The only known phosphorus-containing organic compounds of extraterrestrial origin, alkylphosphonic acids, were discovered in the Murchison meteorite and have accelerated the hypothesis that reduced oxidation states of phosphorus were delivered to early Earth and served as a prebiotic source of phosphorus. While previous studies looking into the formation of these alkylphosphonic acids have focused on the iron-nickel phosphide mineral schreibersite and phosphorous acid as a source of phosphorus, this work utilizes phosphine (PH3), which has been discovered in the circumstellar envelope of IRC +10216, in the atmosphere of Jupiter and Saturn, and believed to be the phosphorus carrier in comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Phosphine ices prepared with interstellar molecules such as carbon dioxide, water, and methane were subjected to electron irradiation, which simulates the secondary electrons produced from galactic cosmic rays penetrating the ice, and probed using infrared spectroscopy to understand the possible formation of alkylphosphonic acids and their precursors on interstellar icy grains that could become incorporated into meteorites such as Murchison. We present the first study and results on the possible synthesis of alkylphosphonic acids produced from phosphine-mixed ices under interstellar conditions. All functional groups of alkylphosphonic acids were detected through infrared spectroscopically, suggesting that this class of molecules can be formed in interstellar ices.

中文翻译：

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关于外星环境中烷基膦酸及其前体形成的红外光谱研究。


唯一已知的地外来源的含磷有机化合物——烷基膦酸，是在默奇森陨石中发现的，并加速了磷的还原氧化态被传递到早期地球并作为磷的生命起源来源的假设。虽然之前对这些烷基膦酸形成的研究主要集中在铁镍磷化物矿物施赖贝石和亚磷酸作为磷的来源，但这项工作利用了磷化氢 (PH3)，它是在 IRC +10216 的星周包膜中发现的，存在于木星和土星的大气层中，被认为是 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko 彗星中的磷载体。用二氧化碳、水和甲烷等星际分子制备的磷化氢冰受到电子辐照，模拟银河宇宙射线穿透冰产生的二次电子，并利用红外光谱进行探测，以了解烷基膦酸的可能形成及其星际冰粒上的前体可能会融入默奇森等陨石中。我们提出了关于在星际条件下由磷化氢混合冰生产烷基膦酸的可能合成的第一项研究和结果。通过红外光谱检测到烷基膦酸的所有官能团，表明此类分子可以在星际冰中形成。