Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2022) 137: 562
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-022-02768-7

Regular Article

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

¹ Chelyabinsk State University, 454001, Chelyabinsk, Russia
² National University of Science and Technology “MISIS”, 119049, Moscow, Russia
³ National Research University “South Ural State University”, 454080, Chelyabinsk, Russia
⁴ TU Darmstadt, 64289, Darmstadt, Germany
⁵ SSAI/GSFC/NASA, 20706, Lanham, MD, USA
⁶ Scientific School “Chemistry and Technology of Polymer Materials”, Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, 117997, Moscow, Russia
⁷ Almetyevsk State Oil Institute, 423458, Almetyevsk, Tatarstan, Russia
⁸ Kyungpook National University, Daegu, South Korea

^a tsv@csu.ru
^c khovaylo@misis.ru

Received: 29 December 2021
Accepted: 25 April 2022
Published online: 7 May 2022

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.