The insoluble carbonaceous material of CM chondrites: A possible source of discrete organic compounds under hydrothermal conditions

We report on the molecular analyses of the water- and solvent-soluble organic compounds released from the insoluble organic material (IOM) of the Murray meteorite upon treatment with weight-equivalent amounts of water and under conditions of elevated temperature and pressure. A varied suite of compounds was identified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). C₃-C₁₇ alkyl dicarboxylic acids and N- and O-containing hydroaromatic and aromatic compounds were found in the water extracts. The solvent extracts contained N-, O-, and S-containing aromatic compounds, a large number of their isomers and homologs, and a series of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) of up to five rings, together with noncondensed aromatic species such as substituted benzenes, biphenyl, and terphenyls as well as their substituted homologs, and hydrated PAHs. Isotopic analyses showed that residue IOMs after hydrothermal treatment had lower deuterium and ¹⁵N content than the untreated material (ΔD = -833‰ and Δ¹⁵N = -24.1) but did not differ from it in ¹³C composition. The effect of the hydrothermolytic release was recorded in significant differences between the NMR spectra of untreated and residue IOM. A possible relation to common precursors for the dicarboxylic acids found in the IOM and bulk extracts is discussed.