Cluster Beam Study of (MgSiO₃)⁺-Based Monomeric Silicate Species and Their Interaction with Oxygen: Implications for...

Silicates are ubiquitously found as small dust grains throughout the universe. These particles are frequently subject to high-energy processes and subsequent condensation in the interstellar medium (ISM), where they are broken up into many ultrasmall silicate fragments. These abundant molecular-sized silicates likely play an important role in astrochemistry. By approximately mimicking silicate dust grain processing occurring in the diffuse ISM by ablation/cooling of a Mg/Si source material in the presence of O₂, we observed the creation of stable clusters based on discrete pyroxene monomers (MgSiO₃ ⁺), which traditionally have only been considered possible as constituents of bulk silicate materials. Our study suggests that such pyroxene monomer-based clusters could be highly abundant in the ISM from the processing of larger silicate dust grains. A detailed analysis, by infrared multiple-photon dissociation (IR-MPD) spectroscopy and density functional theory (DFT) calculations, reveals the structures and properties of these monomeric silicate species. We find that the clusters interact strongly with oxygen, with some stable cluster isomers having a silicate monomeric core bound to an ozone-like moiety. The general high tendency of these monomeric silicate species to strongly adsorb O₂ molecules also suggests that they could be relevant to the observed and unexplained depletion of oxygen in the ISM. We further find clusters where a Mg atom is bound to the MgSiO₃ monomer core. These species can be considered as the simplest initial step in monomer-initiated nucleation, indicating that small ionized pyroxenic clusters could also assist in the reformation of larger silicate dust grains in the ISM.