ArticleOrigins of life and evolution of the biosphere : the journal of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life1996
Organic sulfur compounds resulting from the interaction of iron sulfide, hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide in an anaerobic aqueous environment.
Article in Origins of life and evolution of the biosphere : the journal of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life, 1996. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 56 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
56 citing papers in PubMed, 240 citations in OpenAlex.
- Redox chemistry of early Earth and the origin of life.Communications chemistry · 2026Review
- The Chemistry of Tetragonal FeS.Chemical reviews · 2026Review
- Protic small molecule bioregulators.Redox biology · 2025Review
- Simulated early Earth geochemistry fuels a hydrogen-dependent primordial metabolism.Nature ecology & evolution · 2025Article
- From Catalysis of Evolution to Evolution of Catalysis.Accounts of chemical research · 2024Article
- Neuroprotective signaling by hydrogen sulfide and its dysregulation in Alzheimer's disease.Current opinion in chemical biology · 2024Review
- Prebiotic thiol-catalyzed thioamide bond formation.Geochemical transactions · 2024Article
- Autocatalytic Selection as a Driver for the Origin of Life.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Amino acid analogues provide multiple plausible pathways to prebiotic peptides.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2024Review
- Structure of a putative immature form of a Rieske-type iron-sulfur protein in complex with zinc chloride.Communications chemistry · 2023Article
- Enzymatic Fischer-Tropsch-Type Reactions.Chemical reviews · 2023Review
- A self-sustaining serpentinization mega-engine feeds the fougerite nanoengines implicated in the emergence of guided metabolism.Frontiers in microbiology · 2023Article
- Unraveling sulfur chemistry in interstellar carbon oxide ices.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Preliminary Free Energy Map of Prebiotic Compounds Formed from COLife (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Thioesters provide a plausible prebiotic path to proto-peptides.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Sulfur cycling and host-virus interactions in Aquificales-dominated biofilms from Yellowstone's hottest ecosystems.The ISME journal · 2022Article
- Methanethiol Consumption and Hydrogen Sulfide Production by the Thermoacidophilic MethanotrophFrontiers in microbiology · 2022Article
- Simple Ion-Gas Mixtures as a Source of Key Molecules Relevant to Prebiotic Chemistry.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Mackinawite formation from elemental iron and sulfur.RSC advances · 2021Article
- Electrochemically induced metal- vs. ligand-based redox changes in mackinawite: identification of a FeDalton transactions (Cambridge, England : 2003) · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The reaction of iron sulfide (FeS) with H2S in water, in presence of CO2 under anaerobic conditions was found to yield H2 and a variety of organic sulfur compounds, mainly thiols and small amounts of CS2 and dimethyldisulfide. The same compounds were produced when H2S was replaced by HCl, in the H2S-generating system FeS/HCl/CO2. The identification of the products was confirmed by GC-MS analyses and the incorporation of H2 in the organic sulfur compounds was demonstrated by experiments in which all hydrogen compounds were replaced by deuterium compounds. Generation of H2 and the synthesis of thiols were both dependent upon the relative abundance of FeS and HCl or H2S, i.e. the FeS/HCl- or FeS/H2S-proportions. Whether thiols or CS2 were formed as the main products depended also on the FeS/HCl-ratio: All conditions which create a H2 deficiency were found to initiate a proportional increase in the amount of CS2. The quantities of H2 and thiols generated depended on temperature: the production of H2 was significantly accelerated from 50 degrees C onward and thiol synthesis above 75 degrees C. The yield of thiols increased with the amount of FeS and HCl (H2S), given a certain FeS/HCl-ratio and a surplus of CO2. A deficiency of CO2 results in lower thiol synthesis. The end product, pyrite (FeS2), was found to appear as a silvery granular layer floating on the aqueous surface. The identity of the thiols was confirmed by mass spectrometry, and the reduction of CO2 demonstrated by the determination of deuterium incorporation with DCl and D2O. The described reactions can principally proceed under the conditions comparable to those obtaining around submarine hydrothermal vents, or the global situation about 4 billion years ago, before the dawn of life, and could replace the need for a reducing atmosphere on the primitive earth.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.