ANR PRC H-Carbocage

Dates:

November 2026 to May 2030

Project Coordinating Laboratory: Institutdes Matériauxde NantesJean Rouxel (UMR 6502 CNRS/University of Nantes)

Project Coordinator: Chris EWELS, PMN Team

Partner laboratories:

• IMN (UMR 6502/Nantes Université)
• ISMO (UMR 8214 CNRS/Paris Saclay)
• IAS (UMR 8617 CNRS/Paris Saclay)

Persons of IMN involved:
Chris EWELS (DR CNRS), Ph.D. student (to be announced)

H-CARBOCAGE is a 54-month research project that seeks to solve a long-standing mystery in astrophysics.

This project brings together three leading French laboratories:

• The IMN in Nantes
• ISMO in Paris-Saclay
• The IAS in Paris-Saclay

H-CARBOCAGE is a 54-month research project which is looking to solve of a long-standing mystery in astrophysics.
This project brings together three leading French laboratories: IMN Nantes, ISMO Paris-Saclay and IAS Paris-Saclay along with international partners at Edinburgh in Scotland and Western Ontario (Canada).
Fullerene C60, the famous football-shaped carbon molecule whose discovery earned its discoverers the Nobel Prize, has been found in space.
However, a whole family of smaller “cousin” cages, potentially stabilised by small amounts of hydrogen, has never been detected or even fully studied in the laboratory.

These hydrogenated carbon cages, or “fulleranes,” may hold the key to explaining two of the most enigmatic and unidentified light signatures observed throughout the galaxy.
Mysterious infrared emissions, as well as an ultraviolet “bump” first detected more than sixty years ago, have been observed.

By combining cutting-edge computer modelling, laboratory experiments, and data from the James Webb Space Telescope could make it possible to identify these previously unidentified molecules.
The results would finally identify these elusive molecules and reveal the role hydrogen plays in shaping some of the most fundamental carbon architectures in the universe.

Caption: Hydrogenated carbon cages