Strange crystals that are rarely seen in nature called quasicrystals were formed by a bolt of lightning hitting a sand dune in Nebraska, United States (US). Photo/NOAA/Treehugger
Scientists say that quasicrystal, is an arrangement of matter that was once thought impossible. This discovery opens new avenues for its synthesis in the laboratory.
“Discovery of a quasicrystal in fulgurite with a rarely observed 12-fold symmetry and a previously unreported composition,” said a team of researchers led by geologist Luca Bindi from the University of Florence in Italy. ).
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Most crystals in nature, from the simplest salts to the hardest diamond, follow a similar pattern. The atoms are arranged in a lattice structure that repeats itself in three-dimensional space.
Its atomic quasicrystals are arranged in a pattern, but the pattern is not repeated. Solids that do not have this repeating atomic structure are generally a chaos of atoms.
“The current investigation is designed to explore the possibility of a different nature-inspired mechanism for generating quasicrystals, namely electrical discharges,” said Luca Bindi.
When the idea of quasicrystals first emerged in the 1980s, the concept was deemed impossible. Then scientists actually found them, both in the laboratory and in nature, deep in meteorites.
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