the polymerization [197,198], and the low dielectric permittivity of the surfaceadjoining
water layers [199] that may have favoured condensation reactions. In
addition, a regular mesh of electric charges at the ZnS surface, by attracting reactants
and arranging them appropriately relative to each other, may have made
the polymerization thermodynamically more favourable than in bulk water [124].
Then, however, the resulting polymers should have stayed confined to the surface
[200]. In the context of a UV-irradiated environment such confinement could be
considered a rescue since an eventual detachment of a primordial polymer from
the energy-absorbing ZnS surface would have led to faster photodestruction. At
the same time, while prevented from detachment from the surface, the molecules
would have been able to diffuse along the surface, to interact with each other,
and to form aggregates, which is a pre-condition for the abiogenic emergence of
increasingly complex structures.