Modeling long carbon-chain species formation with porous multiphase models

Abstract

Context. Recent studies show that multiphase models trap too many volatile species such as CH4 inside ice mantles, so they usually underestimate the abundances of long carbon-chain species observed toward warm carbon-chain chemistry (WCCC) sources. Aims. We propose a new multiphase model that allows more volatile species to diffuse out of the ice mantle upon warming. The new multiphase model is used to study the synthesis of long carbon-chain molecules in WCCC sources. Methods. We included porous structure in the ice mantles. The porous structure can enlarge the active layers of ice mantles so that fewer volatile species are trapped. The porous multiphase models were simulated using an accelerated Gillespie algorithm. Results. The abundances of long carbon-chain species predicted by the porous multiphase models can be more than one order of magnitude higher than those predicted by the multiphase model at temperatures relevant to WCCC sources. Moreover, the porous multiphase models predict more abundant long carbon-chain species as the porosity of the ice mantles increases. On the other hand, the two-phase model still estimates higher long carbon-chain species abundances than the porous multiphase models do. The abundances of long carbon-chain species predicted by our porous multiphase models agree reasonably well with observations toward three WCCC sources, L483, L1527, and B228. Conclusions. Our porous multiphase model solves the problem of too many volatile species being trapped in ice mantles in the multiphase models.