Peptide Bonds in the Interstellar Medium: Facile Catalytic Formation from Nitriles on Water–Ice Grains

Abstract

. Quantum mechanical tunneling, computed from small-curvature estimates, plays a key role in the rates of these reactions. This work represents the first reasonable effort to show, in general, how amides can be formed from nitriles and water, which are abundant substrates, reacting on a water-ice cluster containing catalytic amounts of hydrons in the interstellar medium with consequential implications toward the origins of life.