Book Review: Natural Quasicrystals: The Solar System’s Hidden Secrets. (2020) By Luca Bindi. SpringerBriefs in Crystallography. eBook ISBN 978-3-030-45677-1, $44.99. Softcover ISBN 978-3-030-45676-4, $59.99. 89 p. 61 illus., 21 illus. in color.Book Review: Natural Quasicrystals: The Solar System’s Hidden Secrets. (2020) By Luca Bindi. SpringerBriefs in Crystallography. eBook ISBN 978-3-030-45677-1, $44.99. Softcover ISBN 978-3-030-45676-4, $59.99. 89 p. 61 illus., 21 illus. in color.Quasicrystals, the third state of solids following crystals and glasses, have a unique crystallographic characteristic; their structures have five-, seven-, eight-, and higher-fold rotational symmetries that are strictly forbidden in crystals. An Al-Mn alloy with a five-fold symmetry axis was first made by Daniel Shechtman and his colleagues in 1984, followed by a theoretical explanation to its structure by Dov Levine and Paul J. Steinhardt in the same year. The discovery opened a new window to solid-state physics and chemistry, and their extensive contributions brought the 2011 Nobel prize in chemistry to Shechtman. On the contrary, natural examples had not been found despite prolonged efforts by mineralogists. A quarter-century after the first quasicrystal synthesis, natural analogues were finally discovered. How are they formed in rocks? What is the importance of natural quasicrystals in the fields of Earth and planetary sciences? Luca Bindi, who first discovered natural quasicrystals, icosahedrite and decagonite, answers these questions in his book: Natural Quasicrystals.This book consists of 9 chapters, each with separate reference lists. Following the general introduction in Chapter 1, Chapter 2 briefly describes the concept of quasicrystals and how the existence of quasicrystals was established after several years of disputes. The journey into the Solar System’s hidden secrets started from a peculiar sample labeled as “khatyrkite”, few millimeters in size, found in the collections of the Natural History Museum of the University of Florence (Italy). Chapter 3 highlights exciting stories including the discovery of the first natural Al-Cu-Fe quasicrystal icosahedrite by powder XRD, TEM, and EMPA, difficult but enthusiastic hunting for the original rocks in the Russian mountains of the Kamchatka peninsula, and finding the second natural quasicrystal with an Al-Ni-Fe composition, decagonite. Intriguingly, oxygen isotopic analyses found crucial evidence for the extraterrestrial origin of khatyrkite’s host rock as a carbonaceous chondrite, and that rock was named as the Khatyrka meteorite. In Chapter 4, the readers can understand what an “approximant to a quasicrystal” is and take a tour of these structures with colored illustrations. The structures seem very complicated, but the beauty of their geometries is purely fascinating.For the quasicrystal formation, high-pressure and high-temperature conditions are needed as suggested by an icosahedrite inclusion in a stishovite grain in the Khatyrka meteorite. Chapter 5 explains the stability and compressional behavior of icosahedrite using a laser-heated diamond anvil cell; the novel mineral is stable at least up to 50 GPa of pressure and temperatures lower than 1500 K. Another approach to the formation process of the quasicrystals are dynamic high-pressure experiments. Chapter 6 explains that the author and his colleagues have intensively performed shock recovery experiments up to around 20 GPa using target materials consisting of alloys and alloys-silicates composite to mimic the meteorites. Being tiny and of small amounts, icosahedrite and decagonite were successfully synthesized and characterized by microanalysis techniques such as TEM, EMPA, and SEM-EDS-EBSD. Based on the results of high-pressure experiments, the author explains in Chapter 7 a possible formation process of natural quasicrystals as a shock-induced melting and (quasi)crystallization mechanism by impact events on the parental asteroids in the Solar System. From the consideration of theoretical physics, Chapter 8 lays down the possible range of chemical compositions that can stabilize quasicrystal structures in the alloy systems based on the cluster-line approach. In the final Chapter 9, the author predicts more quasicrystals will be discovered in extraterrestrial materials deduced from the discovery of Al-bearing alloys in naturally shocked materials, and finally inspires us to do further studies on natural quasicrystals for a better understanding of the Universe.The book is currently the only available textbook on natural quasicrystals. Overall, it includes both basics and advanced discussions covering descriptive, experimental, and theoretical mineralogy, nevertheless is concise and written in plain sentences. It contains many intriguing photographs of quasicrystals including amazing high-resolution TEM images and electron diffraction patterns (a five-fold symmetric pattern!) that mineralogists had never seen. Therefore, it should be the best guide for mineralogists to the world of quasicrystals, although specific literatures on solid-state physics are needed for deeper understanding. This book is strongly recommended to both experienced mineralogists and petrologists, as well as beginners, and in particular, for the high-pressure mineral physics and meteoritics researchers.

