HCN polymers, resulting from the polymerization of hydrogen cyanide (HCN) molecules, are considered to have profound implications for prebiotic chemistry, and contribute to the carbonaceous components in many bodies of the solar system. Titan tholins, the Titan haze analogs, are produced in the laboratory to understand Titan's organic chemistry and the prebiotic potentials.  Both materials are complex organic compounds, and HCN polymers are proposed to be constituents of tholins. However, their definitive organic structure and composition still remains unclear. Here, we employ multinuclear and multidimensional NMR spectroscopy to investigate the structure of these two materials with 13C and 15N isotopic enrichment. From the NMR analysis, we identify the most concentrated small molecules and also obtain the structural features of polymeric compounds in both materials. We determine that the chemical composition of tholins is more complex than HCN polymers, and HCN polymers appear as minor components of Titan tholins.

Structure and composition of HCN polymers and Titan tholins: Multinuclear and multidimensional NMR investigation

245th National Meeting (2013)

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