Unstable carbon compounds in space? A new discovery may explain the cosmic origins of life 

Researchers at the University of Maryland have developed a new method to produce unstable carbon compounds, specifically hydroxymethylene, using UV rays to break down methanol. This discovery not only explains the formation of carbon compounds on the surface of the earth, but also suggests a possible spontaneous appearance in space, and may contribute to the formation of the building blocks of life such as sugars

Chemists have developed a method to create unstable carbon compounds from methanol, improving our understanding of the formation of molecules essential to life.

A team of chemists from the University of Maryland has developed a new method for creating carbenes, carbon compounds that react quickly and are unstable. These are carbon compounds that are involved in many high-energy chemical reactions, such as the formation of carbohydrates, and are essential to the building blocks of life on Earth—and perhaps in space as well.

In their study, published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, the scientists were able to create a carbon compound called hydroxymethylene (HCOH) by decomposing methanol, a common organic solvent found in many industrial chemicals such as formaldehyde) using pulses of UV radiation.

"It's surprising to see this carbon compound coming from such an ordinary molecule as methanol—we have spray bottles of it in labs everywhere," said Leah Dodson, senior lecturer in chemistry and biochemistry at UMD and lead author of the paper. "UV lasers with a wavelength of 193 nanometers are also quite standard. This means that these carbon compounds may form naturally in places like space, where there is a lot of methanol and UV radiation. And additional processes of carbon compounds formed in space in this process can lead to biological molecules that make up life."

from methanol to hydroxymethylol

This figure depicts the chemical structure of methanol breaking down to hydroxymethylene (HCOH), a fundamental and essential molecule for the building blocks of life.

These findings explain the mechanism behind the formation and reaction of carbon compounds on Earth, leading to a better understanding of the molecule's potential to form sugars necessary for life.

"There is research that has shown that HCOH can react to form simple sugars, including some that have already been identified in space," said the paper's lead author, Emily Hockey. "We think it's possible that this carbon compound, coming from a molecule so common in space and detectable everywhere, is the missing piece that bridges the gaps in our knowledge of how methanol and simple sugars can lead to larger, more advanced biological molecules."

Surprising findings on the reactivity of carbon molecules

Because of their high reactivity, carbon molecules generally have a very short lifetime. These properties usually make it difficult for scientists to produce and observe them, making it difficult to understand the molecule. However, the UMD team's new method of extracting the carbon compounds allowed them to study the molecules closely enough to see their formation and decay over millisecond timescales. The researchers were surprised to find that HCOH reacted relatively slowly with oxygen at room temperature.

"When we looked at the reactivity of HCOH in the system at room temperature, we saw that it decomposed within 15 milliseconds," Hockey explained. "What's interesting is that since these carbon compounds are considered unstable molecules and react quickly, we would expect them to react with oxygen quickly, but that's not what happened. Although the carbon compounds broke down faster when exposed to oxygen, it was slow enough that we were still able to observe it."

Future research directions and implications

The researchers believe that their method for producing and studying carbon compounds will help astronomers and cosmic chemists gain new insights into the origins of life and how life in space might have evolved differently from life on Earth. They hope to continue the research direction and look closely at what happens during the decomposition of methanol and measure the various products obtained from the reaction of methanol with UV radiation.

"We know that carbon compounds such as HCOH are formed during our process, but we want to find out what percentage of it ends up as formaldehyde, methylene or other hydroxyl radicals, for example," Hockey explained. "In the beginning, we thought that all the products would be radical. Our experiments show that the process and the resulting products are more complex than our original assumptions."

Knowing the types and number of products obtained from the decomposition of methanol using UV radiation will provide astronomers and cosmic chemists with a more accurate picture of astrophysical objects and how they have evolved over billions of years.

"If the existing data on the products of methanol decomposition under UV light are incorrect, then the models built on them will also be incorrect—and our understanding of how life evolved from these molecules can also be compromised," said Dodson. "We hope in our research to lay the foundations for these kinds of models."

More of the topic in Hayadan:

• When Red Dwarfs Attack: High-energy UV radiation from stellar emissions can be life-threatening 
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