Synthesis and Characterization of Polypyrrole-Coated Anthracene Microparticles: A New Synthetic Mimic for Polyaromatic Hydrocarbon-Based Cosmic Dust

Polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are found throughout the universe. The ubiquity of these organic molecules means that they considerable interest in context cosmic dust, which typically travels at hypervelocities (>1 km s–1) within our solar system. However, studying such fast-moving micrometer-sized particles laboratory-based experiments requires suitable synthetic mimics. Herein, we use ball-milling to produce microparticles anthracene, is simplest member PAH family. Size control can be achieved by varying milling time presence a anionic commercial polymeric dispersant (Morwet D-425). These anthracene then coated with thin overlayer polypyrrole (PPy), an air-stable conducting polymer. uncoated and PPy-coated characterized terms their particle size, surface morphology, chemical structure using optical microscopy, scanning electron laser diffraction, aqueous electrophoresis, FT-IR spectroscopy, Raman X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Moreover, accelerated up light gas gun. Finally, studies impact craters indicate carbon debris, so expected serve as first mimic for PAH-based dust.