During the Trinity nuclear test on July 16, 1945, in the New Mexico desert – the world’s first atomic bomb test – a new material formed spontaneously. It was discovered recently by an international research team coordinated by geologist Luca Bindi from the University of Florence, who identified a new clathrate based on calcium, copper, and silicon. This is a material never before observed, either in nature or as an artificial compound created in the laboratory.
What are clathrates?
The term “clathrates” refers to materials characterized by a “cage-like” structure that traps other atoms and molecules inside, giving them unique properties. Of great technological interest, these materials are studied for various applications ranging from energy conversion (as thermoelectric materials capable of transforming heat into electricity) to the development of new semiconductors, including the storage of gas and hydrogen for future energy technologies.
The new material
To discover the new material, the researchers focused on trinitite, a silicate glass containing rare metallic phases. Using certain techniques such as X-ray diffraction, the team was able to identify a type I clathrate made of calcium, copper, and silicon in a tiny copper-rich metal droplet embedded in a sample of red trinitite.
According to the researchers, the new material formed spontaneously during a nuclear explosion. This indicates that extreme conditions, such as extremely high temperatures and pressures, can generate new materials that are impossible to obtain through traditional methods.
Natural laboratories
The discovery is all the more interesting because during the same detonation event, another very rare material was formed: a silicon-rich quasicrystal, already documented by the team of experts led by Bindi a few years ago.
A quasicrystal, as Bindi told WIRED at the time, is something that isn’t a crystal but looks a lot like one. “Their particularity,” he says, “is that the atomic arrangement, which is not periodic, but almost, creates incredible symmetries from which, among other things, astonishing physical properties are derived, very difficult to predict.”
Establishing the link between these structures therefore helps scientists to better understand how atoms organize themselves under extreme conditions and to expand the possibilities for designing new materials. “Events such as nuclear explosions, lightning strikes or meteorite impacts function as real natural laboratories,” the researchers explain. “They allow us to observe forms of matter that we cannot easily reproduce in the laboratory.”
In essence, this research opens new perspectives for the development of innovative technologies, demonstrating that even destructive events can leave useful discoveries for the future.
This story originally appeared in WIRED Italia and was translated from Italian. Here
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