Geochemists from Montreal (McGill University), Moscow (Moscow State University) and St. Petersburg (St. Petersburg State University) discovered new material in Siberia, which had previously been obtained only by artificial means. The authors' research is published in Science Advances and is briefly reported by EurekAlert!
Organometallic coordination polymers (MOCPs), which scientists first discovered in vivo in nature, are compounds of metal ions bound by rigid organic molecules, resulting in the formation of three-dimensional porous structures.
A publication in a Canadian journal prompted the authors to search for MOCP in natural conditions. In it, scientists reported that in the 1940s-1960s, a mineral with an indefinite crystal structure was discovered in Siberia. Powder X-ray diffraction, carried out by scientists, showed that the mineral resembles MOCP in its properties.
The scientists turned to their Russian colleagues and obtained the originals of two minerals, which were discussed in a Canadian journal. Samples of minerals found in a coal mine under permafrost conditions decades ago, as shown by subsequent analysis, do indeed admit classification as MOCP.
Scientists hope to find new minerals that meet the MOCP. These compounds are currently used to store hydrogen fuels or to absorb carbon dioxide. In the case of the massive discovery of natural MOCOs in the 1960s, progress in this area of technology, as scientists note, would accelerate by 30 years.