Issue 30, 2016

Is formamide a geochemically plausible prebiotic solvent?

Abstract

From a geochemical perspective, significant amounts of pure formamide (HCONH2) would have likely been rare on the early Earth. There may have been mixed formamide–water solutions, but even in the presence of catalyst, solutions with >20 weight% water in formamide would not have produced significant amounts of prebiotic compounds. It might be feasible to produce relatively pure formamide by a rare occurrence of freezing formamide/water mixtures at temperatures lower than formamide's freezing point (2.55 °C) but greater than the freezing point of water. Because of the high density of formamide ice it would have sunk and accumulated at the bottom of the solution. If the remaining water froze on the surface of this ice, and was then removed by a sublimation–ablation process, a small amount of pure formamide ice might have been produced. In addition a recent report suggested that ∼85 weight% formamide could be prepared by a geochemical type of fractional distillation process, offering another possible route for prebiotic formamide production.

Graphical abstract: Is formamide a geochemically plausible prebiotic solvent?

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Perspective
Submitted
14 5 2016
Accepted
24 5 2016
First published
24 5 2016

Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2016,18, 20085-20090

Is formamide a geochemically plausible prebiotic solvent?

J. L. Bada, J. H. Chalmers and H. J. Cleaves, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2016, 18, 20085 DOI: 10.1039/C6CP03290G

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