Charting Circumstellar Chemistry of Carbon-rich AGB Stars

AGB stars are major contributors to the chemical enrichment of the ISM through nucleosynthesis and extensive mass loss. Most of our current knowledge of AGB circumstellar chemistry, in particular in a C-rich environment, is based on observations of the carbon star IRC +10 216, which is often attributed the status of an archetypal carbon star. In this work, we aim to observationally verify if IRC +10216 is indeed an archetypal carbon star.