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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Received: 11 February 1998 / Accepted: 12 May 1998
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De Graaf, R., Visscher, J., Xu, Y. et al. Mineral Catalysis of a Potentially Prebiotic Aldol Condensation. J Mol Evol 47, 501–507 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1007/PL00006406
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/PL00006406