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Updated: Jul 25, 2025

Photogeneration of N-Heterocyclic Carbenes: Application in Photoinduced Ring-Opening Metathesis Polymerization
Published on: November 29, 2018
Formation of the methyl cation by photochemistry in a protoplanetary disk
Olivier Berné1, Marie-Aline Martin-Drumel2, Ilane Schroetter3
1Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, CNES, UPS, Toulouse, France. olivier.berne@irap.omp.eu.
Abstract:
Forty years ago, it was proposed that gas-phase organic chemistry in the interstellar medium can be initiated by the methyl cation CH3+ (refs. 1-3), but so far it has not been observed outside the Solar System4,5. Alternative routes involving processes on grain surfaces have been invoked6,7. Here we report James Webb Space Telescope observations of CH3+ in a protoplanetary disk in the Orion star-forming region. We find that gas-phase organic chemistry is activated by ultraviolet irradiation.
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