Heat-Flow-Driven Nonequilibria for Prebiotic Chemistry

Abstract

The origin of life, being one of the most fascinating questions in science, is increasingly addressed by interdisciplinary research. In addition to developing plausible chemical models for synthesizing the first biomolecules from prebiotic building blocks, searching for suitable and plausible non-equilibrium boundary conditions that drive such reactions is thus a central task in this endeavor. This perspective highlights the remarkably simple yet versatile scenario of heat flows in geologically plausible crack-like compartments as a habitat for prebiotic chemistry. Based on our recent findings, it is discussed how thermophoretically driven systems offer insights into solving key milestones in the origin of life research, such as the template inhibition problem, prebiotic symmetry breaking, and the promotion of prebiotic chemistry by selective enrichment of biochemical precursors. Our results on molecular-selective thermogravitational accumulation, heat flow-induced pH gradients, and environmental cycles are put in the context of other approaches to non-equilibrium systems and prebiotic chemistry. The coupling of heat flows to chemical and physical boundary conditions thus opens up numerous future experimental research avenues, such as the extraction of phosphate from geomaterials or the integration of chemical reaction networks into thermal non-equilibrium systems, offering a promising framework for advancing the field of prebiotic chemistry.