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DAILY NEWS ANALYSIS

  • 16 February, 2023

  • 4 Min Read

Quasicrystals

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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