Quasicrystals

In the Sand Hills in north-central Nebraska, USA, researchers have located a third naturally occurring source of quasicrystals.

What are Quasicrystals?

Quasicrystals are intriguing substances with an unusual confluence of features. They serve as evidence of the strength and beauty of asymmetry in the natural world.

In contrast to conventional crystal:

As opposed to conventional crystals, which have their atoms arranged in a set, repeated pattern, quasicrystals have their atoms arranged in a pattern that repeats themselves at random intervals.
Because of this departure from the regular arrangement of atoms in solids, quasicrystals are a representation of the strength of irregularity.
Due to their chemical and physical characteristics, common salt crystals, like those of sodium chloride (NaCl), acquire a cubic form.
The sodium and chloride ions can optimize for characteristics like density and thermal stability due to the cubic arrangement.
On the other hand, quasicrystals form in a less ideal pattern that deviates from the cubic structure.
They still have remnants of some traumatic experience in the structure of their atomic lattice.

Application:

They are employed in the production of razor blades, dental tools, acupuncture and surgical needles, as well as non-stick frying pans.

How were quasicrystals discovered?

Dan Shechtman, an American-Israeli physicist, discovered quasicrystals in a lab setting in 1982.
2011's Nobel Prize in Chemistry was bestowed to Dan Shechtman, who discovered quasicrystals.
In Russia's Khatyrka meteorite, the first natural quasicrystal was found in 2009.
The Khatyrka meteorite is thought to have experienced numerous space impacts over millions of years, subjecting it to extremely high pressure and heat.
These circumstances served as the inspiration for physicists' experiments employing "shock synthesis" to produce new quasicrystals in the laboratory.
Among the ruins of the Manhattan Project's Trinity test, the first atomic weapon to ever be detonated, scientists found a quasicrystal in 2021.
These results imply that the formation of natural quasicrystals takes place in hot, intense environments, similar to the Khatyrka meteorite and the Trinity experiment.

Source: The Hindu

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