Deprotonated Purine Dissociation: Experiments, Computations, and Astrobiological Implications

A central focus of astrobiology is the determination of abiotic formation routes to important biomolecules. The dissociation mechanisms of these molecules lend valuable insights into their synthesis pathways. Because of the detection of organic anions in the interstellar medium (ISM), it is imperative to study their role in these syntheses. This work aims to experimentally and computationally examine deprotonated adenine and guanine dissociation in an effort to illuminate potential anionic precursors to purine formation. Collision-induced dissociation (CID) products and their branching fractions are experimentally measured using an ion trap mass spectrometer. Deprotonated guanine dissociates primarily by deammoniation (97%) with minor losses of carbodiimide (HNCNH) and/or cyanamide (NH₂CN), and isocyanic acid (HNCO). Deprotonated adenine fragments by loss of hydrogen cyanide and/or isocyanide (HCN/HNC; 90%) and carbodiimide (HNCNH) and/or cyanamide (NH₂CN; 10%). Tandem mass spectrometry (MS^<i>n</i>) experiments reveal that deprotonated guanine fragments lose additional HCN and CO, while deprotonated adenine fragments successively lose HNC and HCN. Every neutral fragment observed in this study has been detected in the ISM, highlighting the potential for nucleobases such as these to form in such environments. Lastly, the acidity of abundant fragment ions is experimentally bracketed. Theoretical calculations at the B3LYP/6-311++G­(d,p) level of theory are performed to delineate the mechanisms of dissociation and analyze the energies of reactants, intermediates, transition states, and products of these CID processes

Reactions of Azine Anions with Nitrogen and Oxygen Atoms: Implications for Titan’s Upper Atmosphere and Interstellar Chemistry

Azines are important in many extraterrestrial environments, from the atmosphere of Titan to the interstellar medium. They have been implicated as possible carriers of the diffuse interstellar bands in astronomy, indicating their persistence in interstellar space. Most importantly, they constitute the basic building blocks of DNA and RNA, so their chemical reactivity in these environments has significant astrobiological implications. In addition, N and O atoms are widely observed in the ISM and in the ionospheres of planets and moons. However, the chemical reactions of molecular anions with abundant interstellar and atmospheric atomic species are largely unexplored. In this paper, gas-phase reactions of deprotonated anions of benzene, pyridine, pyridazine, pyrimidine, pyrazine, and s-triazine with N and O atoms are studied both experimentally and computationally. In all cases, the major reaction channel is associative electron detachment; these reactions are particularly important since they control the balance between negative ions and free electron densities. The reactions of the azine anions with N atoms exhibit larger rate constants than reactions of corresponding chain anions. The reactions of azine anions with O atoms are even more rapid, with complex product patterns for different reactants. The mechanisms are studied theoretically by employing density functional theory; spin conversion is found to be important in determining some product distributions. The rich gas-phase chemistry observed in this work provides a better understanding of ion-atom reactions and their contributions to ionospheric chemistry as well as the chemical processing that occurs in the boundary layers between diffuse and dense interstellar clouds