Imperial College London
Alternate

DrJonathanWatson

Faculty of Engineering, Department of Earth Science & Engineering

Research Officer in Organic Geochemistry and Mineralogy
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 6399jonathan.watson Website

 
 
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Location

 

2.60Royal School of MinesSouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Royle:2018:10.1029/2018JE005615,
author = {Royle, SH and Oberlin, E and Watson, JS and Montgomery, W and Kounaves, SP and Sephton, MA},
doi = {10.1029/2018JE005615},
journal = {Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets},
pages = {1901--1909},
title = {Perchloratedriven combustion of organic matter during pyrolysisgas chromatographymass spectrometry: implications for organic matter detection on earth and mars},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2018JE005615},
volume = {123},
year = {2018}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - The search for life on Mars targets the detection of organic matter from extant or extinct organisms. Current protocols use thermal extraction procedures to transfer organic matter to mass spectrometer detectors. Oxidizing minerals on Mars, such as perchlorate, interfere with organic detection by thermal extraction. Thermal decomposition of perchlorate releases oxygen which promotes combustion of organic carbon. We have assessed the minimum mass ratio of organic carbon to perchlorate required to detect organic matter by thermal extraction and mass spectrometry. Locations on Mars with organic carbon to perchlorate ratios above 4.7-9.6 should be targeted. Because habitability is enhanced by the presence of liquid water and because perchlorate is a water soluble salt, locations on Mars with evidence of past or recent liquid water are high priority targets.
AU  - Royle,SH
AU  - Oberlin,E
AU  - Watson,JS
AU  - Montgomery,W
AU  - Kounaves,SP
AU  - Sephton,MA
DO  - 10.1029/2018JE005615
EP  - 1909
PY  - 2018///
SN  - 2169-9097
SP  - 1901
TI  - Perchloratedriven combustion of organic matter during pyrolysisgas chromatographymass spectrometry: implications for organic matter detection on earth and mars
T2  - Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2018JE005615
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/62114
VL  - 123
ER  -
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