Cysteine, thiourea and thiocyanate interactions with clays: FT-IR, Mössbauer and EPR spectroscopy and X-ray diffractometry studies.

The present study examined the adsorption of cysteine, thiourea and thiocyanate on bentonite and montmorillonite at two different pHs (3.00, 8.00). The conditions used here are closer to those of prebiotic earth. As shown by FT-IR, Mössbauer and EPR spectroscopy and X-ray diffractometry, the most important finding of this work is that cysteine and thiourea penetrate into the interlayer of the clays and reduce Fe(3+) to Fe(2+), and as consequence, cystine and c,c'-dithiodiformamidinium ion are formed. This mechanism resembles that which occurs with aconitase. This is a very important result for prebiotic chemistry; we should think about clays not just sink of molecules, but as primitive vessels of production of biomolecules. At pH 8.00, an increasing expansion was observed in the following order for both minerals: thiourea > thiocyanate > cysteine. At pH 3.00, the same order was not observed and thiourea had an opposite behavior, being the compound producing the lowest expansion. Mössbauer spectroscopy showed that at pH 8.00, the proportion of Fe(2+) ions in bentonite increased, doubling for thiourea, or more than doubling for cysteine, in both clays. However, at pH 3.00, cysteine and thiourea did not change significantly the relative amount of Fe(2+) and Fe(3+) ions, when compared to clays without adsorption. For thiocyanate, the amount of Fe(2+) produced was independent of the pH or clay used, probably because the interlayers of clays are very acidic and HSCN formed does not reduce Fe(3+) to Fe(2+). For the interaction of thiocyanate with the clays, it was not possible to identify any potential compound formed. For the samples of bentonite and montmorillonite at pH 8.00 with cysteine, EPR spectroscopy showed that intensity of the lines due to Fe(3+) decreased because the reaction of Fe(3+)/cysteine. Intensity of EPR lines did not change when the samples of bentonite at pH 3.00 with and without cysteine were compared. These results are in accordance with those obtained using Mössbauer and FT-IR spectroscopy.