The Astrochemical Legacy of Molecular Clouds to Protoplanetary Disks

The complex organic molecules that are found in protoplanetary disks (PPDs) feed into the planet forming process. What is not clear is how these molecules formed. The aims of this project is to establish the astrochemical link between molecular clouds and PPDs.

This will entail using and adapting our existing codes to consider how dust grain ice mantles can act as carriers of this chemical complexity.

We will start by considering the chemical properties of the smallest species (such as CO) and, subject to empirical constraints, use this to model the chemical behaviours of more complex species.

The key result will be to determine how the chemical composition of a PPD is determined by the physical and chemical evolution of its parent molecular cloud.