Abstract
Ph.D. (Chemistry)
Interstellar chemistry is one of the areas of research which is constantly growing in the field of astrochemistry. With the advent of the Herschel Space Observatory, a new window has opened up in the field of spectroscopic researches related to space chemistry or interstellar chemistry. It has enabled the detection of many imortant molecules, especially many nitrogen containg molecules like, NH, NH2 and NH3, even in the cold envelopes of protostars. Observations of many new nitrogen containing species and some of the already detected nitrogen containing species in extreme cold temperatures, have brought many new constraints in the field of interstellar research. In particular, such a situation gives the opportunity to revisit the study to the chemistry of nitrogen in the interstellar medium, as the knowledge of nitrogen bearing species in interstellar medium is exceptionally important, as they can act as precursors for the formation of many pre-biotic molecules. On the other hand nitrogen has a peculiar chemistry that completely differs from those of carbon and oxygen, and also at the same time nitrogenated species are used as suitable probes for understaning the chemistry of the interstellar medium over a wide range of conditions.
For the active nitrogen chemistry to get materialized in the interstellar medium, one needs to have a very large elemental nitrogen partitioning. Elemental nitrogen partitioning largely affects the active nitrogen chemistry in the ISM. One of the major components in the elemental nitrogen partitioning is the molecular form of nitrogen N2, which is largely unreactive due to the strong triple bond (large bond dissociation energy). On the other side the second component which constitutes the more labile forms of nitrogen (combinations of...