Interstellar Carbonaceous Dust Erosion Induced by X-Ray Irradiation of Water Ice in Star-forming Regions

The chemical inventory of protoplanetary midplanes is the basis for forming planetesimals. Among them, solid-state reactions based on CO/CO _2 toward molecular complexity on interstellar dust grains have been studied in theoretical and laboratory work. The physicochemical interactions between ice, constituted mainly of H _2 O, and dust surfaces are limited to a few experimental studies focusing on vacuum ultraviolet and cosmic-ray processing. In this work, the erosion of C dust grains induced by X-ray irradiation of H _2 O ice was systematically investigated for the first time. The work aims to provide a better understanding of the reaction mechanism using selectively isotope-labeled oxygen/carbon species in kinetic analysis. Ultrahigh vacuum experiments were performed to study the interstellar ice analog on submicron, thick C dust at ∼13 K. H _2 O or O _2 ice was deposited on the presynthesized amorphous C dust and exposed to soft X-ray photons (250–1250 eV). Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy was used to monitor in situ the newly formed species as a function of the incident photon fluence. Field emission scanning electron microscopy was used to monitor the morphological changes of (non-)eroded carbon samples. The X-ray processing of the ice/dust interface leads to the formation of CO _2 , which further dissociates and forms CO. Carbonyl groups are formed by oxygen addition to grain surfaces and are confirmed as intermediate species in the formation process. The yields of CO and CO _2 were found to be dependent on the thickness of the carbon layer. The astronomical relevance of the experimental findings is discussed.