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Formylphosphine (HCOPH₂) was made and detected in a laboratory—not observed in outer space. In a 2018 experiment, researchers irradiated ultra-cold ice containing carbon monoxide and phosphine, then detected HCOPH₂ among the products. “Space-like” describes the experiment’s cryogenic ice and simulated radiation chemistry; it does not mean the molecule was synthesized in space.

How the laboratory experiment worked

Frigge and colleagues prepared ice mixtures of carbon monoxide (CO) and phosphine (PH₃) in an ultrahigh-vacuum surface-science apparatus. The binary ice samples were prepared at 5.5 ± 0.2 K, were 700 ± 100 nm thick, and had a CO-to-PH₃ mixture ratio of 1:2 ± 0.5. The apparatus base pressure was a few 10⁻¹¹ Torr. These are reported laboratory conditions, not measurements of actual interstellar grains. Frigge et al., Chemical Communications, 2018.

The team exposed the ice to energetic electrons, which served as proxies for secondary electrons produced when galactic cosmic rays pass through interstellar ice. They detected HCOPH₂ in the gas phase using isomer-selective photoionization reflectron time-of-flight mass spectrometry (PI-ReTOF-MS), with electronic-structure calculations supporting the product assignment. The authors also used isotopically labelled carbon monoxide, including ¹³CO and C¹⁸O, to test their assignments. The primary study.

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What reaction may have formed HCOPH₂?

The proposed sequence starts when irradiation breaks a P–H bond in phosphine, producing PH₂ and atomic hydrogen. An energetic hydrogen atom adds to CO to form HCO. The PH₂ and HCO radicals can then recombine to produce formylphosphine:

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  1. PH₃ is irradiated: a P–H bond breaks, forming PH₂ and H.
  2. Hydrogen reacts with CO: H adds to CO, forming HCO.
  3. The radicals recombine: PH₂ and HCO join to form HCOPH₂.

This is the reaction pathway proposed for the laboratory chemistry, not a confirmed sequence observed on interstellar grains. Frigge et al., 2018.

What “space-like conditions” does—and does not—mean

The experiment reproduced selected features of cold interstellar ice chemistry: very low temperature, high vacuum, CO and PH₃ frozen together, and energetic-particle-like irradiation. It did not recreate every condition in space, and the products were measured after they entered the gas phase of a laboratory apparatus.

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The study reports average radiation doses of 0.8 ± 0.2 eV per molecule for phosphine and 0.6 ± 0.1 eV per molecule for carbon monoxide. Its interstellar-ice estimate gives an upper HCOPH₂ yield of 0.02 molecules eV⁻¹. That figure is the authors’ estimated yield, not an observed abundance of formylphosphine in space. Frigge et al., 2018.

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Why phosphorus chemists find the molecule interesting

HCOPH₂ is presented as an isovalent phosphorus analogue of formamide (HCONH₂), a well-known interstellar molecule. The authors describe it as the simplest molecule carrying a phosphorus peptide moiety (–CO–PH–). That makes it relevant to questions about how phosphorus-bearing molecules might connect with carbonyl chemistry. It is not a biological peptide, and its laboratory formation does not demonstrate life-related chemistry.

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The broader motivation is that CO and phosphine provide possible starting materials for phosphorus chemistry in icy environments. If HCOPH₂ forms in interstellar settings and is eventually observed, it could help explain a link between simpler phosphorus reservoirs and more complex phosphorus-bearing molecules. That remains a proposed chemical pathway, not an established sequence in astronomical observations. Frigge et al., 2018.

Has formylphosphine been found in space?

The cited laboratory study proposed that formylphosphine may be detectable in space; the sources reviewed here do not establish an astronomical detection. Laboratory gas-phase detection and telescope-based detection are different results: the former identifies a molecule produced in an experiment, while the latter would require evidence from astronomical observations.

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For context, Lucy M. Ziurys’s 2024 review says that more than 200 gas-phase chemical compounds have been discovered in interstellar space and notes phosphorus-bearing PO and PN in molecular clouds. That broad count is not a complete inventory, and the review’s discussion of PO and PN is not evidence for HCOPH₂. Ziurys, Annual Review of Physical Chemistry, 2024.

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The 2018 result in context

The paper, led by Robert Frigge, was published as “Synthesis of the hitherto elusive formylphosphine (HCOPH₂) in the interstellar medium,” in Chemical Communications, volume 54, issue 72, pages 10152–10155 (2018), DOI 10.1039/C8CC04125C. Its title refers to the chemistry’s relevance to the interstellar medium; the reported detection itself was made in the laboratory.

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