Amplification of enantiomeric concentrations under credible prebiotic conditions
- 29 August 2006
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Vol. 103 (35), 12979-12980
- https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0605863103
Abstract
Solutions with as little as 1% enantiomeric excess (ee) of d- or l-phenylalanine are amplified to 90% ee (a 95/5 ratio) by two successive evaporations to precipitate the racemate. Such a process on the prebiotic earth could lead to a mechanism by which meteoritic chiral α-alkyl amino acids could form solutions with high ee values that were needed for the beginning of biology.Keywords
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