New insights on prebiotic chemistry from plasma kinetics

Abstract

The famous Miller-Urey experiment, which provides essential information on the prebiotic synthesis of the molecules of life, still has many obscure points. In this paper, we want to suggest a way of possible future progress, which consists in framing the experience of Miller and Urey in the context of the kinetics of ionized gas, or plasma. In this framework, extremely effective and versatile theoretical tools, based on quantum mechanics and chemical kinetics, make it possible to look, in a new way, at the elementary processes that lead to the formation of excited species and ions, at the base of the cascade of subsequent reactions.