A new model for the interpretation of the unidentified infrared bands (UIBS) of the diffuse interstellar medium and of the protoplanetary nebulae

Abstract

In this work we started from the basic idea that the pure polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) cannot be the real carriers of the unidentified infrared bands (UIBs), the emission spectra coming from a large variety of astronomical objects. Instead we propose a new model taken from petroleum chemistry which, we can show, is able to match both the UIBs and even the protoplanetary nebulae (PPNe) spectra. PAHs such as phenanthrene, benzoperylene, coronene and pentacene, are too pure and too specific to really exist in the interstellar medium. Instead our model proposes that the carrier of UIBs and PPNe are complex molecular mixtures like those obtained as fractions during the petroleum refining processes. These molecular mixtures are so complex that practically the investigators did not try to identify each individual component but characterized the mixture with an average molecular structure that takes into account both the average molecular weight and the average content of aromatic, naphtenic (cycloaliphatic) and aliphatic (paraffinic) fraction. We show by infrared spectroscopy that petroleum fractions obtained at certain steps of the refining process are able to match the UIBs and the PPNe infrared bands with the advantage of not being so specific as PAHs are. Namely we have used as samples a distillate aromatic extract (DAE) a treated residual aromatic extract (T-RAE) and finally a naphtenic oil. Among the three samples examined, the DAE sample was the best in matching the UIBs and PPNe spectra.