Stereochemistry of organic solids in solar system primitive materials: Development of thermochemolysis chiral-GCMS

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24684040
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (A)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Geochemistry/Astrochemistry
• Research Institution: Osaka University
• Principal Investigator: Yabuta Hikaru 大阪大学, 理学(系)研究科(研究院), 助教 (30530844)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 光学分割 / 隕石 / 固体有機物 / 反応熱分解GCMS

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this study, we attempted a new method to determine the molecular structures and enantiomeric excesses (ee) of enentiomers in organic macromolecular solids in meteorites, in order to understand the diversity and universality in homochirality emergence and amplification mechanisms in the early Solar System.
Insoluble organic matter (IOM) isolated from Murchison meteorite powder was chemically degraded by alkaline CuO degradation, and the degradation products were analyzed by a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometry (GCMS). As a result, 7 kinds of dicarboxylic acids and 7 kinds of hydroxy acids, which have enantiomers, were identified. This result indicates that extraterrestrial homochirality could have existed not only in meteoritic amino acids but also in organic macromolecular solids. Further experiment to estimate ee values for the individual molecules will be necessary.

Free Research Field

宇宙化学、有機地球化学、アストロバイオロジー