RESEARCH ON BIOMARKERS RELEASED BY PYROLYSIS OF THE INSOLUBLE ORGANIC MATTER IN GEOCHEMICAL SAMPLES.

这项研究涉及两个对象。其中一个主题是开发我们最初设计的离线热解技术，用于分析沉积物中残留的(有机溶剂不溶)有机物。这项研究首先预测，在热解产物中将发现某些新的生物标记物，这是通常的溶剂提取无法获得的。如果这是真的，该分析技术将为过去的沉积条件或古环境提供深刻的证据，因为人们认为丰富的分子信息可能完整地保存在这些大分子基质中。以美国绿河页岩为样本，对该方法进行了检验。将这项技术应用于从被称为日本石油源岩的中新世沿海海洋沉积物中分离出的干酪根样本，证实了这一技术的有效性。另一个主题是在现代海洋和湖泊沉积物以及居住在强酸性或高温温泉水等特殊条件下的生物样品(藻垫)中寻找新的生物标志物。在本课题中，不仅在热解产物中检测到信息丰富的生物标志物，而且在溶剂提取物中也检测到了信息生物标志物。本研究基金购买的GC-MS仪器主要用于分析非环和环状脂肪族碳氢化合物和烷酸。这些可能的生物标志物可以在GC和GC-MS分析之前通过制备分馏进行详细的研究。在热解脂环烃(甾烷/甾烯、三萜烷/三萜烯)中一个非常有趣的发现是，组成剖面在每个类别中都是共同的，并且在现代沉积物、中新世沿海海洋沉积岩和藻席的类别中明显不同。

The study involves two subjects. One subject is to develop our originally devised off-line pyrolysis technique for the analysis of residual (organic solvent-insoluble) organic matter in sediments. This research started with a forecast that certain novel biomarkers would be found in the pyrolysis products that could not be obtained by a usual solvent extraction. If it is true, the analytical technique will provide profound evidences for the past sedimentary conditions or the paleoenvironments, because it is thought that fertile molecular information may be preserved intact in these macromolecular matrices. The methodology was examined by using US Green River shale as a sample. The usefulness was established by applying this technique to the kerogen samples isolated from the Miocene coastal marine sediments known as the source rocks of Japanese oil. The other subject was to search for novel biomarkers in modern marine and lacustrine sediments as well as biological samples (algal mats) inhabiting peculiar conditions such as strongly acidic or high temperature hot spring waters. In this subject, detection of informative biomarkers was examined not only in the pyrolysis products but also in the solvent extracts. The GC-MS apparatus purchased by this research fund was used for both subjects to analyze primarily acyclic and cyclic aliphatic hydrocarbons and alkanoic acids. It was proved that these possible biomarkers could be investigated in detail by the preparative fractionation prior to GC and GC-MS analyses. A quite interesting finding in the pyrolysate alicyclic hydrocarbons (steranes/sterenes, triterpanes/triterpenes), which are well-known biomarkers, was that the compositional profile was common in each category and apparently variable among the categories of Recent sediments, Miocene coastal marine sedimentary rocks and algal mats.