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Close-aligned quasicrystal grains can merge into a single grain, a 2021 study found—but it did not establish a simple, universal recipe for producing flawless quasicrystals. Researchers observed the process in one aluminium-cobalt-nickel alloy and used computer simulations to investigate how it might happen at the atomic scale.
What the researchers observed
Insung Han and colleagues studied how a decagonal quasicrystal formed as an Al79Co6Ni15 alloy solidified. Using synchrotron-based, time-resolved three-dimensional X-ray tomography, they watched multiple grains grow and collide. The team cooled the alloy at 1 °C per minute from above its liquidus temperature, reported as about 1026 °C. When grains with sufficiently similar orientations met, they coalesced into a single quasicrystal grain.
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Quasicrystals have long-range order but lack translational symmetry—the repeating pattern found in ordinary crystals. A boundary between grains can affect a material’s properties, so forming one grain without a persistent boundary where grains meet is a potential materials-processing goal. The observation, however, concerns this particular alloy and experimental setup, not every quasicrystal system. The study in Nature Communications was published on 11 October 2021.
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How the proposed merging mechanism works
The experiment showed grains coalescing; molecular-dynamics simulations helped the researchers examine the possible atomic-scale explanation. In those simulations, grains with small initial misorientations could rotate toward alignment. Phasons—rearrangements associated with quasicrystalline order—helped accommodate and relax strain as the grains adjusted. The paper’s abstract summarizes the simulated mechanism as coalescence following rigid rotation facilitated by phasons.
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This distinction matters: the simulations offer a mechanism for the observed behavior, but the experiment did not directly establish every detail of that mechanism. As Chemistry World’s report on the study notes, the experimental observation does not independently prove what the simulations show.
What the 9.5° estimate does—and does not—mean
The simulations estimated a critical seed misorientation of approximately 9.5° under the conditions modeled. Below that estimate, grains could rotate toward alignment and coalesce; it should not be treated as a universal cutoff for making quasicrystals. The researchers note that the transition may depend on temperature, grain size, fluid viscosity and external stress. A different material or processing setup could therefore behave differently.
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Is this a simple synthesis recipe?
No. The study demonstrates grain coalescence in a specific alloy during solidification; it does not report a broadly usable manufacturing process or show that the resulting material is free of every kind of defect. Deliberately creating grains with low misorientation so they can merge during sintering is a possible application raised in the news report, not an established industrial method. Turning the finding into a reliable process would require demonstrating that the approach works under defined production conditions.
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