Flowing afterglow studies of temperature dependencies for electron dissociative recombination of HCNH+, CH3CNH+ and CH3CH2CNH+ and their symmetrical proton-bound dimers

A study has been made using a variable temperature flowing afterglow Langmuir probe technique (VT-FALP) to determine the equilibrium temperature dependencies of the dissociative electron-ion recombination of the protonated cyanide ions (RCNH+, where R=H, CH3 and C2H5) and their symmetrical proton-bound dimers (RCNH+NCR). The power law temperature dependencies of the recombination coefficients, αe, over the temperature range 180 to 600 K for the protonated ions are αe(T)(cm3 s−1)=3.5±0.5×10−7 (300/T)1.38 for HCNH+, αe(T)=3.4±0.5×10−7 (300/T)1.03 for CH3CNH+, and αe(T)=4.6±0.7×10−7 (300/T)0.81 for CH3CH2CNH+. The equivalent values for the proton-bound dimers are αe(T)(cm3 s−1)=2.4±0.4×10−6(300/T)0.5 for (HCN)2H+ to αe(T)=2.8±0.4×10−6(300/T)0.5 for (CH3CN)2H+, and αe(T)=2.3±0.3×10−6(300/T)0.5 for (CH3CH2CN)2H+. The relevance of these data to molecular synthesis in the interstellar medium and the Titan ionosphere are discussed.