Astrochemistry

Chiral 480nm Absorption In The Hemoglycin Space Polymer

By Keith Cowing
physics.chem-ph
March 14, 2022
Filed under
Chiral 480nm Absorption In The Hemoglycin Space Polymer
Lattice form of the polymer [5] built of modified core units, here at 1638Da, linked by silicon atoms. The tetrahedral angles have been confirmed in X-ray scattering. Space filling model. Atoms: hydrogen white, carbon black, nitrogen blue, oxygen red, iron green, silicon pink.

A 1494 Dalton hemoglycin space polymer of Glycine18 Hydroxy-glycine4 Fe2O4 termed the core unit is part of a polymer of Glycine, Si, Fe and O that forms tubes, vesicles and a lattice structure isolated from CV3 meteorites and characterized by mass spectrometry, FIB/SIMS and X-ray analysis.

In Hartree-Fock calculations the polymer has an absorption of blue light at 480nm that is dependent on rectus R (= dextro D) chirality in a hydroxy-glycine residue whose C-terminus is bonded to an iron atom. The absorption originates in the Fe II state as a consequence of chiral symmetry breaking. The infrared spectrum is presented. We discuss how the core unit could have been selected 4.5 billion years ago in our protoplanetary disc by blue light from the early sun.

Julie E M McGeoch, Malcolm W McGeoch

Comments: 14 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables
Subjects: Chemical Physics (physics.chem-ph); Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)
Cite as: arXiv:2203.06130 [physics.chem-ph] (or arXiv:2203.06130v1 [physics.chem-ph] for this version)
From: Julie McGeoch
[v1] Wed, 9 Mar 2022 16:56:09 UTC (2,584 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.06130
Astrobiology, Astrochemistry,

Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Station Payload manager/space biologist, Away Teams, Journalist, Lapsed climber, Synaesthete, Na’Vi-Jedi-Freman-Buddhist-mix, ASL, Devon Island and Everest Base Camp veteran, (he/him) 🖖🏻