Synthesis and Preservation of Organic Molecules with Homochiral Excess by Adsorption on Carbon in Carbonaceous Chondrites

Abstract

The nature of carbon, initial components, molecules of homochiral abiogenic synthesis and their preservation from decay and racemization for more than 4.5 billion years in carbonaceous chondrites has not been established. In the oxygen-free atmospheres of the nebula and early Earth, hydrogen and hydrogen-containing gases were oxidized with carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide to form carbon and water, as well as the intermediates of these reactions, formaldehyde and methane acid. Together with ammonia, they were the initial components of organic synthesis. According to the Rebinder rule, carbon adsorbs hydrogen well, including in organic molecules. In this connection, experiments with the assumed conditions of the early Earth were carried out by adsorption on carbon to obtain R-(rectus, Latin) ribose from formaldehyde, and S-(sinister) serine from formaldehyde, methane acid and ammonia. For other S-amino acids, a stereo chemical justification of their formation based on S-serine is given. For carbonaceous chondrites, the results of the above experiments were confirmed by the correlation of an increase in homochiral excess with an increase in the amount of hydrogen in aldonic acids and lactic acid with a coefficient of 0.94 and 0.85 in amino acids. The justification of the homochiral process will reduce the costs of searching for life on planets, for scientific research, for the production of medicines, perfumes, food, and so on. Doubts about the extraterrestrial origin of homochiral enantiomers in carbonaceous chondrites arise most often due to a lack of understanding of the reasons for their appearance. This work will significantly reduce such skepticism.