Integral and differential cross sections of reactions relevant to astrochemistry

Abstract

In recent years, kinetic experiments have shown that, contrary to the Arrhenius concept, many neutral-neutral reactions remain fast at very low temperature. Such behaviour ranks them as important processes to be considered in the chemical networks that model the synthesis and the fate of molecules observed in the interstellar medium. This Perspective Article aims to review complementary crossed beam experiments of relevant neutral-neutral reactions performed in the low collision energy regime. A few selected reactions are considered, with particular emphasis on carbon-atom reactions with unsaturated hydrocarbons. It is shown, with the example of the C + C(2)H(2) system, that the conjunction of kinetic and dynamic experiments can provide a consistent set of detailed rate coefficients for a multichannel reaction, relevant to astrochemical models.