Profiling Murchison Soluble Organic Matter for New Organic Compounds with APPI- and ESI-FT-ICR MS.

Jasmine Hertzog,Hiroshi Naraoka,Philippe Schmitt-Kopplin

doi:10.3390/life9020048

Abstract

The investigation of the abundant organic matter in primitive meteorite such as carbonaceous chondrites is of major interest in the field of origin of life. In this study, the soluble organic fraction of the Murchison meteorite was analyzed by atmospheric pressure photoionization (APPI) and electrospray ionization (ESI) Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR MS), in both detection modes. Such an approach ensured that we obtained an extensive description of the organic matter of the CM2 meteorite. Indeed, while in total close to 16,000 unique features were assigned, only 4% are common to all analyses, illustrating the complementarity of both the detection modes and the ionization sources. ESI FT-ICR MS analysis, in negative-ion mode, ensured to observe specifically CHOS and CHNOS species, whereas the positive-ion mode is more dedicated to the detection of CHNO and CHN species. Moreover, new organomagnesium components were observed in (+) ESI. Eventually, (+) APPI FT-ICR MS analysis was a preferred method for the detection of less polar or nonpolar species such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons but also heteroatom aromatic species composing the organic matter of Murchison.

Highlights

Carbonaceous chondrites are an important subset of meteorites
The description of the chemical composition of the soluble organic matter of the Murchison meteorite by (−) electrospray ionization (ESI) FT-ICR MS was already studied by Schmitt-Kopplin et al [3,20] and Hertkorn et al [8]
In our analysis close to 11600 features were assigned from the analysis of the Murchison in (−) ESI

Summary

Introduction

Carbonaceous chondrites are an important subset of meteorites. Among this class of meteorite, primitive objects of the solar system can be described with chemical composition comparable to those of the sun. According to the petrographic type and elemental and isotopic compositions, different sub-classes can be distinguished among the carbonaceous chondrites, (i.e., CI, CM, CK, CV, CB, and CR). Its organic chemistry has been extensively studied by performing some solvent extraction of the soluble fraction of the meteorite. This latter process is done by crushing the material with single or several solvents of different polarity [3]

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