Our new paper, "Formation of methane and cyclohexane through the hydrogenation of toluene", aims to examine this question. This was done by exposing toluene, a single aromatic carbon ring with one methyl group bonded to it, to hydrogen atoms. Aromatic molecules such as this are known to exist in the ISM, and therefore their interaction with atomic hydrogen is important to understand.

This work shows how, similarly to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, toluene becomes increasingly more hydrogenated with increasing hydrogen atom exposure. However, at large amounts of hydrogen exposure, it was measured that the methyl group could be detached from the ring, which led to the formation of methane and cyclohexane. This is significant as it's a route to de-methylation of aromatic molecules and potentially, if mixed in an interstellar ice, a top-down formation route to more complex organic molecules.

Read the paper here