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书评：天然准晶体：太阳系隐藏的秘密。(2020) 卢卡·宾迪 (Luca Bindi)。晶体学中的 SpringerBriefs。电子书 ISBN 978-3-030-45677-1，44.99 美元。平装 ISBN 978-3-030-45676-4，59.99 美元。89 页 61 插图，21 插图。颜色。书评：天然准晶体：太阳系隐藏的秘密。(2020) 卢卡·宾迪 (Luca Bindi)。晶体学中的 SpringerBriefs。电子书 ISBN 978-3-030-45677-1，44.99 美元。平装 ISBN 978-3-030-45676-4，59.99 美元。89 页 61 插图，21 插图。在颜色上。准晶体是继晶体和玻璃之后的第三种固体状态，具有独特的晶体学特征；它们的结构具有晶体中严格禁止的五、七、八和更高倍的旋转对称性。具有五重对称轴的 Al-Mn 合金由 Daniel Shechtman 及其同事于 1984 年首次制造，同年，Dov Levine 和 Paul J. Steinhardt 对其结构进行了理论解释。这一发现为固态物理和化学打开了一扇新的窗户，他们的广泛贡献为谢赫特曼带来了 2011 年的诺贝尔化学奖。相反，尽管矿物学家进行了长时间的努力，但尚未发现自然实例。在第一次准晶体合成后的四分之一个世纪，终于发现了天然类似物。它们是如何在岩石中形成的？天然准晶体在地球和行星科学领域的重要性是什么？最早发现天然准晶体、二十面体和十方晶石的 Luca Bindi 在他的著作《自然准晶体》中回答了这些问题。这本书由 9 章组成，每章都有单独的参考列表。继第 1 章的一般介绍之后，第 2 章简要描述了准晶的概念，以及经过几年的争论，准晶的存在是如何确立的。探索太阳系隐藏秘密的旅程始于在佛罗伦萨大学（意大利）自然历史博物馆的藏品中发现的标记为“khatyrkite”的奇特样本，其大小只有几毫米。第 3 章重点介绍了激动人心的故事，包括通过粉末 XRD、TEM 和 EMPA 发现第一个天然 Al-Cu-Fe 准晶二十面体，在堪察加半岛的俄罗斯山脉中艰难但热情地寻找原始岩石，以及找到第二个天然具有 Al-Ni-Fe 成分的准晶，十方石。耐人寻味的是，氧同位素分析发现了重要的证据，证明卡蒂尔克陨石的主岩是碳质球粒陨石的外星起源，该岩石被命名为卡蒂尔卡陨石。在第 4 章中，读者可以理解什么是“近似准晶体”，并通过彩色插图浏览这些结构。结构看起来很复杂，但它们的几何之美纯粹是令人着迷的。对于准晶体的形成，需要高压和高温条件，正如哈蒂尔卡陨石中stishovite颗粒中的二十面体包裹体所暗示的那样。第 5 章使用激光加热的金刚石砧座解释二十面体的稳定性和压缩行为；这种新型矿物在至少高达 50 GPa 的压力和低于 1500 K 的温度下是稳定的。准晶形成过程的另一种方法是动态高压实验。第 6 章解释说，作者和他的同事使用由合金和合金-硅酸盐复合材料组成的目标材料来模拟陨石，密集地进行了高达 20 GPa 左右的冲击恢复实验。二十面体和十方石体积小，含量少，成功合成并通过微量分析技术（如 TEM、EMPA 和 SEM-EDS-EBSD）进行表征。基于高压实验的结果，作者在第 7 章中解释了天然准晶体的可能形成过程，即太阳系母体小行星撞击事件引起的冲击诱导熔化和（准）结晶机制。从理论物理的考虑，第 8 章基于簇线方法列出了可以稳定合金系统中准晶结构的化学成分的可能范围。在最后的第 9 章中，作者根据在自然冲击材料中发现含铝合金的推论，预测将在外星材料中发现更多的准晶，并最终启发我们对天然准晶做进一步的研究，以更好地了解宇宙。该书是目前唯一一本关于天然准晶体的教科书。总体而言，它包括涵盖描述性、实验性和理论矿物学的基础和高级讨论，但简洁明了，用简单的句子写成。它包含许多有趣的准晶体照片，包括矿物学家从未见过的惊人的高分辨率 TEM 图像和电子衍射图案（五重对称图案！）。因此，它应该是矿物学家了解准晶体世界的最佳指南，尽管需要有关固态物理学的具体文献才能更深入地了解。本书强烈推荐给经验丰富的矿物学家和岩石学家以及初学者，特别是高压矿物物理学和陨石研究人员。