Energetic and entropic analysis of mirror symmetry breaking process in recycled microreversible chemical system
Abstract
Understanding how homochirality emerged remains a challenge for the researchers interested in the origin of life. During the last decades, stable non-racemic steady states of non-equilibrium chemical systems have been discussed as a possible response to this problem. More recently, the description of recycled systems was provided, in which stable products can be activated back to reactive compounds, leading to the continuous maintaining of unidirectional reaction loops. The previous models were based on irreversible reaction. As a consequence, the question of the relevance of such systems in the presence of real microreversible reactions has been addressed. To face this skepticism, a full thermodynamic study of recycled systems based on only microreversible reactions is presented here. We argue that what really matters is the way the energy is transferred and distributed through the system and the subsequent production on entropy. As a consequence, the kinetics and thermodynamics of the systems will be carefully introduced and detailed in this paper. Recycled non-equilibrium systems appear to be interesting instances of self organized systems through the consumption of external sources of chemical energy. More than simple providers of hypothetical new materials for the early emergence of homochirality, such protometabolic systems are important paths towards the self-organizing systems underlying the origin of life.Keywords
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