In-Situ Heating Decrease Kinetics of Aliphatic Hydrocarbons in Tagish Lake Meteorite by Micro-FTIR

Abstract

Carbonaceous chondrites are known to contain up to 3wt.% C, the major part of which corresponds to a macromolecular organic fraction. Chondritic organic matter is based on small aromatic units, cross-linked by short aliphatic chains rather than large clusters of polyaromatic structures. Two main characteristic features of those organics measured by FTIR are: (1) an equivalent intensity of the asymmetric stretching mode absorptions for CH3 (2960/cm) and CH2 (2920/cm) and (2) a lack of aromatic CH-stretching mode (3040/cm). Tagish Lake is a new type of water- and carbon-rich type 2 carbonaceous chondrite. Its total carbon content is approx. 5 wt%, of which the organic carbon content reaches approx. 1.3 wt%. Tagish Lake may have never experienced temperatures higher than 120 C after formation of organics based on the disappearance of infrared (IR) organic peaks in step heating experiments. Here we report in-situ kinetic heating experiments of organics in Tagish Lake by micro-FTIR to characterize the nature of aliphatic hydrocarbons and their thermal stabilities.