Carbon isotopic evidence for the catalytic origin of light hydrocarbons.docVIP

Carbonisotopicevidenceforthecatalyticoriginoflight hydrocarbons FrankD.Mango DepartmentofChemicalEngineering,RiceUniversity,P.O.Box1892,Houston,TX,77251, USA Letter Received18thJuly2000,Accepted22ndAugust2000 PublishedontheWeb6thSeptember2000 ThemolecularproportionalitybetweenC6andC7isomersreportedrecently(F.D.Mango,Geochim. Cosmochim.Acta,2000,64,1265;ref.1)isprobablythestrongestevidenceforcatalysisyetpublished.It implicatestwocyclopropane-likeprecursors,[S6]and[S7](whereSdenotesanysubstrate),ofsimilarstructures, eachyieldingthreeisomersalongsimilarkineticpathways: ?S6??n-hexanez2-methylpen