Special mineral mine found in Siberia

Researchers have discovered strange minerals inside a mine in Siberia. What is special is that these minerals are unlike anything found before in nature.

In the 1980s, scientists studied and developed the same mineral in the laboratory, thinking that the mineral had never existed in nature.

The minerals created in the laboratory are called organic metal frames or MOFs and they act almost like sponge molecules, which can absorb gases such as hydrogen and carbon dioxide or create solar panels. Extremely effective amount.

You can imagine that in a world where CO2 emissions are threatening the future habitat of this planet, the special minerals we have just found are extremely useful. For that reason, for decades, researchers have improved MOFs, slowly improving them without any doubt that MOFs can exist in nature.

Specimens are found in the mine.(Photo: Igor Huskić, Friščić Research Group, McGill University / Sciencealert).

Researcher Tomislav Friščić from McGill University, Canada, said: "The discovery of similar mineral structures that can be found in Siberia has completely changed the usual view of common minerals. As high as artificial solids, this will increase the possibility of survival of other, richer minerals besides MOFs. "

Oddly enough, the two real samples of stepanovite and zhemchuzhnikovite were actually discovered more than 70 years ago at Siberian mines, exactly between 1940 and 1960. However, due to the limitations of Science and technology at the time, the structure and characteristics of these materials were not properly tested.

They almost fell into oblivion until Friščić found an old mineral study in 2010 and realized that describing the structure of these materials was similar to the MOFs created in the laboratory.

Without the original physical samples, Friščić decided to recreate the two minerals found in Siberia in the laboratory and it showed that they were really similar to MOFs. But it was not until two Russian associates actually followed physical samples for decades and analyzed their structure, the team was able to confirm this result. Research results have also been published in Science Advances.

Like laboratory MOFs, two physical samples, stepanovite and zhemchuzhnikovite, are also structured like a delicate honeycomb with large molecular level gaps as you can see below:

Structure of stepanovite and zhemchuzhnikovite.(Photo: McGill University / Sicencealert).

In fact, someday, MOFs can help us absorb excess CO2 from hundreds of years and that is indeed very interesting.

But for now, we may not be able to use two minerals found in Siberia early because their structure is not yet fully absorbable and it is difficult to obtain them. The specimen in Siberia lies 250 meters deep under the permafrost and only a very small amount is collected.

Instead, researchers are also looking at this finding as a sign that there are more MOF-based substances that exist in nature and they also hope. From there we can use them to absorb carbon as well as develop their versions better in the laboratory.

These are evidence that it will never be too late for science to bring new things.