Amino acid formation induced by high-power laser in CO2/CO–N2–H2O gas mixtures

Abstract In a mixture of molecular gases with compositions (CO 2 –N 2 –H 2 O and CO–N 2 –H 2 O) and total pressure close to that of the Earth’s early atmospheres, a centimeter-sized plasma was created by focusing a single 85-J, 450-ps near-infrared laser pulse in a center of 15-L gas cell. Chemical consequences of the laser-produced plasma generation in such a mixture were investigated using high-performance liquid chromatography with mass-spectrometric detection (HPLC/MS). Amino acids were identified in the reaction mixture containing CO 2 as well as in that one based on CO, both exposed to 10 laser shots.