Although fullerenes have long been hypothesized to occur in interstellar environments, they have only recently been unambiguously identified through spectroscopy^1,2,3,4. C₆₀, C₇₀ and C₆₀⁺ now constitute the largest molecular species individually identified in the interstellar medium. Fullerenes have substantial proton affinities and it has been suggested that C₆₀H⁺ is likely the most abundant interstellar analogue of C₆₀ (ref. ⁵). We present here a laboratory infrared (IR) spectrum of gaseous C₆₀H⁺. Symmetry breaking in C₆₀H⁺ produces an IR spectrum that is much richer than that of C₆₀. The experimental spectrum is used to benchmark theoretical spectra indicating that the B3LYP density functional with the 6-311+G(d,p) basis set accurately reproduces the spectrum. Comparison with IR emission spectra from two planetary nebulae, SMP LMC56 and SMC16, which have been associated with high C\({}_{60}\) abundances, indicates that C₆₀H⁺ is a plausible contributor to their IR emission.

尽管富勒烯早就被假设在星际环境中发生，但它们直到最近才通过光谱学^1,2,3,4得以明确鉴定。现在，C ₆₀，C ₇₀和C ₆₀ ⁺构成星际介质中单独鉴定出的最大分子物种。富勒烯具有实质性的质子亲和力和它已经表明Ç ₆₀ ħ ⁺可能是C的最丰富的星际类似物₆₀（参考文献⁵）。我们在这里介绍了气态C ₆₀ H ⁺的实验室红外（IR）光谱。C ₆₀ H ^+中的对称破坏产生的红外光谱比C ₆₀的红外光谱丰富得多。实验光谱用于对理论光谱进行基准测试，表明具有6-311 + G（d，p）基集的B3LYP密度函数可以准确地再现光谱。与来自两个行星状星云SMP LMC56和SMC16的IR发射光谱的比较表明，C ₆₀ H ⁺是其IR发射的一个可能的原因，SMP LMC56和SMC16已与高C \（{} _ {60} \）丰度相关联。