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Saha A, Yi R, Fahrenbach AC, Wang A, Jia TZ. A Physicochemical Consideration of Prebiotic Microenvironments for Self-Assembly and Prebiotic Chemistry. Life (Basel) 2022; 12:1595. [PMID: 36295030 PMCID: PMC9604842 DOI: 10.3390/life12101595] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/17/2022] [Revised: 10/07/2022] [Accepted: 10/08/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022] Open
Abstract
The origin of life on Earth required myriads of chemical and physical processes. These include the formation of the planet and its geological structures, the formation of the first primitive chemicals, reaction, and assembly of these primitive chemicals to form more complex or functional products and assemblies, and finally the formation of the first cells (or protocells) on early Earth, which eventually evolved into modern cells. Each of these processes presumably occurred within specific prebiotic reaction environments, which could have been diverse in physical and chemical properties. While there are resources that describe prebiotically plausible environments or nutrient availability, here, we attempt to aggregate the literature for the various physicochemical properties of different prebiotic reaction microenvironments on early Earth. We introduce a handful of properties that can be quantified through physical or chemical techniques. The values for these physicochemical properties, if they are known, are then presented for each reaction environment, giving the reader a sense of the environmental variability of such properties. Such a resource may be useful for prebiotic chemists to understand the range of conditions in each reaction environment, or to select the medium most applicable for their targeted reaction of interest for exploratory studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Arpita Saha
- Blue Marble Space Institute of Science, 600 1st Ave, Floor 1, Seattle, WA 98104, USA
- Amity Institute of Applied Sciences, Amity University, Kolkata 700135, India
| | - Ruiqin Yi
- Earth-Life Science Institute, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2-12-1-IE-1 Ookayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8550, Japan
| | - Albert C. Fahrenbach
- School of Chemistry, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
- Australian Centre for Astrobiology, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
- UNSW RNA Institute, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
| | - Anna Wang
- School of Chemistry, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
- Australian Centre for Astrobiology, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
- UNSW RNA Institute, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
| | - Tony Z. Jia
- Blue Marble Space Institute of Science, 600 1st Ave, Floor 1, Seattle, WA 98104, USA
- Earth-Life Science Institute, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2-12-1-IE-1 Ookayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8550, Japan
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Rahman Z, Das SK. Ionic Liquids based Acid‐base Indicators for Aqueous to the Non‐Aqueous Medium: An Overview. ChemistrySelect 2021. [DOI: 10.1002/slct.202102273] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Ziaur Rahman
- Department of Chemistry University of North Bengal West Bengal India- 734013
| | - Sudhir Kumar Das
- Department of Chemistry University of North Bengal West Bengal India- 734013
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Kahlert H, Leito I. Generalization of Acid-Base Diagrams Based on the Unified pH-Scale. Chemphyschem 2019; 20:1779-1785. [PMID: 31087622 PMCID: PMC7003793 DOI: 10.1002/cphc.201900388] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/16/2019] [Revised: 05/13/2019] [Indexed: 11/13/2022]
Abstract
So far, pH‐lgci diagrams have been exclusively used for the theoretical description of acid‐base equilibria in aqueous solutions. Here, this approach is extended to include acid‐base equilibria in nonaqueous non‐hydrogen‐bond‐donor (non‐HBD) solvents following the acid‐base theory of Brønsted and Lowry, and using a unified pH scale (pHabs scale). This way, it is possible to estimate the approximate concentrations of all the species involved in acid‐base equilibria in a solution at any solution acidity pH(HS)
, and vice versa. The diagrams are excellent to illustrate the differences in behavior of species involved in the solution equilibria in different solvents, for example, an aqueous solution of acetic acid is an acidic solution; however, the same concentration of acetic acid in DMSO has a pHabsH2O
value of about 10.6, that is, it is a basic solution with reference to the aqueous pH scale.
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Affiliation(s)
- Heike Kahlert
- Institute of Biochemistry, University of Greifswald, Felix-Hausdorff-Str. 4, 17487, Greifswald, Germany
| | - Ivo Leito
- Institute of Chemistry, University of Tartu, Ravila 14a, 50411, Tartu, Eesti
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