The early evolution, and perhaps even the origin of life in hot conditions on the early Earth before the evolution of photosynthesis, could have been influenced by the significance of hot temperatures in achieving maximum hydrogen peroxide generation from rocks during the movement of geological faults, according to scientists.
Hydrogen Peroxide
NASA/Unsplash
Most medicine cabinets within the developed world contain hydrogen peroxide, a practical all-purpose disinfectant.
However, it can be difficult to find in isolated villages in developing nations, where it might be crucial for sanitation and health, as per MIT news.
In large chemical plants, where methane, or natural gas, is used as a source of hydrogen, oxygen is then interacted with it using a catalytic process under high heat.
The majority of the hydrogen peroxide is generated in industrialized nations.
Smaller units or remote places cannot use this process because it is energy-intensive, difficult to scale, and dependent on a constant supply of methane.
Key limitations exist in other processes that would have been created yet for potentially portable systems.
For instance, the majority of catalysts that encourage the synthesis of hydrogen peroxide from hydrogen and oxygen also produce large amounts of water, which results in low concentrations of the desired product.
Additionally, processes involving electrolysis, like the new method, frequently struggle to separate the hydrogen peroxide that results from the electrolyte utilized in the process, further reducing efficiency.
The ground-breaking study, conducted by Newcastle University's School of Natural and Environmental Sciences and reported in Nature Communications, revealed a process for how geological fault movement can cause rocks to produce hydrogen peroxide, as per ScienceDaily.
Hydrogen peroxide can be harmful to live organisms at high concentrations, but it can also be a beneficial source of oxygen for microbes.
Before the development of photosynthesis, this additional source of oxygen may have impacted the early evolution, and possibly even the origin of life in hot environments on the early Earth.
Crushing granite, basalt, and peridotite-rock types that would have been found in the early Earth's crust-simulated these conditions for master's student Jordan Stone.
After that, it was added to the water at various temperatures and under precisely controlled oxygen-free conditions.
The experimental studies showed that significant amounts of hydrogen peroxide, and consequently, possibly oxygen, were only produced at temperatures near the boiling point of the water.
Interestingly, the temperature at which hydrogen peroxide is formed overlaps the growth ranges of some of Earth's most heat-loving microbes, known as hyperthermophiles, including oxygen-using ancient evolutionary microbes close to the base of the Universal Tree of Life.
This is the first study to demonstrate the critical significance of hot temperatures in maximizing hydrogen peroxide generation, according to Jordan Stone, who conducted this research as part of his MRes in Environmental Geoscience.
Previous studies have shown that small quantities of hydrogen peroxide and other oxidants can be established by stressing or crushing rocks in the absence of oxygen.
This research demonstrates that defects on crushed rock and minerals can behave differently from how you would anticipate more perfect mineral surfaces to respond, according to principal investigator Dr. Jon Telling, senior lecturer.
Water, crushed rocks, and high temperatures are all that these mechanochemical reactions require to produce hydrogen peroxide, and subsequently oxygen.
These elements were all present on the early Earth even before the evolution of photosynthesis, and they may have had an impact on the chemistry and microbiology in hot, seismically active regions in which life may well have first begun.
