A Comparative Carbon XANES and EELS Study of Organic Matter in the Ivuna CI Chondrite

An understanding the organic matter (OM) in primitive interplanetary materials can provide us with important constraints on both the early solar system carbon cycle and incipient prebiotic synthesis before the origin of life. As a window to the past, primitive chondrites preserve the most pristine record of parent body, nebular and interstellar components and the occurrence of OM in them has been shown in both soluble (SOM) (1)  and insoluble (IOM) (2) form. Total organic carbon (TOC) abundance reaches ~3-4 wt% in the most primitive carbonaceous chondrite (CCs) (3), such as Ivuna-type chondrites (CIs) – thus making them highly desirable for the OM studies, and relevant to the study of Asteroid 162173 Ryugu samples from the Hayabusa-2 mission.

A combination of both SOM and IOM analysis of organic bulk meteorite separates together with in-situ analysis of OM have provided a comprehensive account of chondritic OM (4). In the case of in-situ analysis, the combination of both scanning (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) together with soft X-Ray scanning transmission microscopy (STXM) have shown the presence of micron to submicron distinctive organic particles (OPs) (5). Carbon K-edge X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) has shown the aromatic-carbonyl-carboxyl chemical nature of these organic particles (5). In addition, aromatic-poorer and carboxylic-richer diffuse OM (6) within both amorphous and phyllosilicate occurs as well.

As observation techniques are getting better, aberration corrected TEM coupled with electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) might provide the same results as carbon XANES, but with higher image magnification, rapid data acquisition and better accessibility. In this context, we present the results of a comparative carbon K-edge XANES and EELS study of CI meteorite Ivuna. An approximately 100 nm lamella of the Ivuna meteorite was prepared using focused ion beam (FIB)-SEM with the Helios 5 Hydra DualBeam (CEITEC, Masaryk University, Czechia) and analysed by TEM-EELS with the JEOL ARM200CF (ePSIC, Diamond Light Source, UK) and STXM-XANES at Beamline BL19A of the KEK Photon Factory, Japan. We observed that (I) XANES on samples that did not experience TEM-EELS are in agreement with the previous studies of aromatic-carbonyl-carboxylic macromolecular OPs and IOM, while (II) the TEM-EELS of OPs show aromatic-carbonyl functional chemistry but with amorphous carbon convoluting the carboxylic peak, and aromatic-poor spectra with a sharp carbonate peak in diffuse OM. The difference between XANES and EELS particularly in the diffuse OM can be interpreted by electron-beam damage. Thickness and e-beam damage leads to amorphous C formation in the OPs. In the case of more labile OM in the phyllosilicate, its change by heating and oxidation is expected.

 

References:

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