Fig. 2
Kinetics of the self-replicating system showing concentration versus time of 1 (blue), 3 (red) and 4 (black). a The reaction of hydrophobic alkene 2a with a shorter carbon chain, shows autocatalytic kinetics in the consumption of 1 and formation of 3a. After reaching a maximum, thermodynamically unstable product 3a is consumed to form waste product 4. b The reaction of hydrophobic alkene 2b with a longer carbon chain again shows autocatalytic kinetics with a longer lag-period on account of the reduced water miscibility of alkene 2b. The peak in the concentration of 3b is again followed by its consumption to form waste product 4. c Re-fuelling starting materials 1 and 2a, once 3a is depleted, allows for the self-replication to resume. An increased stirring rate is used to increase the rate of the reaction between 1 and 2a, but the same pattern observed in Fig. 2a emerges. d Reaction of hydrophobic alkene 2b, seeding with 20 mol% of surfactant 3b. In this case waste product 4 is formed from the beginning as the metastable replictator is already present. Error bars represent standard deviation obtained from three repetitions
