Primitive planetary materials are key to understand origin and evolution of our Solar System. Extraterrestrial materials such as meteorites are valuable samples that record information of the early solar system. Primitive extraterrestrial materials contain a wide variety of organic matter including amino acids, and most of them are complex macromolecular organic matter (known as insoluble organic matter, IOM) that do not have a defined molecular structure. The organic matter has formed and evolved at various stages of the solar system formation, such as molecular clouds, protoplanetary disks, and small bodies—some of them may have become raw materials for origin of life. In particular, aqueous alteration and thermal metamorphism in the small bodies—the final evolutionary stage of planetary materials—could be the most important stages that determine the final form of organic matter. However, understanding the formation and evolution of organic matter was limited due to the limitation of primitive samples, as well as analytical techniques for trace amounts of organic matter.<br/>Classical methods to analyze trace organics in meteorites are solvent extraction and acid demineralization. The spatial contexts, however, were lost by these methods. To understand chemical and physical processes of organic matter, fine scale observations of planetary materials are mandatory, including morphology and spatial relationship between organics and minerals. Infrared (IR) spectroscopy is a powerful tool for both organics and inorganics, but its spatial resolution is limited to a few micrometers due to the diffraction limit of IR. We have applied a state-of-the-art atomic force microscope (AFM)-based IR spectroscopy for meteorite samples, to overcome the diffraction limit of IR. Organic-phyllosilicate associations and functional group heterogeneities were observed at ~30 nm spatial resolution in meteorites by AFM-IR. We are optimizing the methodology of this techniques for further analyses of planetary materials aiming to develop the organic petrology to understand the chemical and physical processes of organic matter, as well as for analysis of future returned samples by Hayabusa2.

AFM-IR for “organic petrology” in complex planetary materials

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

[Author Benefits](https://scimeetings.acs.org/?utm_source=pubs_content_marketing&utm_medium=website&utm_campaign=0320_MCF_NPI_Launch_Spring_Homepage&ref=pubs_content_marketing)

[How to use SciMeetings](https://storage.googleapis.com/dl.morressier.com/acs/SciMeetings-ACSSpring2020-HowToGuide_M3020-Final.pdf)

[Frequently Asked Questions](https://storage.googleapis.com/dl.morressier.com/acs/SciMtng_ACSNMSp2020_FAQ_M3120_Final.pdf)

ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.