Amino acid formation by electron irradiation

The origin of amino acid formation in the early years is still not well known. Munoz Caro and collaborators [1] showed the generation of amino acid by UV irradiation of a mixture of organic molecules reproducing the interstellar media. Although the photochemistry is one of the mechanism which would be active in the early years, it is also important to study other mechanisms such as the electrochemistry or electron induced chemistry which would act as well as a tool for the amino acid formation. The aim of this work is to demonstrate the amino acid formation by low energy electron irradiation of condensed organic molecules. In particular, our purpose is the formation of glycine by low energy electron irradiation of a film composed of a mixture of condensed NH3 and CH3COOD. Prior to the study of amino acid formation it is important to know about the effect of the interaction between electrons and organic molecules, so the first step in this work is the study of the electron irradiation of NH3 and CH3COOD films condensed on a passivated substrate (hydrogenated diamond) at a temperature of about 40 K. The next step involves the electron irradiation of the condensed NH3 and CH3COOD mixture on the same substrate. In this case, the reactions induced by electron irradiation would permit the formation of glycine in the zwitterionic form. Induced modifications on the NH3 and CH3COOD molecules, as well as the formation of glycine will be monitored by High Resolution Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy (HREELS).