Origin of organic matter in the early solar system. VII - The organic polymer in carbonaceous chondrites

Degradation techniques, including pyrolysis, depolymerization, and oxidation, were used to study the insoluble polymer from the Murchison C2 chondrite. Oxidation with Cr2O7(2-) or O2/UV led to the identification of 15 aromatic ring systems. Of 11 aliphatic acids identified, three dicarboxylic acids presumably came from hydroaromatic portions of the polymer, whereas eight monocarboxylic acids probably derive from bridging groups or ring substituents. Depolymerization with CF3COO4 yielded some of the same ring systems, as well as alkanes (C1 through C8) and alkenes (C2 through C8), alkyl (C1 through C5) benzenes and naphthalenes, and methyl- or dimethyl -indene, -indane, -phenol, -pyrrole, and -pyridine. All these compounds were detected below 200 C, and are therefore probably indigenous constituents. The properties of the meteoritic polymer were compared with the properties of a synthetic polymer produced by the Fischer-Tropsch reaction. It is suggested that the meteoritic polymer was also produced by surface catalysis.