Formation of analogs of cometary nitrogen-rich refractory organics from thermal degradation of tholin and hcn polymer

• Published in: Icarus
• Main Authors: Bonnet, Jean-Yves, Quirico, Eric, Buch, Arnaud, Thissen, Roland, Szopa, Cyril, Carrasco, Nathalie, Cernogora, Guy, Fray, Nicolas, Cottin, Hervé, Le Roy, Léna, Montagnac, Gilles, Dartois, Emmanuel, Brunetto, Rosario, Engrand, Cécile, Duprat, Jean
• Other Authors: Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales (LATMOS), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institut de Planétologie et d'Astrophysique de Grenoble (IPAG ), Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Grenoble (OSUG), Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire de Génie des Procédés et Matériaux - EA 4038 (LGPM), CentraleSupélec, PLANETO - LATMOS, Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institut universitaire de France (IUF), Ministère de l'Education nationale, de l’Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche (M.E.N.E.S.R.), Laboratoire Interuniversitaire des Systèmes Atmosphériques (LISA (UMR_7583)), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-Université Paris-Est Créteil Val-de-Marne - Paris 12 (UPEC UP12)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon - Terre, Planètes, Environnement (LGL-TPE), École normale supérieure de Lyon (ENS de Lyon)-Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (UCBL), Université de Lyon-Université de Lyon-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Jean Monnet - Saint-Étienne (UJM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institut d'astrophysique spatiale (IAS), Université Paris-Sud - Paris 11 (UP11)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre National d’Études Spatiales Paris (CNES), Centre de Spectrométrie Nucléaire et de Spectrométrie de Masse (CSNSM), Université Paris-Sud - Paris 11 (UP11)-Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules du CNRS (IN2P3)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2015
• Subjects: Cosmochemistry; Organic chemistry; Solar nebula; Comets; Interplanetary dust; [PHYS.PHYS.PHYS-AO-PH]Physics [physics]/Physics [physics]/Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics [physics.ao-ph]; Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-01088866; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2014.11.006

International audience Nitrogen-rich refractory organics are scarce phases recovered as a fraction of stratospheric IDPs and constitute the bulk of the organic matter of some ultracarbonaceous Antarctic micrometeorites. They are likely formed under very specific conditions within a nitrogen-rich environment and may provide valuable clues on the origin of the population of interplanetary dusts accreted by Earth. In this study, we produced relevant analogs of such refractory organics characterized in three ultracarbonaceous Antarctic micrometeorites, starting from the carbonization of an HCN polymer and a tholin. Indeed, carbonization is a process that can increase the polyaromatic character toward a structure similar to that observed in these cosmomaterials. Both these precursors were degraded in an Ar atmosphere at 300, 500, 700 and 1000°C over ∼1 hour and characterized by elemental analysis, micro-FTIR and Raman micro-spectroscopy (at 244 and 514 nm excitation wavelengths). Our results show that the precursors evolve along distinct chemical and structural pathways during carbonization and that the influence of the precursor structure is still very strong at 1000°C. Interestingly, these different carbonization routes appear in the spectral characteristics of the G and D bands of their Raman spectra. Several of the residues present chemical and structural similarities with three recently studied ultracarbonaceous micrometeorites [Dobrica et al. (2011)Meteoritics Planet. Sci.46, 1363; Dartois et al. (2013)Icarus224, 243] and with N-rich inclusions in stratospheric IDPs. However the residues do not simultaneously account for the carbon structure (Raman) and the chemical composition (IR, N/C ratio). This indicates that the precursors and/or heating conditions in our experiments are not fully relevant. Despite this lack of full relevancy, the formation of a polyaromatic structure fairly similar to that of UCAMMs and IDPs suggests that the origin of N-rich refractory organics lies in a thermal process in the ...