Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 26 September 1980:
Vol. 209. no. 4464, pp. 1515 - 1518
DOI: 10.1126/science.209.4464.1515
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Carbynes in Meteorites: Detection, Low-Temperature Origin, and Implications for Interstellar Molecules

RYOICHI HAYATSU 1, ROBERT G. SCOTT 1, MARTIN H. STUDIER 1, ROY S. LEWIS 2, and EDWARD ANDERS 2

1 Division of Chemistry, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439
2 Enrico Fermi Institute and Department of Chemistry, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637

Carbon from the Allende meteorite is not graphite but carbyne (triply bonded elemental carbon), inasmuch as on heating to 250° to 330°C it releases mainly triply bonded fragments: –(CequivC)n,– with n = 1 to 5, and –(CequivC)n–CN, with n = 1 to 3. Although carbynes have been known to form only by condensation of carbon vapor above 2600 K or by explosive shock of > 600 kilobars, it is found that they also form metastably by the reaction 2CO rarr CO2 + C (solid) at 300° to 400°C in the presence of a chromite catalyst. Such low-temperature formation by surface catalysis may be the dominant source of carbynes on the earth and in meteorites, and a major source of interstellar carbynes and cyanopolyacetylenes.

Submitted on February 11, 1980
Revised on May 19, 1980


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Poly(phenylcarbyne): A Polymer Precursor to Diamond-Like Carbon.
G. T. Visscher, D. C. Nesting, J. V. Badding, and P. A. Bianconi (1993)
Science 260, 1496-1499
   Abstract »    PDF »
Interstellar Carbon in Meteorites.
P. K. Swart, P. K. SWART, M. M. GRADY, C. T. PILLINGER, R. S. LEWIS, and E. ANDERS (1983)
Science 220, 406-410
   Abstract »    PDF »
Carbyne Forms of Carbon: Do They Exist?.
P. P. K. Smith, P. P. K. SMITH, and P. R. BUSECK (1982)
Science 216, 984-986
   Abstract »    PDF »
Interstellar Chemistry: Polycyanoacetylene Formation.
E. ANDERS and R. HAYATSU (1981)
Science 214, 689
   PDF »
Graphitic carbon in the Allende meteorite: a microstructural study.
P. Smith and P. Buseck (1981)
Science 212, 322-324
   Abstract »    PDF »
Carbynes: Carriers of Primordial Noble Gases in Meteorites.
A. G. Whittaker, A. G. WHITTAKER, E. J. WATTS, R. S. LEWIS, and E. ANDERS (1980)
Science 209, 1512-1514
   Abstract »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)