synthesized in the laboratory under the action of a radio frequency discharge in a mixture of acetylene, HCCH, and hydrogen cyanide, HCN (Creswell et al. 1977, Winnewisser et al. 1978). Once they are formed they are for example very stable towards temperature changes as well as saturation of the carbon bonds due to hydrogen addition. In the laboratory their chief cause of destruction is polymerization. These experiments were triggered by our observation that in the course of producing hydrogen isocyanide, HNC, (Creswell et al. 1976) by reacting CH3I with N2in a gas discharge, also small amounts of HC3N were present which clearly requires the joining together of four heavy atoms from different starting molecules.