Peptide bond formation is a challenging, environmentally and economically demanding
transformation. Catalysis is key to circumvent current bottlenecks. To date, many …

Abstract Boron (III), as borate (or boric acid), mediates the synthesis of ribose,
ribonucleosides, and ribonucleotides. These reactions are carried out under moderate …

The polymerization of unactivated amino acids (AAs) is an important topic because of its
applications in various fields including industrial medicinal chemistry and prebiotic …

In current living matter, biopolymers follow specific sequences that give them special
properties, such as the sequence of amino acids (AAs) in proteins and peptides. A major …

Because of their unique proton-conductivity, chains of phosphoric acid molecules are
excellent proton-transfer catalysts. Here we demonstrate that this property could have been …

Leucine on silica constitutes an interesting system from the point of view of origins of life
studies since leucine coadsorbed on SiO2 together with glutamic acid can give rise to rather …

The polycondensation of amino acids to oligopeptides is an important step in the origins of
life, and known to be effective on several mineral surfaces. The data available on clay …

After pre concentration of monomers, polymerization is the second most important step for
molecular evolution. The formation of peptides is an important issue for prebiotic chemistry …

Accumulation and selection of nucleotides is one of the most challenging problems
surrounding the origin of the first RNA molecules on our planet. In the current work we …

The parameters that determine the formation of linear peptides and cyclic dimers
(diketopiperazine, DKP) on silica surfaces of different surface area, silanol and siloxane ring …