Evidence for Ubiquitous Carbon Grain Destruction in Hot Protostellar Envelopes

Earth is deficient in carbon and nitrogen by up to ∼4 orders of magnitude compared with the Sun. Destruction of (carbon- and nitrogen-rich) refractory organics in the high-temperature planet-forming regions could explain this deficiency. Assuming a refractory cometary composition for these grains, their destruction enhances nitrogen-containing, oxygen-poor molecules in the hot gas (≳300 K) after the initial formation and sublimation of these molecules from oxygen-rich ices in the warm gas (∼150 K). Using observations of 37 high-mass protostars with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, we find that oxygen-containing molecules (CH3OH and HNCO) systematically show no enhancement in their hot component. In contrast, nitrogen-containing, oxygen-poor molecules (CH3CN and C2H3CN) systematically show an enhancement of a factor ∼5 in their hot component, pointing to additional production of these molecules in the hot gas. Assuming only thermal excitation conditions, we interpret these results as a signature of destruction of refractory organics, consistent with the cometary composition. This destruction implies a higher C/O and N/O in the hot gas than the warm gas, while the exact values of these ratios depend on the fraction of grains that are effectively destroyed. This fraction can be found by future chemical models that constrain C/O and N/O from the abundances of minor carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen carriers presented here.