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Updated: Jul 24, 2026

Conducting Miller-Urey Experiments
Published on: January 21, 2014
Mineral catalysis of a potentially prebiotic aldol condensation
R M De Graaf1, J Visscher, Y Xu
1Evolutionary Biology Research Group, University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Abstract:
Minerals may have played a significant role in chemical evolution. In the course of investigating the chemistry of phosphonoacetaldehyde (PAL), an analogue of glycolaldehyde phosphate, we have observed a striking case of catalysis by the layered hydroxide mineral hydrotalcite ([Mg2Al(OH)6][Cl.nH2O]). In neutral or moderately basic aqueous solutions, PAL is unreactive even at a concentration of 0.1 M. In the presence of a large excess of NaOH (2 M), the compound undergoes aldol condensation to produce a dimer containing a C3-C4 double-bond. In dilute neutral solutions and in the presence of the mineral, however, condensation takes place rapidly, to produce a dimer which is almost exclusively the C2-C3 unsaturated product.
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