Abstract
The structure of the water-insoluble fraction of HCN oligomers (azulmic acid) was studied by IR, NMR, gel permeation chromatography, and chemical methods. The results show that nearly half of the nitrogen atoms contained in the oligomers are of the primary amino type and the other half are involved in -C = N- type bonding. It was found that the oligomers are easily and almost quantitatively acetylated, and the acetylated oligomers show characteristic acetyl amide IR absorption and NMR spectra. Owing to the greatly improved solubility due to acetylation, the molecular weight distribution was determined for the acetylated oligomers by gel permeation chromatography. Composite peaks were obtained ranging from 300 to 900 in molecular weight. Our results are essentially consistent with the structure proposed by Völker, but we point out there may be other possible structures also consistent with our experimental results.
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Umemoto, K., Takahasi, M. & Yokota, K. Studies on the structure of HCN oligomers. Origins Life Evol Biosphere 17, 283–293 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02386468
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02386468