Dresden 2017 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 49: Physics of the Genesis of Life - Focus Session organized by Moritz Kreysing and Dieter Braun
BP 49.10: Vortrag
Donnerstag, 23. März 2017, 12:15–12:30, SCH A251
Spontaneous emergence of chemical oscillation of oligomers in a primordial broth — •Sabrina Scherer1, Eva Wollrab2, Varun Giri1, Luca Codutti3, Teresa Carlomagno3, and Albrecht Ott1 — 1Biologische Experimentalphysik, Universität des Saarlandes, Saarbrücken, Germany — 2Laboratory of Microbial Morphogenesis and Growth, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France — 3Centre of Biomolecular Drug Research, Leibniz University, Hannover, Germany
We study the dynamics of a complex chemical system, driven by electric discharge that forms from a gas mixture of methane and ammonia in the presence of water. In the course of a running experiment, a hydrophobic organic layer emerges besides the hydrophilic aqueous phase and the gaseous phase that were initially present. The hydrophilic phase contains at least a few thousands of different molecules, primarily distributed in a range of 50 and 500Da. Using real-time mass spectrometry, we observe the spontaneous emergence and disappearance of oligomeric surfactants. Strong non-linearities are required for the observed aperiodic chemical oscillations. The phenomenon is robust against different gas compositions and concentrations, temperatures and many details of the experimental set-up. In contrast, NMR spectroscopy reveals overall high chemical variability that suggests strong non-linearities due to interdependent, sequential reaction steps. We find that oxidation, or doping with small amounts of an active broth can trigger the production of the oligomers. We suggest that surface active molecules perform phase transfer catalysis in the oil/water mixture and self-organize to a spontaneously emerging autocatalytic network.