Mid-Infrared Spectroscopy of Polycyclic Aromatic Nitrogen Heterocycles (PANHS) and their Ions

In recent years, polycyclic aromatic nitrogen heterocycles (PANHs) have attracted a good deal of attention because of their potent carcinogenic and mutagenic properties, and their prevalence in our environment. Such species also play a prominent role in the chemistry of life up to and including the very nucleobases from which our DNA is constructed. Surprisingly, these compounds may even be common outside of our terrestrial environment. To wit, it is now widely accepted that polycyclic aromatic materials are abundant in space and represent a major reservoir of organic carbon in the interstellar medium and developing planetary systems. Given that nitrogen is the fourth most abundant chemically reactive element in space (surpassed only by hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen), it is entirely reasonable to suspect that PANHs may represent an important component of that organic reservoir. Motivated by their intrinsic merit and with special attention toward evaluating their exobiological significance, we have initiated a program to study the spectroscopic and chemical properties of P A " s under conditions relevant to extraterrestrial environments. Here we present the first results of that program-infrared spectroscopic measurements on a series of PANH"s in neutral and cationic forms, isolated in inert matrices at cryogenic temperatures.temperatures. The species studied include: 1 -, and 2-azabenz[a]anthracene, 1-, 2-, and 4- azachrysene, dibenz[a,h]acridine, and dibenz[a,J)acridine. The experimental measurements are also compared with theoretical spectra calculated using density functional theory. General spectroscopic trends observed in this series of compounds are discussed and the implications of these results for Astrophysics and Exobiology are considered.