Researchers utilized innovative X-ray spectroscopy to understand how ionized urea molecules might have contributed to the origins of life on Earth, leading the way for improvements in attochemistry. Above is a representation of photoionization-induced proton transfer between two urea molecules in a liquid urea service. Credit: Ludger Inhester
A new technology has provided novel insights into the long-standing mystery: how did life in the world come from?
Before life emerged on our world, during what scientists refer to as the pre-biotic phase, the atmosphere was less thick. This suggested that high-energy radiation from space was universal and ionized particles. Some assume that little water puddles including urea– a natural compound important for forming nucleo bases– ended up being exposed to this extreme radiation, causing the urea to undergo conversion into response items. These would function as the structure blocks of life: DNA and RNA.
But to get more information about this process, scientists needed to dive even more into the mechanism behind the ureas ionization and reaction, as well as the reaction paths and energy dissipation.
Scientists used innovative X-ray spectroscopy to understand how ionized urea molecules might have contributed to the origins of life on Earth, paving the way for improvements in attochemistry. Above is a representation of photoionization-induced proton transfer in between 2 urea molecules in a liquid urea service. Some assume that small water puddles consisting of urea– a natural compound vital for forming nucleo bases– ended up being exposed to this intense radiation, causing the urea to go through conversion into reaction products.” We have shown for the very first time how urea molecules react after ionization,” states Yin.
A worldwide collaborative group comprising corresponding author Zhong Yin, presently based as an associate teacher at Tohoku Universitys International Center for Synchrotron Radiation Innovation Smart (SRIS), together with coworkers from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and ETH Zurich (ETHZ), and the University of Hamburg, have had the ability to expose more thanks to an ingenious X-ray spectroscopy technique.
The technology, which harnessed a high-harmonic generation source of light and a sub-micron liquid flat-jet, allowed scientists to examine chain reactions happening in liquids with unrivaled temporal accuracy. Crucially, the groundbreaking method enabled the researchers to examine the complex changes in urea molecules at the femtosecond level, which is a quadrillionth part of a second.
” We have revealed for the very first time how urea particles react after ionization,” states Yin. “Ionisation radiation damages the urea biomolecules. In dissipating the energy from the radiation, the ureas go through a dynamical process which takes place at the femtosecond time scale.”
Previous research studies that took a look at molecule reactions were limited to the gas phase. In order to broaden this to the aqueous environment, which is the natural surroundings of bio-chemical processes, the group had to engineer a device that could create an ultra-thin liquid jet, with a density smaller than one millionth of a meter, within a vacuum. A thicker jet would have hampered measurements by taking in a part of the X-rays used.
Yin, who acted as lead experimentalist, thinks their development does more than address how life on Earth formed. “Shorter light pulses are required to understand chemical reactions in real-time and press the boundaries in attochemistry.
Referral: “Femtosecond proton transfer in urea options penetrated by X-ray spectroscopy” by Zhong Yin, Yi-Ping Chang, Tadas Balčiūnas, Yashoj Shakya, Aleksa Djorović, Geoffrey Gaulier, Giuseppe Fazio, Robin Santra, Ludger Inhester, Jean-Pierre Wolf and Hans Jakob Wörner, 28 June 2023, Nature.DOI: 10.1038/ s41586-023-06182-6.