Giese Claudia-Corina, Ten Kate Inge Loes, van den Ende Martijn P A, Wolthers Mariette, Aponte José C, Camprubi Eloi, Dworkin Jason P, Elsila Jamie E, Hangx Suzanne, King Helen E, Mclain Hannah L, Plümper Oliver, Tielens Alexander G G M
Leiden Observatory, Faculty of Science, Leiden University, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands.
Department of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University, 3584 CB Utrecht, The Netherlands.
ACS Earth Space Chem. 2022 Mar 17;6(3):468-481. doi: 10.1021/acsearthspacechem.1c00329. Epub 2022 Feb 15.
Amino acids and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) belong to the range of organic compounds detected in meteorites. In this study, we tested empirically and theoretically if PAHs are precursors for amino acids in carbonaceous chondrites, as previously suggested. We conducted experiments to synthesize amino acids from fluoranthene (PAH), with ammonium bicarbonate as a source for ammonia and carbon dioxide under mimicked asteroidal conditions. In our thermodynamic calculations, we extended our analysis to additional PAH-amino acid combinations. We explored 36 reactions involving the PAHs naphthalene, anthracene, fluoranthene, pyrene, triphenylene, and coronene and the amino acids glycine, alanine, valine, leucine, phenylalanine, and tyrosine. Our experiments do not show the formation of amino acids, whereas our theoretical results hint that PAHs could be precursors of amino acids in carbonaceous chondrites at low temperatures.
氨基酸和多环芳烃（PAHs）属于在陨石中检测到的有机化合物范围。在本研究中，我们根据先前的推测，通过实验和理论测试了PAHs是否是碳质球粒陨石中氨基酸的前体。我们进行了实验，以荧蒽（PAH）为原料，在模拟小行星条件下，用碳酸氢铵作为氨和二氧化碳的来源来合成氨基酸。在我们的热力学计算中，我们将分析扩展到了其他PAH-氨基酸组合。我们探索了涉及萘、蒽、荧蒽、芘、三亚苯和 coronene 等PAHs以及甘氨酸、丙氨酸、缬氨酸、亮氨酸、苯丙氨酸和酪氨酸等氨基酸的36个反应。我们的实验未显示氨基酸的形成，而我们的理论结果表明，PAHs在低温下可能是碳质球粒陨石中氨基酸的前体。
