Common Mineral Capable Of Making, Breaking Bonds

Image Caption: A team of ASU researchers has demonstrated that a particular mineral, sphalerite, can affect the most fundamental process in organic chemistry: carbon-hydrogen bond breaking and making. This is a sample of gem-quality sphalerite in a quartz matrix. Credit: Tom Sharp

Arizona State University

ASU team shows evidence for one mineral affecting the most fundamental process in organic chemistry: Carbon-hydrogen bond breaking and making

Reactions among minerals and organic compounds in hydrothermal environments are critical components of the Earths deep carbon cycle, they provide energy for the deep biosphere, and may have implications for the origins of life. However, very little is known about how minerals influence organic reactions. A team of researchers from Arizona State University have demonstrated how a common mineral acts as a catalysts for specific hydrothermal organic reactions negating the need for toxic solvents or expensive reagents.

At the heart of organic chemistry, aka carbon chemistry, is the covalent carbon-hydrogen bond (CH bond) a fundamental link between carbon and hydrogen atoms found in nearly every organic compound.

The essential ingredients controlling chemical reactions of organic compounds in hydrothermal systems are the organic molecules, hot pressurized water, and minerals, but a mechanistic understanding of how minerals influence hydrothermal organic reactivity has been virtually nonexistent.

The ASU team set out to understand how different minerals affect hydrothermal organic reactions and found that a common sulfide mineral (ZnS, or Sphalerite) cleanly catalyzes a fundamental chemical reaction the making and breaking of a C-H bond.

Their findings are published in the July 28 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The paper was written by a transdisciplinary team of ASU researchers that includes: Jessie Shipp (2013 PhD in Chemistry & Biochemistry), Ian Gould, Lynda Williams, Everett Shock, and Hilairy Hartnett. The work was funded by the National Science Foundation.

Typically you wouldnt expect water and an organic hydrocarbon to react. If you place an alkane in water and add some mineral its probably just going to sit there and do nothing, explains first author Shipp. But at high temperature and pressure, water behaves more like an organic solvent, the thermodynamics of reactions change, and suddenly reactions that are impossible on the bench-top start becoming possible. And its all using naturally occurring components at conditions that can be found in past and present hydrothermal systems.

A mineral in the mix

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Common Mineral Capable Of Making, Breaking Bonds