Corrigendum: TiO2-catalyzed synthesis of sugars from formaldehyde in extraterrestrial impacts on the early Earth.
Scientific reports 6 (2016) 27962
Photocatalytic transformation of CO2 to CH4 and CO on acidic surface of TiO2 anatase
Optical Materials Elsevier BV 56 (2016) 80-83
TiO2-catalyzed synthesis of sugars from formaldehyde in extraterrestrial impacts on the early Earth.
Scientific reports 6 (2016) 23199
Abstract:
Recent synthetic efforts aimed at reconstructing the beginning of life on our planet point at the plausibility of scenarios fueled by extraterrestrial energy sources. In the current work we show that beyond nucleobases the sugar components of the first informational polymers can be synthesized in this way. We demonstrate that a laser-induced high-energy chemistry combined with TiO2 catalysis readily produces a mixture of pentoses, among them ribose, arabinose and xylose. This chemistry might be highly relevant to the Late Heavy Bombardment period of Earth's history about 4-3.85 billion years ago. In addition, we present an in-depth theoretical analysis of the most challenging step of the reaction pathway, i.e., the TiO2-catalyzed dimerization of formaldehyde leading to glycolaldehyde.Spontaneous Oxygen Isotope Exchange between Carbon Dioxide and Oxygen-Containing Minerals: Do the Minerals “Breathe” CO2?
The Journal of Physical Chemistry C American Chemical Society (ACS) 120:1 (2016) 508-516
Meteorite-catalyzed synthesis of nucleosides and other prebiotic compounds.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 112:23 (2015) 7109-7110