Friday, November 15, 2024

Gamma radiation converts methane into complex organic molecules and could explain the origin of life

Amazing stuff!

"... "Gamma rays, high-energy photons commonly existing in cosmic rays and unstable isotope decay, provide external energy to drive chemical reactions of simple molecules in the icy mantles of interstellar dust and ice grains," ... "This can result in more complex organic molecules, presumably starting from methane (CH4), which is widely present throughout the interstellar medium." ..."

From the abstract:
"Fundamental understanding of initial evolutions of molecules in the universe is of great interest and importance. CH4 is one of the abundant simple molecules in the universe. Herein we report γ-ray, high-energy photons commonly existing in cosmic rays and unstable isotope decay, as an external energy to efficiently drives aqueous-phase CH4 conversions to various products with the presence of oxygen at room temperature. Glycine also forms with an additional introduction of ammonia. Both CH4 conversions and product distributions are modified by solid granules, and a CH3COOH selectivity as high as 82 % is obtained when SiO2 is added. Our results point to γ-ray driven aqueous-phase CH4 conversions as a likely formation network of initial complex organic compounds in the universe and offer an alternative strategy for efficiently utilizing CH4 as the carbon source to produce value-added products at mild conditions, a long-standing challenging task in heterogeneous catalysis."

Gamma radiation converts methane into complex organic molecules and could explain the origin of life


γ-Ray is capable of driving an aqueous-phase CH4+H2O+O2 conversion selectively into CH3COOH via ⋅CH3 and ⋅OH radical intermediates, and driving an aqueous-phase CH3COOH+NH3 conversion into NH2CH2COOH via ⋅CH2COOH and ⋅NH2 radical intermediates. Such γ-ray driven aqueous-phase methane conversions probably play an important role in the formation network of complex organic molecules in the universe, and provides a strategy to convert abundant CH4 into value-added products at mild conditions.


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