García-Ruiz J M, Hyde S T, Carnerup A M, Christy A G, Van Kranendonk M J, Welham N J
Instituto Andaluz de Ciencias de la Tierra, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas Universidad de Granada, Facultad de Ciencias, Campus de Fuentenueva 18002, Granada, Spain.
Science. 2003 Nov 14;302(5648):1194-7. doi: 10.1126/science.1090163.
We have synthesized inorganic micron-sized filaments, whose microstucture consists of silica-coated nanometer-sized carbonate crystals, arranged with strong orientational order. They exhibit noncrystallographic, curved, helical morphologies, reminiscent of biological forms. The filaments are similar to supposed cyanobacterial microfossils from the Precambrian Warrawoona chert formation in Western Australia, reputed to be the oldest terrestrial microfossils. Simple organic hydrocarbons, whose sources may also be abiotic and indeed inorganic, readily condense onto these filaments and subsequently polymerize under gentle heating to yield kerogenous products. Our results demonstrate that abiotic and morphologically complex microstructures that are identical to currently accepted biogenic materials can be synthesized inorganically.
我们合成了无机微米级细丝，其微观结构由二氧化硅包覆的纳米级碳酸盐晶体组成，排列具有很强的取向有序性。它们呈现出非晶体的、弯曲的螺旋形态，让人联想到生物形态。这些细丝类似于来自西澳大利亚前寒武纪瓦拉伍纳燧石组的假定蓝藻微化石，据称是最古老的陆地微化石。来源可能也是非生物甚至无机的简单有机碳氢化合物，很容易凝结在这些细丝上，随后在温和加热下聚合，产生含油母质的产物。我们的结果表明，可以通过无机方式合成与目前公认的生物成因材料相同的非生物且形态复杂的微观结构。
