Recovery of Fatty Acids from Mineralogic Mars Analogs by TMAH Thermochemolysis for the Sample Analysis at Mars Wet Chemistry Experiment on the Curiosity Rover.

Recovery of Fatty Acids from Mineralogic Mars Analogs by TMAH Thermochemolysis for the Sample Analysis at Mars Wet Chemistry Experiment on the Curiosity Rover.

Williams, Amy J;Eigenbrode, Jennifer;Floyd, Melissa;Wilhelm, Mary Beth;O'Reilly, Shane;Johnson, Sarah Stewart;Craft, Kathleen L;Knudson, Christine A;Andrejkovičová, Slavka;Lewis, James M T;Buch, Arnaud;Glavin, Daniel P;Freissinet, Caroline;Williams, Ross H;Szopa, Cyril;Millan, Maëva;Summons, Roger E;McAdam, Amy;Benison, Kathleen;Navarro-González, Rafael;Malespin, Charles;Mahaffy, Paul R;
astrobiology 2019 Vol. 19 pp. 522-546
274
williams2019recoveryastrobiology

Abstract

The Mars Curiosity rover carries a diverse instrument payload to characterize habitable environments in the sedimentary layers of Aeolis Mons. One of these instruments is Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM), which contains a mass spectrometer that is capable of detecting organic compounds via pyrolysis gas chromatography mass spectrometry (py-GC-MS). To identify polar organic molecules, the SAM instrument carries the thermochemolysis reagent tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH) in methanol (hereafter referred to as TMAH). TMAH can liberate fatty acids bound in macromolecules or chemically bound monomers associated with mineral phases and make these organics detectable via gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) by methylation. Fatty acids, a type of carboxylic acid that contains a carboxyl functional group, are of particular interest given their presence in both biotic and abiotic materials. This work represents the first analyses of a suite of Mars-analog samples using the TMAH experiment under select SAM-like conditions. Samples analyzed include iron oxyhydroxides and iron oxyhydroxysulfates, a mixture of iron oxides/oxyhydroxides and clays, iron sulfide, siliceous sinter, carbonates, and shale. The TMAH experiments produced detectable signals under SAM-like pyrolysis conditions when organics were present either at high concentrations or in geologically modern systems. Although only a few analog samples exhibited a high abundance and variety of fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs), FAMEs were detected in the majority of analog samples tested. When utilized, the TMAH thermochemolysis experiment on SAM could be an opportunity to detect organic molecules bound in macromolecules on Mars. The detection of a FAME profile is of great astrobiological interest, as it could provide information regarding the source of martian organic material detected by SAM.

Citation

ID: 3599
Ref Key: williams2019recoveryastrobiology
Use this key to autocite in SciMatic or Thesis Manager

References

Blockchain Verification

Account:
NFT Contract Address:
0x95644003c57E6F55A65596E3D9Eac6813e3566dA
Article ID:
3599
Unique Identifier:
10.1089/ast.2018.1819
Network:
Scimatic Chain (ID: 481)
Loading...
Blockchain Readiness Checklist
Authors
Abstract
Journal Name
Year
Title
5/5
Creates 1,000,000 NFT tokens for this article
Token Features:
  • ERC-1155 Standard NFT
  • 1 Million Supply per Article
  • Transferable via MetaMask
  • Permanent Blockchain Record
Blockchain QR Code
Scan with Saymatik Web3.0 Wallet

Saymatik Web3.0 Wallet