Gas-Phase Positive Ion Insights during Laboratory EUV Irradiation of Titan's Relevant Gas Mixtures

Abstract : In the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan, the chemical growth is believed to occur through an efficient chemical coupling between radicals and reac-tive charged species. However, the role of positively charged particles in haze formation chemistry is far from being understood. Here, we present a mass spec-trometry investigation with a relatively low pressure interface to chemically characterize the positive ions formed in the pre-haze formation phase starting from the EUV photolysis of N₂ /CH₄ gas mixtures.