ENGLISH
What is PTOC?
The Planetary Trace Organic Compounds (PTOC) laboratroy is aimed to study trace organic compounds under the extremely clean conditions for the understanding of chemical evolution in the universe. The PTOC laboratroy is supported by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A) of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS).
Objectives
Organic compounds are distributed widely in terrestrial and extraterrestrial environments, and are characterized by their various chemical structures consisting predominantly of carbon (C) with hydrogen (H), nitrogen (N), oxygen (O) and sulfur (S). Recent ultrahigh-resolution mass spectral analysis have detected tens of thousands of different mass peaks consisting of C, H, N, O, and/or S in a carbonaceous meteorite. Considering the structural and optical isomers, hundreds of thousands of organic compounds may be present in the meteorite. Currently, the organic contents identified in meteorites correspond to only approx. 1% of the total compounds present. Moreover, the quantities of planetary material obtained by sample-return missions from asteroids or ocean-drilling projects are extremely limited. In order to obtain detailed information on planetary organic compounds, the development of ultra-high sensitivity and resolution analyses is needed.
Methods
The following advanced analyses and development have been performed: 1) Clean room environment to avoid organic contamination; 2) Detection limit (sensitivity) down to ~10-18 mol from previous ~10-15 mol level; 3)Ultra-high mass resolution up to ~300,000 to determine the elemental composition using exact mass; 4) Superior chromatographic separation using high-resolution column and/or 2-D columns to determine structural and optical isomers; and 5) Development of in-situ organic compound analysis of sample surface using desorption electrospray ionization.
Expected achievements
The technical development will allow for the improved identification of organic compounds compared to current analysis, and will advance our studies of the formation pathways and origins of planetary materials. Furthermore, the new techniques will allow for the definitive identification of organic compounds in greatly reduced sample sizes (using ~ micro g of sample vs. current ~mg requirement), thereby contributing to the successful analysis for sample-return missions (e.g. JAXA Hayabusa 2 and NASA OSIRIS-REx missions). The methodology will also be applicable to various types of other rare, precious, and small samples for environmental and biochemical studies.
