Abiotic molecular oxygen production -- ionic pathway from sulphur dioxide
Abstract
Molecular oxygen, O2, is vital to life on Earth and possibly on other planets. Although the biogenic processes leading to its accumulation in Earth's atmosphere are well understood, its abiotic origin is still not fully established. Here, we report combined experimental and theoretical evidence for electronic-state-selective production of O2 from SO2, a major chemical constituent of many planetary atmospheres and one which played an important part on Earth in the Great Oxidation event. The O2 production involves dissociative double ionisation of SO2 leading to efficient formation of the O2+ ion which can be converted to abiotic O2 by electron neutralisation. We suggest that this formation process may contribute significantly to the abundance of O2 and related ions in planetary atmospheres, especially in those where CO2, which can lead to O2 production by different mechanisms, is not the dominant component.
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