Abstract Vacuum ultraviolet irradiation of a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon molecule, pyrene, trapped in carbon dioxide (CO2)-enriched astrophysical ice analogues has been studied and presented here. Pyrene is co-deposited with a gaseous mixture of H2O and CO2 (100% CO2; 50:50 CO2:H2O; and 100% H2O) and is subjected to Ly α photons from a hydrogen-flow microwave discharge lamp. To our surprise, we found ionization of pyrene in all three ices, with ionization yields following the H2O content in the ice, indicating that H2O ice stabilizes charged ions and electrons better than CO2 ice by a factor of 10. Caution needs to be exercised not to overinterpret our finding that pyrene is ionized in pure CO2 ice, because even trace amounts of water in the CO2 matrix could result in an increased ionization of pyrene. In addition to ionization of pyrene in CO2 ice, photochemical products of the CO2 ice itself, namely CO and CO3, were found to form efficiently, as detected using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, in agreement with earlier studies. UV–vis spectra showed formation of ozone (O3) with prolonged irradiation. Surprisingly, O3 yields followed CO2 concentration in the ice mixtures, with the strongest bands in photolyzed CO2 ice and the weakest in photolyzed H2O ice, indicating that CO2 ice is very protoreactive and produces more O atoms than H2O ice. Pyrene-containing photoproducts, incorporating CO2 or CO or O, such as Py-COOH, Py-OH, or Py-CHO, are not explicitly seen in the UV–vis absorption spectra, but we cannot rule out the possibility that their UV absorption may be swamped under the strong absorption of O3.
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