Favorable Environments for the Formation of Ferrocyanide, a Potentially Critical Reagent for Origins of Life

Zoe R. Todd, Nicholas F. Wogan,David C. Catling

ACS EARTH AND SPACE CHEMISTRY(2024)

引用 0|浏览2
暂无评分
摘要
Cyanide and its derivatives play important roles in prebiotic chemistry through a variety of possible mechanisms. In particular, cyanide has been shown to allow for the synthesis of ribonucleotides and amino acids. Although dissolved hydrogen cyanide can be lost as a gas or undergo hydrolysis reactions, cyanide can also potentially be stored and stockpiled as ferrocyanide (Fe(CN)(6) (-4)), which is more stable. Furthermore, ferrocyanide aids in some prebiotic synthetic reactions. Here, we investigate the formation rates and yields of ferrocyanide as a function of various environmental parameters, such as the pH, temperature, and concentration. We find that ferrocyanide formation rates and yields are optimal at slightly alkaline conditions (pH 8-9) and moderate temperatures (approximate to 20-30 C-degrees). Given the wide range of possible lake environments likely available on early Earth, our results help to constrain the environmental conditions that would favor cyanide- and ferrocyanide-based prebiotic chemistries. We construct lake box models and find that ferrocyanide may be able to form and reach significant concentrations for prebiotic chemistry on the time scale of years under favorable conditions.
更多
查看译文
关键词
ferrocyanide,prebioticchemistry,early earth,origins of life,cyanide
AI 理解论文
溯源树
样例
生成溯源树,研究论文发展脉络
Chat Paper
正在生成论文摘要