Homochirality and chiral-induced spin selectivity: A new spin on the origin of life

Bloom, Brian P.; Waldeck, Anna R.

doi:10.1073/pnas.2210505119

Cited by 8 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Despite its importance, origin of homochirality has remained elusive to this date and understanding the ways by which the environment can break the chiral symmetry is paramount in elucidating this mystery. In our recent studies, we addressed this problem and proposed that magnetic mineral surfaces can facilitate enantioselective processes and highlighted the possible role of authigenic magnetite (Fe 3 O 4 ) sediments on the origin of homochirality 2 – 5 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chirality-induced avalanche magnetization of magnetite by an RNA precursor

Ozturk,

Bhowmick,

Kapon

et al. 2023

Nat Commun

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Homochirality is a hallmark of life on Earth. To achieve and maintain homochirality within a prebiotic network, the presence of an environmental factor acting as a chiral agent and providing a persistent chiral bias to prebiotic chemistry is highly advantageous. Magnetized surfaces are prebiotically plausible chiral agents due to the chiral-induced spin selectivity (CISS) effect, and they were utilized to attain homochiral ribose-aminooxazoline (RAO), an RNA precursor. However, natural magnetic minerals are typically weakly magnetized, necessitating mechanisms to enhance their magnetization for their use as effective chiral agents. Here, we report the magnetization of magnetic surfaces by crystallizing enantiopure RAO, whereby chiral molecules induce a uniform surface magnetization due to the CISS effect, which spreads across the magnetic surface akin to an avalanche. Chirality-induced avalanche magnetization enables a feedback between chiral molecules and magnetic surfaces, which can amplify a weak magnetization and allow for highly efficient spin-selective processes on magnetic minerals.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chirality-induced avalanche magnetization of magnetite by an RNA precursor

Ozturk,

Bhowmick,

Kapon

et al. 2023

Nat Commun

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show abstract

“…Despite its importance, origin of homochirality has remained elusive to this date and understanding the ways by which the environment can break the chiral symmetry of life is paramount in elucidating this mystery. In a recent work, we addressed this problem and proposed that magnetic mineral surfaces can facilitate enantioselective processes and highlighted the possible role of authigenic magnetite (Fe 3 O 4 ) sediments on the origin of homochirality [2,3].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Chirality-Induced Magnetization of Magnetite by an RNA Precursor

Ozturk

Bhowmick

Kapon

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Life is homochiral and homochirality is a fundamental feature of living systems on Earth. While the exact mechanism that led to homochirality is still not fully understood, any realistic scenario on the origins of life needs to address the emergence of homochirality. In order to impose and maintain chirality in a prebiotic network, an environmental factor functioning as a chiral agent is demanded. Magnetized surfaces are prebiotically plausible chiral agents, shown to be effective in enantioseparation of ribose-aminooxazoline (RAO), a ribonucleic acid (RNA) precursor, due to the chiral-induced spin selectivity (CISS) effect. As such, mechanisms for breaking the magnetic symmetry of magnetic minerals are of the utmost importance. Here we report the avalanche magnetization of magnetite (Fe3O4) by the crystallization of enantiopure RAO. The observed breaking of the magnetic symmetry is induced by the chiral molecules due to the CISS effect and spreads out across the magnetic surface like an avalanche, providing a way to uniformly magnetize a magnetic surface without fully covering it. Considered together with our previous results on enantioseparation by crystallization on a magnetic surface, chirality-induced avalanche magnetization paves the way for a cooperative feedback between chiral molecules and magnetic surfaces. With this feedback, a weak natural bias in the net magnetization can be amplified and spin-selective processes can be accommodated on magnetic minerals on a persistent basis.

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“…Notably, nature operates in chiral environments, and it has been proposed that this feature can promote efficiency because of the inherent spin selectivity of chiral matter. [13][14][15][16] This supposition is supported by theoretical studies which suggest that the CaMn 4 O 5 cofactor of photosystem II acts as a spin control for enhancing water oxidation 17 and by studies that extend the principal of spin-polarized enhanced water oxidation to artificial systems. For instance, chiral metal oxides have been shown to act as spin filters and result in spin-selective photocatalysis, which reduces the reaction overpotential and increases the Faradaic efficiency of the reaction.…”

Section: ■ Introductionmentioning

confidence: 88%

Spin Polarized Electron Dynamics Enhance Water Splitting Efficiency by Yttrium Iron Garnet Photoanodes: A New Platform for Spin Selective Photocatalysis

Gajapathy

Bandaranayake

Hruska

et al. 2023

Preprint

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This work presents a detailed spectroscopic and kinetic comparison of yttrium iron garnet (Y3Fe5O12, YIG) and hematite (α-Fe2O3) for photocatalytic water splitting. Despite similar electronic structures, YIG significantly outperforms hematite as a water oxidation catalyst, displaying nearly an order of magnitude increase in photocurrent density and a factor of two increase in Faradaic efficiency. Probing the charge and spin dynamics by ultrafast, surface-sensitive XUV spectroscopy reveals that the enhanced performance arises from 1) reduced polaron formation in YIG compared to hematite and 2) an intrinsic spin polarization of catalytic photocurrents in YIG. Linear XUV measurements show a significant reduction in the formation of surface electron polarons in YIG compared to hematite due to site-dependent electron-phonon coupling in YIG leading to spin-polarized currents upon photoexcitation. Direct observation of surface spin accumulation with chemical state resolution at the Fe M2,3 and O L1 edges using XUV magnetic circular dichroism provides a detailed picture of the spin-polarized electron dynamics. Together, these results point to YIG as a new platform for highly efficient, spin-selective photocatalysis.

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Homochirality and chiral-induced spin selectivity: A new spin on the origin of life

Cited by 8 publications

References 21 publications

Chirality-induced avalanche magnetization of magnetite by an RNA precursor

Chirality-induced avalanche magnetization of magnetite by an RNA precursor

Chirality-Induced Magnetization of Magnetite by an RNA Precursor

Spin Polarized Electron Dynamics Enhance Water Splitting Efficiency by Yttrium Iron Garnet Photoanodes: A New Platform for Spin Selective Photocatalysis

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