Clays as prebiotic photocatalystsClay minerals catalyze peptide bond formation in fluctuating environments. A number of plausible mechanisms have been proposed and tested. The possibility that clays may actually be energizing the reaction by means of electronic excitation, creating mobile or trapped holes and electrons in the lattice, is explored. It has been discovered that clays emit light upon dehydration. The correlation between dehydration-induced, or thermoluminescent, processes and the yield of glycine oligomers after treatments known to affect the luminescent yields is being tested, in an effort to understand the catalytic mechanism
Document ID
19820037381
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Conference Proceedings
Authors
Coyne, L. M. (NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA, United States)
Lawless, J. (NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA, United States)
Lahav, N. (Jerusalem, Hebrew University Rehovot, Israel)
Sutton, S. (Washington University St. Louis, MO, United States)
Sweeney, M. (Santa Clara, University Santa Clara, CA, United States)