CO2 production by ion irradiation of H2O ice on top of carbonaceous materials and its relevance to the Galilean satellites

In this work we report on new experiments of ion irradiation of water ice deposited on top of solid carbonaceous materials to study the production of CO2 at the interface ice/refractory material and discuss the possibility that this mechanism accounts for the quantity of CO2 ice detected on the surfaces of the Galilean satellites. The used experimental technique has been in situ infrared spectroscopy. We have irradiated thin films of H2O frost on carbonaceous layers with 200 keV of He+ and Ar+, and 30 keV of He+ at 16 and 80 K. The used carbonaceous layers have been asphaltite, a natural bitumen, and solid organic residues obtained by irradiation of frozen benzene. In both cases the results show that CO2 is produced very efficiently after irradiation obtaining a maximum quantity of the order of 6 × 10 15   molecules cm −2 . These results are, also quantitatively similar, to those recently obtained for water ice deposited on amorphous carbon films [Mennella, V., Palumbo, M.E., Baratta, G.A., 2004. Formation of CO and CO2 molecules by ion irradiation of water ice covered hydrogenated carbon grains. Astrophys. J. 615, 1073–1080]. Thus we suggest that, whatever is the carbonaceous residue, CO2 will be produced efficiently by the studied process. These results have interest in the context of the surfaces of the icy Galilean satellites in which CO2 has been detected mainly trapped in the non-ice material, not in the pure water ice. We suggest that radiolysis of mixtures of water ice and refractory carbonaceous materials is the primary formation mechanism responsible for the CO2 formation on the surfaces of the Galilean satellites.