Adsorption of Adenine and Thymine on Zeolites: FT-IR and EPR Spectroscopy and X-Ray Diffractometry and SEM Studies

• Published in: Origins of life and evolution of biospheres 2012-02, Vol.42 (1), p.19-29
• Main Authors: Baú, João Paulo T., Carneiro, Cristine E. A., de Souza Junior, Ivan G., de Souza, Cláudio M. D., da Costa, Antonio C. S., di Mauro, Eduardo, Zaia, Cássia T. B. V., Coronas, Joaquin, Casado, Clara, de Santana, Henrique, Zaia, Dimas A. M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adenine; Adenine - chemistry; Adsorption; Artificial seawater; Astrobiology; Astronomy; Astrophysics and Astroparticles; Auroral kilometric radiation; Biochemistry; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Chemical analysis; Diffraction; Earth Sciences; Electron Spin Resonance Spectroscopy; Electrostatic properties; Evolution, Chemical; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; Life Sciences; Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; Minerals; Molecular biology; Molecular evolution; Nucleic acids; Observations and Techniques; Pore size; Porosity; Prebiotic Chemistry; Seawater; Seawater - chemistry; Spectroscopy; Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared; Spectrum analysis; Thymine; Thymine - chemistry; Ultraviolet radiation; Ultraviolet Rays; Water analysis; X-Ray Diffraction; X-rays; Zeolites; Zeolites - chemistry
• ISSN: 0169-6149; 1573-0875
• DOI: 10.1007/s11084-011-9246-1

The interactions of adenine and thymine with and adsorption on zeolites were studied using different techniques. There were two main findings. First, as shown by X-ray diffractometry, thymine increased the decomposition of the zeolites (Y, ZSM-5) while adenine prevented it. Second, zeolite Y adsorbed almost the same amount of adenine and thymine, thus both nucleic acid bases could be protected from hydrolysis and UV radiation and could be available for molecular evolution. The X-ray diffractometry and SEM showed that artificial seawater almost dissolved zeolite A. The adsorption of adenine on ZSM-5 zeolite was higher than that of thymine (Student-Newman-Keuls test-SNK p