The Influence of CO Admixtures on the Product Composition in a Nitrogen-Methane Atmospheric Glow Discharge Used as a Prebiotic Atmosphere Mimic.

This work extends our previous experimental studies of the chemistry of Titan's atmosphere by atmospheric glow discharge. The Titan's atmosphere seems to be similarly to early Earth atmospheric composition. The exploration of Titan atmosphere was initiated by the exciting results of the Cassini-Huygens mission and obtained results increased the interest about prebiotic atmospheres. Present work is devoted to the role of CO in the prebiotic atmosphere chemistry. Most of the laboratory studies of such atmosphere were focused on the chemistry of N + CH mixtures. The present work is devoted to the study of the oxygenated volatile species in prebiotic atmosphere, specifically CO reactivity. CO was introduced to the standard N + CH mixture at different mixing ratio up to 5 % CH and 3 % CO. The reaction products were characterized by FTIR spectroscopy. This work shows that CO modifies the composition of the gas phase with the detection of oxygenated compounds: CO and others oxides. There is a strong influence of CO on increasing concentration other products as cyanide (HCN) and ammonia (NH).