Electron configuration and catalytic logic: a physicochemical framework for the inorganic origins of life—part I: inorganic nanostructures and biocatalysis

Abstract This Perspective outlines a physicochemical framework for the emergence and persistence of catalytic organization. Phosphorus and transition-metal chemistry indicate that key catalytic reactions predate biology. Inorganic nanostructures—particularly iron oxides and sulphides—exhibit enzyme-like reactivity mediated by mixed-valence electronic states capable of intervalence hopping, redox cycling, proton-coupled electron transfer and photoreactivity. The electron configurations and coordination geometries of transition metals regulate charge distribution, redox accessibility and electron mobility, constituting an inorganic informational ‘code' that governs catalytic behaviour. When organized within solid lattices and mineral–water interfaces, these electronic properties create spatial differentiation that facilitates the coupling of electron transfer to thermodynamically permitted reactions sustained by environmental gradients. In this framework, the electron ratchet describes the integration of electron organization, spatial asymmetry and gradient coupling, through which stochastic charge fluctuations become directionally and kinetically aligned with ongoing chemical transformations under non-equilibrium conditions. These nanoscale processes represent localized catalytic reactions—not self-sustaining metabolic systems—but provide enabling physicochemical scaffolds upon which genetic regulation later evolved. This structural–electronic logic was subsequently stabilized and refined by organic ligands and proteins, as explored in part II.