There is much interest surrounding the origins of organic molecules that are necessary for life. These organics are ubiquitous as they are found everywhere from the interstellar medium to meteorites recovered from the surface of the Earth. One process that leads to the synthesis of these compounds (working in tandem with many other processes) is through shock-catalyzed synthesis during the impact of extraterrestrial bodies with the earth. This project aims to identify compounds produced in shock experiments that are meant to simulate meteoric impacts with Earth. The shock experiments were conducted on mixtures of glycolaldehyde (GLA) with a montmorillonite clay. After silylation, experimental samples were analyzed by GC/MS. Proposed products were also silylated and analyzed by GC/MS. The reference spectra were compared to experimental spectra to confirm the presence or absence of proposed products. Focus for this research has been placed mostly on shock experiments involving a GLA/F Clay (1:20) mixture. F Clay is a montmorillonite-rich bentonite clay. The mixture was shocked at three different pressures: 5, 12, and 19 GPa with the flat-plate accelerator at the Johnson Space Center. Glycolic acid and ethylene glycol were synthesized in previous experiments which utilized C Clay instead of F Clay. A minute amount of glycolic acid was found in the unshocked F Clay control but no glycolic acid was found in the experimental F Clay samples. No ethylene glycol was found in either unshocked control or the experimental samples. This research has been a great first step in identifying the unknown products produced in these shock experiments. Our findings also have implications for mineral directed prebiotic synthesis as demonstrated by the montmorillonite clays utilized in these experiments.

Identification of unknown compounds produced in shock experiments

255th National Meeting (2018)

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