C & D Substituted Propane Isotopologues for Astrophysical Studies*

This ongoing project is to obtain and analyze high resolution IR and Far-IR spectra of ¹³C and D isotopologues of propane. Spectra were run on the Bruker IFS 125HR on the Far-IR beamline at the Canadian Light Source synchrotron. Bands corresponding to those detected on Titan by Voyager and Cassini for the normal species of propane are one of our main aims. A region of focus is the unpertubed vibrational mode near 360 cm^-1 (THz region). This band has allowed us to obtain accurate rotational constants to 6^th order for the different species.  We hope to predict rotational lines for use in radio astronomy searches in the ISM and planetary atmospheres.

Recently we have extended our studies to other isotopic propanes: D₂, D₃, D₆ and D₈. Obtaining inertial constants for all these species can be used to refine the molecular structure and provide data to improve ab initio calculations of hydrocarbons found in problems in chemistry, physics, geochemistry and astrophysics.