The Astrophysical Journal, 916:74 (12pp), 2021 August 1 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac0537 © 2021. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. A Photoionization Mass Spectrometry Investigation into Complex Organic Molecules Formed in Interstellar Analog Ices of Carbon Monoxide and Water Exposed to Ionizing Radiation Andrew M. Turner1,2, Alexandre Bergantini1,2 , Andreas S. Koutsogiannis1,2, N. Fabian Kleimeier1,2, Santosh K. Singh1,2, Cheng Zhu1,2 , André K. Eckhardt3 , and Ralf I. Kaiser1,2 1 Department of Chemistry, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA;
[email protected] 2 W. M. Keck Laboratory in Astrochemistry, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA 3 Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA Received 2021 April 9; revised 2021 May 19; accepted 2021 May 20; published 2021 July 29 Abstract The formation of complex organic molecules by energetic electrons mimicking secondary electrons generated within trajectories of galactic cosmic rays was investigated in interstellar ice analog samples of carbon monoxide and water at 5 K. Simulating the transition from cold molecular clouds to star-forming regions, newly formed products sublimed during the temperature-programmed desorption and were detected utilizing isomer-specific photoionization reflectron time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Using isotopically labeled ices, tunable photoionization, and adiabatic ionization energies to discriminate between isomers, isomers up to C24HO2 and C262HO were identified, while non-isomer- specific findings confirmed complex organics with molecular formulas up to C464HO. The results provide important constraints on reaction pathways from simple inorganic precursors to complex organic molecules that have both astrochemical and astrobiological significance.