Abstract

BEDOLLA, Carlos Amador. Quasicrystals. Educ. quím [online]. 2012, vol.23, n.1, pp.69-70. ISSN 0187-893X.

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2011 was awarded to Daniel Schechtman for his discovery of nonperiodic long-range ordered atomic structures or quasicrystals. Because this discovery changed the paradigm on the requisites for the existence of a discrete diffraction pattern, its original acceptance was not straightforward; but the combination of thorough experimental evidence with previous mathematical developments forced the general acknowledgement of these facts. Recent discoveries of quasicrystalline structures in minerals have extended the fame of the concept.

Keywords : Nobel Prize 2011; quasicrystals; Penrose tilings.