Carbonaceous meteorites contributed polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) to the organic inventory of the primordial Earth where they may have reacted on catalytic clay mineral surfaces to produce quinones capable of functioning as redox species in emergent biomolecular systems. To address the feasibility of this hypothesis, we assessed the kinetics of anthracene (1) conversion to 9,10-anthraquinone (2) in the presence of montmorillonite clay (MONT) over the temperature range 25 to 250 °C. Apparent rates of conversion were concentration independent and displayed a sigmoidal relationship with temperature, and conversion efficiencies ranged from 0.027 to 0.066%. Conversion was not detectable in the absence of MONT or a sufficiently high oxidation potential (in this case, molecular oxygen (O2)). These results suggest a scenario in which meteoritic 1 and MONT interactions could yield biologically important quinones in prebiotic planetary environments.

中文翻译：

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在益生元化学的背景下研究蒙脱土粘土催化的蒽向9,10-蒽醌转化的动力学。

碳质陨石在原始地球的有机物质中贡献了多环芳烃（PAH），它们在催化的粘土矿物表面上可能发生反应，生成能够在新兴生物分子系统中用作氧化还原物质的醌。为了解决该假设的可行性，我们在25至250°C的温度范围内，在存在蒙脱土（MONT）的情况下，评估了蒽（1）转化为9,10-蒽醌（2）的动力学。表观转化率与浓度无关，并且与温度呈S形关系，转化效率为0.027％至0.066％。在没有MONT或氧化电位足够高（在这种情况下为分子氧（O2））的情况下，无法检测到转化。