Scientists have used platinum in the laboratory to help determine how hydrogen peroxide can be released from ice and in the process how oxygen might be found on distant planets.

Using a thin ice film on a platinum surface, researchers at the W.R. Wiley Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory in the US have been able to mimic the process and observe how it functions.

Working at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Washington, the researchers have put together what they claim is the most detailed picture yet on how oxygen could potentially be formed in some of the galaxy's remoter areas.

Greg Kimmel, who led the research, said that instead of the two-step process previously thought to create the oxygen, it was instead an extended reaction, as the platinum-based experiment demonstrated.

"We found that a simpler two-step could not account for our results," Kimmel explained.

"Our model is a four-step process."

First, the energetic particle produces a common "reactive oxygen species" known as a hydroxyl radical. Then two of these molecules react to create hydrogen peroxide, with which another OH molecule reacts. This creates HO2 (hydrogen coupled to two oxygen atoms), plus a water molecule. The additional oxygen molecule is then divided from the HO2 by an energetic particle splits an oxygen molecule from the HO2.

The scientists were able to bombard the water film (ice) with energy particles in order to generate the results, which they showed at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society.


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