US-based scientists Jinquan Chen and Bern Kohler have studied the excited-state dynamics of 5 xanthine derivatives. The compounds display ultrashort excited state lifetimes – analogous to adenine and guanine – and the authors conclude that these compounds may be candidates for the building blocks of life on prebiotic Earth.
Read this fascinating PCCP paper today:
Ultrafast nonradiative decay by hypoxanthine and several methylxanthines in aqueous and acetonitrile solution
Jinquan Chen and Bern Kohler
DOI: 10.1039/C2CP41296A
