Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA.
J Phys Chem A. 2012 May 17;116(19):4760-7. doi: 10.1021/jp3016062. Epub 2012 May 7.
Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, is enveloped in a reddish brown organic haze. Titan haze is presumed to be formed from methane and nitrogen (CH(4) and N(2)) in Titan's upper atmosphere through energetic photochemistry and particle bombardment. Though Titan haze has been directly investigated using methods including the Cassini mission, its formation mechanism and the contributing chemical structures and prebiotic potential are still not well developed. We report here the structural investigation of the (13)C and (15)N labeled, simulated Titan haze aerosol (tholin) by solution-state NMR. The one-dimensional (1)H, (13)C, and (15)N NMR spectra and decoupling experiments indicate that the tholin sample contains amine, nitrile, imine, and N-heteroaromatic compounds of tremendous import in understanding complex organic chemistry in anaerobic, extraterrestrial environments.
土卫六，土星最大的卫星，被一层红棕色的有机霾所笼罩。土卫六霾被认为是由土卫六高层大气中的甲烷和氮气（CH(4) 和 N(2)) 通过高能光化学和粒子撞击形成的。尽管已经使用包括卡西尼号任务在内的方法直接对土卫六霾进行了研究，但它的形成机制以及相关的化学结构和前生物潜力仍未得到充分发展。我们在此报告通过溶液态 NMR 对（13)C 和（15)N 标记的模拟土卫六霾气溶胶（tholin）的结构研究。一维（1)H、（13)C 和（15)N NMR 谱和去耦实验表明，tholin 样品中含有胺、腈、亚胺和 N-杂环芳烃化合物，这些化合物对于理解厌氧、外星环境中的复杂有机化学具有重要意义。
