Rotational spectroscopy, tentative interstellar detection, and chemical modeling of N-methylformamide

Context. N-methylformamide, CH3NHCHO, may be an important molecule for interstellar pre-biotic chemistry because it contains a peptide bond, which in terrestrial chemistry is responsible for linking amino acids in proteins. The rotational spectrum of the most stable trans conformer of N-methylformamide is complicated by strong torsion-rotation interaction due to the low barrier of the methyl torsion. For this reason, the theoretical description of the rotational spectrum of the trans conformer has, up to now, not been accurate enough to provide a firm basis for its interstellar detection.