Bibcode
Díaz-Luis, J. J.; García-Hernández, D. A.; Manchado, A.; Cataldo, F.
Referencia bibliográfica
Astronomy and Astrophysics, Volume 589, id.A5, 7 pp.
Fecha de publicación:
5
2016
Revista
Número de citas
18
Número de citas referidas
15
Descripción
Detections of C60 and C70 fullerenes in planetary
nebulae (PNe) of the Magellanic Clouds and of our own Galaxy have raised
the idea that other forms of carbon, such as hydrogenated fullerenes
(fulleranes like C60H36 and
C60H18), buckyonions, and carbon nanotubes, may be
widespread in the Universe. Here we present VLT/ISAAC spectra (R ~ 600)
in the 2.9-4.1 μm spectral region for the Galactic PNe Tc 1 and M
1-20, which have been used to search for fullerene-based molecules in
their fullerene-rich circumstellar environments. We report the
non-detection of the most intense infrared bands of several fulleranes
around ~3.4-3.6 μm in both PNe. We conclude that if fulleranes are
present in the fullerene-containing circumstellar environments of these
PNe, then they seem to be much less abundant than C60 and
C70. Our non-detections, together with the (tentative)
fulleranes detection in the proto-PN IRAS 01005+7910, suggest that
fulleranes may be formed in the short transition phase between AGB stars
and PNe, but they are quickly destroyed by the UV radiation field from
the central star.