Structural investigations of hydrogen cyanide polymers

Minard, Robert D.; Gourley, Robert C.; Hatcher, Patrick G.; Matthews, Clifford N.

doi:10.1007/bf02459822

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 7 publications

(3 reference statements)

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“…A direct comparison of an HCN polymer with a Titan tholin prepared by charged particle bombardment of an N 2 /CH 4 mixture (kindly supplied by Bishun Khare) 43 was made by Minard et al through TMAH thermochemolysis/GC-MS analysis described above. 46 This tholin produced products very similar to those shown in Fig. 2 plus hydrocarbons such as toluene.…”

Section: Planets and Moonsmentioning

confidence: 62%

Hydrogen cyanide polymers, comets and the origin of life

2006

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Hydrogen cyanide polymers--heterogeneous solids ranging in colour from yellow to orange to brown to black--could be major components of the dark matter observed on many bodies of the outer solar system including asteroids, moons, planets and, especially, comets. The presence on cometary nuclei of frozen volatiles such as methane, ammonia and water subjected to high energy sources makes them attractive sites for the ready formation and condensed-phase polymerization of hydrogen cyanide. This could account for the dark crust observed on Comet Halley in 1986 by the Vega and Giotto missions. Dust emanating from its nucleus would arise partly from HCN polymers as suggested by the Giotto detection of free hydrogen cyanide, CN radicals, solid particles consisting only of H, C and N, or only of H, C, N, O, and nitrogen-containing organic compounds. Further evidence for cometary HCN polymers could be expected from in situ analysis of the ejected material from Comet Tempel 1 after collision with the impactor probe from the two-stage Deep Impact mission on July 4, 2005. Even more revealing will be actual samples of dust collected from the coma of Comet Wild 2 by the Stardust mission, due to return to Earth in January 2006 for analyses which we have predicted will detect these polymers and related compounds. In situ results have already shown that nitriles and polymers of hydrogen cyanide are probable components of the cometary dust that struck the Cometary and Interstellar Dust Analyzer of the Stardust spacecraft as it approached Comet Wild 2 on January 2, 2004. Preliminary evidence (January 2005) obtained by the Huygens probe of the ongoing Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn and its satellites indicates the presence of nitrogen-containing organic compounds in the refractory organic cores of the aerosols that give rise to the orange haze high in the atmosphere of Titan, Saturn's largest moon. Our continuing investigations suggest that HCN polymers are basically of two types: ladder structures with conjugated -C=N- bonds and polyamidines readily converted by water to polypeptides. Thermochemolysis GC-MS studies show that cleavage products of the polymer include alpha-amino acids, nitrogen heterocycles such as purines and pyrimidines, and provide evidence for peptide linkages. Hydrogen cyanide polymers are a plausible link between cosmochemistry and the origin of informational macromolecules. Implications for prebiotic chemistry are profound. Following persistent bolide bombardment, primitive Earth may have been covered by water and carbonaceous compounds, particularly HCN polymers which would have supplied essential components for establishing protein/nucleic acid life.

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Section: Planets and Moonsmentioning

confidence: 62%

Hydrogen cyanide polymers, comets and the origin of life

2006

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“…A Fischer-Tropsch type (FTT) process was suggested, as well as interstellar photoreactions via alkyl radicals and the decomposition of hydrogen cyanide polymer structures. 38 In this context, the biological versus abiological generation of chiral hydrocarbons was recently discussed.…”

Section: Chiral Analytesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enantiomer separation of hydrocarbons in preparation for ROSETTA's “chirality‐experiment”

Meierhenrich¹,

Thiemann²,

Goesmann³

et al. 2001

Chirality

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Until now the favored method for separating racemic pairs of underivatized alcohols, diols, and phenylsubstituted amines has been gas chromatography on cyclodextrin phases. However, certain enantiomers of saturated chiral hydrocarbons could not be resolved in this way because they lack the functional groups necessary to undergo "intensive" diastereomeric interactions with the cyclodextrins. The present study describes a gas-chromatographic technique for resolution of saturated aliphatic hydrocarbons into their enantiomers and presents a brief discussion of the possible applications. The (enantiomer) separations were performed in preparation for the Cometary Sampling and Composition Experiment on board the cometary lander RoLand, part of ESA's cornerstone mission ROSETTA. This experiment has been designed to investigate the hypotheses that biomolecular asymmetry has an interstellar origin and to separate and identify a wide range of organic enantiomers in situ on the surface of a comet's nucleus.

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Structural investigations of hydrogen cyanide polymers

Cited by 2 publications

References 7 publications

Hydrogen cyanide polymers, comets and the origin of life

Hydrogen cyanide polymers, comets and the origin of life

Enantiomer separation of hydrocarbons in preparation for ROSETTA's “chirality‐experiment”

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