New insights into impact chemistry through light gas gun integrated in situ mass spectrometry

通过集成原位质谱分析的轻气枪对冲击化学的新见解

• 批准号: ST/W005549/1
• 负责人: Penelope Wozniakiewicz
• 金额: $ 12.68万
• 依托单位: University of Kent
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ST%2FW005549%2F1
• 关键词: New; insights; into; impact; chemistry

Impacts are a fundamental process, having shaped the surfaces of all planetary bodies, and modified their contents through impact-driven chemical reactions. To date, studies of impact-driven chemistry have focused on the materials that remain inside impact craters after the impact event, yet it is within the impact plume - the transient cloud comprising turbulent mixtures of molten and vaporised material ejected from the site of impact - that chemical reactions are most interesting and exotic! Despite this, impact plumes remain one of the least understood aspects of impact cratering - they have proven difficult to investigate in the laboratory due to their short lifetimes and are impossible to model without vital empirical data to compare against. Several light gas gun facilities are currently attempting to investigate impact plumes by analysing the bright flash of light emitted by various plume constituents - indeed we have also carried out spectral analyses of the impact plume but find that these methods cannot probe the complete chemistry of the plume since some species may not emit in the spectral region being analysed and some may not be present in high enough abundances to produce detectable emissions. In order to obtain a complete picture of impact plume chemistry we plan to use mass spectrometry to directly measure the constituents. Recent technological advances in the field of plasma research have led to the development of small volume, fast sampling mass spectrometers with the temporal and mass resolutions necessary to investigate impact plumes. By installing such a state-of-the-art time-of-flight mass spectrometer on the two stage light gas gun at the University of Kent, we will be able to perform the first direct, in-situ measurements of impact plumes, facilitating pioneering studies to be made of impact-induced vaporisation, dissociation and ionization, as well as chemical mixing and synthesis. In particular, we will study plumes resulting from impacts involving a range of water and organic-rich projectiles and targets as the origins of these key ingredients for life have major implications for astrobiology.

影响是一个基本过程，它塑造了所有行星体的表面，并通过撞击驱动的化学反应修改了其含量。迄今为止，对撞击驱动的化学的研究集中在撞击事件后留在撞击坑内的材料上，但它却在冲击羽流中 - 瞬时云包括从冲击部位弹出的熔融和蒸发材料的湍流混合物 - 化学反应是最有趣的，是最有趣的和异国情调的！尽管如此，撞击羽流仍然是影响围墙的最低知识的一方面 - 事实证明，由于其寿命较短，在实验室中很难进行调查，并且如果没有重要的经验数据进行比较，就无法建模。目前正在尝试通过分析各种羽状成分发出的明亮光闪光来调查羽毛的几个轻气枪设施 - 实际上，我们还对撞击羽流进行了光谱分析，但是发现这些方法无法探测羽流的完整化学性能，因为某些物种在光谱区域中可能无法分析某些物种，并且某些物种可能无法分析，并且可能会产生足够的量，并且会产生足够的物质，并且会产生高度良好的效果。为了获得影响羽流化学的完整图片，我们计划使用质谱法直接测量成分。血浆研究领域的最新技术进步导致了小体积，快速采样质谱仪的发展，并具有研究影响羽毛所需的时间和质量分辨率。通过在肯特大学的两阶段轻型枪支上安装这样最先进的飞行时间质谱仪，我们将能够对撞击羽毛进行第一个直接直接的，原位的测量，以促进促进诱导的蒸发，离解和离子化和离子化以及化学混合和化学混合和化学混合和化学混合物。特别是，我们将研究涉及一系列水和有机富的弹丸和目标的影响而导致的羽毛，因为这些关键成分对生命的起源对天文生物学具有重大影响。