9:15 AM - 9:30 AM
[PPS07-02] Method development for IC-Orbitrap-MS analysis and the application to organophosphorus compounds in extraterrestrial samples.
Keywords:Organophosphorus, ion chromatography, Murchison meteorite, Bennu
Phosphorus is a key element for life. Organophosphorus compounds are central in biology, such as in central metabolism, co-enzymes, nucleic acids, and phospholipids (e.g., Westheimer, 1987; Ruttenberg, 2003). The provenance of organophosphorus compounds to the early Earth is one of the critical processes for the prebiotic chemistry and early evolution of life. The only detection of organophosphorus compounds in a carbonaceous meteorite (Cooper et al., 1992) was of biologically rare phosphonic acids, though still indicating that some organophosphorus compounds would have been brought to the early Earth through exogenous delivery. To date, their molecular diversity and abundance in various extraterrestrial materials are poorly understood. In addition, precise identification and quantification have been difficult due to their low abundance and the lack of appropriate analytical techniques. Here, we report the astrochemical application study of the ultra-small scale high-sensitivity method for detecting extraterrestrial organophosphorus compounds to ~1 fmol.
We developed an analytical method using an ion chromatograph-Orbitrap mass spectrometer for organophosphorus analysis (Hirakawa et al., submitted). This equipment enables the detection of polar compounds from natural environmental samples with a mass resolution of 5 ppm, which is needed for detecting organophosphorus compounds in extraterrestrial materials that contain vast numbers of interfering molecules (Schmitt-Kopplin et al, 2010). The developed method was applied to the Murchison meteorite to determine the organophosphorus compounds with the analytical validation for the instrumental performance. We detected methyl (CH3-) and ethyl (C2H5-) phosphonates, which is consistent with Cooper et al., (1992), as well as propyl (C3H7-), and butyl (C4H9-) phosphonates.
Pristine samples from the asteroid Bennu were returned to Earth in 2023 (Lauretta et al., 2024). The initial analysis revealed that Bennu samples contained abundant ammonia (NH3) and soluble organics (Glavin et al., 2025) with evaporites and phosphates (Lauretta et al., 2024; McCoy et al., 2025). It is reasonable that organophosphorus compounds are potentially rich in the Bennu samples. Thus, this method is ready to be deployed for organophosphorus identification in Bennu samples to further reveal the history of carbonaceous asteroid Bennu and explore the contribution such primitive asteroids may have made to molecular evolution and the origin of life.
We developed an analytical method using an ion chromatograph-Orbitrap mass spectrometer for organophosphorus analysis (Hirakawa et al., submitted). This equipment enables the detection of polar compounds from natural environmental samples with a mass resolution of 5 ppm, which is needed for detecting organophosphorus compounds in extraterrestrial materials that contain vast numbers of interfering molecules (Schmitt-Kopplin et al, 2010). The developed method was applied to the Murchison meteorite to determine the organophosphorus compounds with the analytical validation for the instrumental performance. We detected methyl (CH3-) and ethyl (C2H5-) phosphonates, which is consistent with Cooper et al., (1992), as well as propyl (C3H7-), and butyl (C4H9-) phosphonates.
Pristine samples from the asteroid Bennu were returned to Earth in 2023 (Lauretta et al., 2024). The initial analysis revealed that Bennu samples contained abundant ammonia (NH3) and soluble organics (Glavin et al., 2025) with evaporites and phosphates (Lauretta et al., 2024; McCoy et al., 2025). It is reasonable that organophosphorus compounds are potentially rich in the Bennu samples. Thus, this method is ready to be deployed for organophosphorus identification in Bennu samples to further reveal the history of carbonaceous asteroid Bennu and explore the contribution such primitive asteroids may have made to molecular evolution and the origin of life.