Bilateral surface active minerals as selective concentrators, catalysts,
and cells in putative prebiotic reactions - dynamics and energetics
Gustaf Arrhenius and Siew Ung

Scripps Institution of Oceanography,
University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093-0220, USA

ABSTRACT

Expanding sheet structure minerals have proven effective in mediating several crucial steps in chemical evolution. They open pathways to five basic problems in prebiotic chemistry. These are: first, to bring necessarily highly dilute potential reactants from dilute solution into reactive state at high concentration (~10M) in the mineral interlayer. Second; this concentration process is selective - essential polar- and charged species are withdrawn from a presumed pool of potentially interfering molecules. Third; the catalytic properties of these minerals facilitate constructive reactions such as aldol condensation leading to the formation of nucleoside phosphates including, selectively, ribose-2,4-diphosphate, and to the oligomerization of nucleotides. Fourth; they provide protection against hydrolysis of sensitive species in the interstitial solution contained by the molecular sheets of the minerals. Fifth; this encapsulated solution of charged and polar reactants stands in diffusive contact with the surroundings through the slit-shaped pores provided by the openings at the crystal edges - the mineral with its reactive internal multicomponent solution may function as a first primitive cell.

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