Abstract
Space missions using probes to return dust samples are becoming more frequent. Dust collectors made of silica aerogel blocks are used to trap and bring back extraterrestrial particles for analysis. In this work, we show that it is possible to detect traces of adenine using surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). The method was first optimized using adenine deposition on glass slides and in glass wells. After this preliminary step, adenine solution was injected into the silica aerogel. Finally, gaseous adenine was successfully trapped in the aerogel. The presence of traces of adenine was monitored by SERS through its characteristic bands at 732, 1323, and 1458 cm−1 after the addition of the silver Creighton colloid. Such a method can be extended in the frame of Tanpopo missions for studying the interplanetary transfer of prebiotic organic compounds of biological interest.
Highlights
How and where did life originate? Water, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, methane, and dinitrogen molecules present in the atmosphere of the primitive Earth might have reacted to form organogenic molecules, such as ammonia, hydrogen cyanide, formaldehyde, acetonitrile, cyanogen, and cyanoacetylene
This approach proved impossible to implement with aqueous solutions, due to very little wetting of the aerogel by water: the drop introduced with a syringe into the aerogel was immediately rejected
This hydrophobicity problem had to be overcome for SERS, since an aqueous solution must be used for the addition of the Creighton colloid and the salt solution
Summary
How and where did life originate? Water, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, methane, and dinitrogen molecules present in the atmosphere of the primitive Earth might have reacted to form organogenic molecules, such as ammonia, hydrogen cyanide, formaldehyde, acetonitrile, cyanogen, and cyanoacetylene. Cosmic rays, ionizing reactions, electric discharges, mechanical and radioactive processes could have induced ion-molecule and radical reactions. From these molecules, the formation of the elementary building blocks of life, which are amino acids, nucleic acid bases, as well as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and derivatives, could be explained [1,2,3,4]. The formation of the elementary building blocks of life, which are amino acids, nucleic acid bases, as well as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and derivatives, could be explained [1,2,3,4] These compounds may have been delivered on the primitive Earth by extraterrestrial dusts, comets, meteorites, etc. Deamer [6,7], Deamer and Pashley [8], Oro et al [4], and Vergne et al [9], showed that carbonaceous chondrites contain a wide variety of molecules of biological interest
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
