PHYTANE

Description

Phytane is a 20–carbon atom branched-chain alkane. Formally known as 2,6,10,14-tetramethylhexadecane, it has three chiral centers and therefore eight possible stereoisomers. It is normally found as a mixture of most if not all of its isomers.
Unlike lower alkanes that are flammable and present breathing hazards, phytane is essentially nonhazardous. As a chemical, it has no practical uses or commercial value.
Why is phytane a Molecule of the Week? It turns out to be quite useful to geoscientists as a marker of carbon history and, in particular, as a proxy for long-ago carbon dioxide levels in Earth’s atmosphere.
Phytane is a degradation product of chlorophyll, which, of course, is related to CO2 consumption. Jaap Sinninghe Damsté and her co-workers at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research obtained more than 300 ocean sediments and oils from different locations and geological periods, extracted phytane from them, and determined the 12C/13C ratios in the phytane.
Photosynthesis, and therefore chlorophyll, consumes 12CO2 preferentially to 13CO2. So when the atmosphere is rich in CO2, phytane from chlorophyll has a high 12C/13C ratio. Thus, the researchers could estimate atmospheric CO2 back to the Cambrian period, ≈500 million years ago. Their results matched well with those from existing CO2 proxies that covered shorter time periods.
Chlorophyll is known to have existed as long ago as 1.7 billion years. Geoscientists therefore have the challenge of using proxies to determine atmospheric CO2 levels much farther back than the Cambrian.

The Uses of PHYTANE

Phytane is a useful intermediate, which is involved in the manufacturing and analysis of various compounds. Phytane has recently been used in the development of a stable and environmental-friendly lubricating oil. By determining the ration of !3C to 12C in phytane isolated from ocean sediments researchers in the Netherlands have been able to quantify CO2 levels reaching back to the Cambrian period when animals emerged on the earth.

Definition

ChEBI: Phytane is a diterpene.