Acid-etched iron meteorite slice, revealing the characteristic Widmanstatten pattern, indicative of slow cooling and crystallization within the iron-nickel cores of larger asteroids. Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Waifer X
Two teams of scientists recently manufactured an alien material that does not exist naturally on Earth, a substance called tetrataenite.
And no, we’re not talking about the plotline of the latest Sci-Fi blockbuster.
This is real, and it’s huge.
The research teams from the Northeastern University in Boston and the University of Cambridge may just have saved humanity from its own demise.
Picture this: A planet – specifically our planet, Earth – is being destroyed by its very inhabitants through highly destructive mining operations.
A heroic group of scientists save the day by recreating a unique alien substance – a metal alloy which negates the need to mine rare earth deposits.
This substance is called tetrataenite, and scientists will tell you it forms when “slow-cooled at a rate of a few degrees per million years, which allows for ordering of the Fe and Ni atoms”.
That’s just a fancy way of saying it’s a combination of nickel and iron cooled over millions of years while piggybacking through outer space on meteoroids and asteroids.
These extreme conditions result in the unique tetrataenite compound which, according to Professor Laura Henderson Lewis, is ideal for mining on Earth.
Fortunately, scientists on Earth won’t have to wait millions of years; they’ve found a way to reduce the process to a few seconds.
By mixing iron and nickel with phosphorus in the right quantities, the process is sped up by 15 orders of magnitude.
Professor Lindsay Greer from Cambridge’s Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy, who led the research, said no special treatment was required.
“We just melted the alloy, poured it into a mould, and we had tetrataenite. The previous view in the field was that you couldn’t get tetrataenite unless you did something extreme, because otherwise, you’d have to wait millions of years for it to form”, Greer said.
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The team said tetrataenite can be used in “high-end permanent magnets that are an essential component of a vast range of advanced machines – from electric vehicles to space shuttle turbines”.
So, why is tetrataenite such a big deal? Because the magnets used in these advanced machines acquire their special properties from rare earth deposits.
Rare Earth ore deposits are found all over the world – including South Africa, where the Steenkampskraal mine is regarded as the world’s highest-grade rare earth elements mine.
But spoiler alert, these deposits aren’t actually rare.
While we have these deposits in abundance, extracting rare earth elements is a different matter altogether.
Since these elements are mixed with other substances, separating them is not a walk in the park.
In some cases, these rare earth elements are combined with uranium or thorium, which are highly radioactive.
Not to mention the damage this entire process causes to our planet.
Synthetic tetrataenite could reduce the need for mining rare earth deposits altogether.
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It would likely also change the power struggle between the United States and China, where most of these magnets are produced.
In fact, China controls more than 71% of global rare earth extraction.
Scientists are not quite there yet, and more testing is required to determine how hardy tetrataenite really is.
Even then, it could take up to eight years before we could begin to manufacture ‘alien’ magnets. Nevertheless, it’s a step in the right direction.
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The research paper was published in the journal Advanced Science.