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Published on: May 14, 2016
Discovery of a multicomponent alloy forged by the Hiroshima atomic blast
Luca Bindi1, Hans-Rudolf Wenk2, Mario Wannier3
1Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Via La Pira 4, I-50121 Firenze, Italy.
None:
High-energy nuclear detonations generate extreme, transient physicochemical environments capable of producing previously unknown materials. We report the discovery of a previously unknown multicomponent alloy preserved within a hiroshimaite spherule recovered from beach sands of Hiroshima Bay, formed during the 6 August 1945 atomic airburst. The micrometer-sized metallic grain occurs within a quenched glassy matrix. Electron microprobe analyses reveal a homogeneous, Si-rich multielement composition (Fe-Cr-Ni-Mn-Mo-Si-Al). Single-crystal x-ray diffraction shows that the phase crystallizes in space group P213 with the ordered AlAu4-type structure, an ordered derivative of β-Mn. The alloy likely formed by condensation from a mixed metallic vapor followed by ultrafast quenching in the expanding fireball. This finding demonstrates that nuclear plasma events may stabilize complex metallic phases and highlights atomic-blast debris as a natural laboratory for nonequilibrium alloy formation and materials discovery.
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