Porous Dust Clusters in Protoplanetary Disks as Catalysts for Formation of Complex Preorganic Compounds

Computer modeling has shown that, during the collisional evolution of a solid-state component in gas–dust protoplanetary disks, porous dust clusters of widely ranging sizes are formed. Clusters of this kind have a well-developed internal structure that is topologically similar to the structure of porous catalysts, adsorbents, and carriers used in the organic synthesis technology. On the other hand, observational data currently obtained by such instruments as the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) show that complex preorganic compounds rather than only water and volatiles are present in protoplanetary disks. This suggests the possibility that, in protoplanetary disks, there are mechanisms of capturing complex chemical compounds by porous dust clusters and transporting these compounds to warmer regions during migration. When getting to warmer regions of protoplanetary disks, dust clusters undergo a change in the pore space, which may increase the surface holding the captured compounds and, hence, intensify their reactivity.