During the July 16, 1945 Trinity nuclear test in the Recent Mexico desert – the world’s first atomic bomb test – modern material spontaneously formed. It was outdoor only recently, an international research team coordinated by geologist Luca Bindi from the University of Florence identified a modern clathrate based on calcium, copper and silicon. This is a material that has never been observed before, either in nature or as an artificial compound created in a laboratory.
What are clathrates?
The term “clathrates” refers to materials characterized by a “cage” structure that retains other atoms and molecules inside, giving them unique properties. These materials, which are of high technological interest, are being investigated for a variety of applications, ranging from energy conversion (as thermoelectric materials capable of converting heat into electricity), to the development of modern semiconductors, to gas storage and hydrogen for future energy technologies.
Recent material
To discover the modern material, researchers focused on trinite, a silicate glass containing occasional metallic phases. Using some techniques such as X-ray diffraction, the team was able to identify a type I calcium-copper-silicon clathrate in a petite droplet of the copper-rich metal embedded in a sample of red trinitite.
Scientists say the modern material was created spontaneously during a nuclear explosion. This means that extreme conditions, such as extremely high temperatures and pressures, can create modern materials that cannot be obtained by time-honored methods.
Natural Laboratories
The discovery is even more engaging because the same detonation produced another very occasional material: a silicon-rich quasicrystal, which was already documented by a team of experts led by Bindi several years ago.
A quasicrystal, like Bindi he said WIRED wasn’t crystal at the time, but it looked a lot like it. “Their peculiarity,” he said, “is that the arrangement of atoms, which is not periodic but almost so, creates amazing symmetries that give rise to, among other things, amazing physical properties that are very difficult to predict.”
Establishing the connection between these structures therefore helps scientists better understand how atoms organize under extreme conditions and expand the possibilities for designing modern materials. “Events such as nuclear explosions, lightning strikes and meteorite impacts function as real natural laboratories,” the scientists explain. “They allow us to observe forms of matter that we cannot easily reproduce in the laboratory.”
In fact, this research opens modern perspectives for the development of creative technologies, showing that even devastating events can leave behind discoveries that will be useful in the future.
This story originally appeared on WIRED Italy and was translated from Italian.