A possible role for extraterrestrial vanadium in the encounter of life

✍ Scribed by Dieter Rehder

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2011
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 449 KB
• Volume: 255
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0010-8545
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ccr.2011.04.015

✦ Synopsis

Extraterrestrial vanadium compounds typically contain vanadium in low oxidation states (V II , V III ), reflecting anoxic environments (low oxygen fugacities) during genesis. In meteorites, most of which are fragments from asteroids and thus represent samples from the very beginning of our solar system, are found the pyroxenes which are typical V II bearing minerals. In calcium-and aluminium-rich inclusions of dust particles collected from the coma of comet Wild 2, osbornite (TiN) with titanium replaced by up to 63% vanadium has been found. The atmospheres of "hot Jupiter" type exoplanets, as well as the atmospheres of early M type stars (red dwarfs) contain vanadium(II)oxide, which is also likely a constituent in interstellar clouds. The relevance of these vanadium occurrences for the generation of complex molecules out of simple ones under primordial conditions is briefly discussed in light of the catalytic potential of vanadium nitrides and -oxides. At higher oxygen fugacities, oxidic V IV and V V species are available. In this context, the ability of higher valent vanadium oxides to form nano-structured webs of protocells, and the potential of decavanadate and VO 2+ to interfere with chemical processes in micellar structures and lipid vesicles is addressed.