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Exotic carbon microcrystals in meteoritic dust of the Chelyabinsk superbolide: experimental investigations and theoretical scenarios of their formation

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Abstract

When a space body enters Earth’s atmosphere, its surface is exposed to high pressure and temperatures. The airflow tears off small droplets from the meteoroid forming a cloud of meteorite dust. Can new materials be synthesized in these unique conditions (high temperature, pressure, gaseous atmosphere, catalysts)? As a rule, meteoritic dust dissipates in the atmosphere without a trace or is mixed with terrestrial soil. The Chelyabinsk superbolide, the biggest in the twenty-first century, which exploded on February 15, 2013 above snowy fields of the Southern Urals, was an exception. The unique carbon crystals with a size of several micrometers, which were not observed before, were found during an in-depth study of the meteoritic dust. In order to explain the experimental findings, a multiple twin growth mechanism for the formation of closed shell graphite microcrystals was proposed based on DFT and classical/ab initio MD simulations. It was found that among several possible embryo carbon nanoclusters, the C60 fullerene and polyhexacyclooctadecane –C18H12– may be the main suspects, responsible for the formation of the experimentally observed closed shell quasi-spherical and hexagonal rod graphite microcrystals.

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Acknowledgements

We sincerely thank all students and staffs of Chelyabinsk State University who were involved in the process of meteoritic dust collection. This work was partially supported by Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation in the framework of Increase Competitiveness Program of NUST “MISIS” (No. K2-2020-045), implemented by a governmental decree dated 16th of March 2013, N 211. P.A. acknowledges Kyungpook National University Research Fund, 2021.

Funding

Ministry of Science and Higher Education, K2-2020-045, Vladimir Khovaylo, Kyungpook National University, research found, Pavel Avramov.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chelyabinsk State University, Chelyabinsk, 454001, Russia

    Sergey Taskaev, Alexander Dudorov & Galina Savosteenko

  2. National University of Science and Technology “MISIS”, Moscow, 119049, Russia

    Sergey Taskaev, Vladimir Khovaylo & Dmitry S. Muratov

  3. National Research University “South Ural State University”, Chelyabinsk, 454080, Russia

    Sergey Taskaev

  4. TU Darmstadt, 64289, Darmstadt, Germany

    Konstantin Skokov, Wolfgang Donner, Tom Faske & Oliver Gutfleisch

  5. SSAI/GSFC/NASA, Lanham, MD, 20706, USA

    Nick Gorkavyi

  6. Scientific School “Chemistry and Technology of Polymer Materials”, Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, Moscow, 117997, Russia

    Dmitry S. Muratov

  7. Almetyevsk State Oil Institute, Almetyevsk, Tatarstan, 423458, Russia

    Alexander Dyakonov

  8. Kyungpook National University, Daegu, South Korea

    Woohyeon Baek, Artem Kuklin & Pavel Avramov

Authors
  1. Sergey Taskaev
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  2. Konstantin Skokov
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  3. Vladimir Khovaylo
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  6. Alexander Dudorov
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Contributions

ST discovered carbon particles, planned and supervised the whole project, wrote the paper. KS, AD, VK & OG provided scientific support and contributed to the discussions. GS & ST made optic investigations and all samples preparations. NG discovered mineral whiskers and organized with AD collection of meteoritic dust. WD & TF performed XRD investigations and particles extraction. WB and AK performed DFT and MD simulations of multiply twinned carbon nano- and microcrystals, PA suggested structural models of multiply twinned carbon nano- and microcrystals and suggested the mechanisms of their formation. ST & DSM made SEM and Raman measurements and analyze them. All the authors contributed to the manuscript preparation.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Sergey Taskaev or Vladimir Khovaylo.

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Taskaev, S., Skokov, K., Khovaylo, V. et al. Exotic carbon microcrystals in meteoritic dust of the Chelyabinsk superbolide: experimental investigations and theoretical scenarios of their formation. Eur. Phys. J. Plus 137, 562 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-022-02768-7

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