Andriy Zakutayev knows the odds of a scientist stumbling across a new nitride mineral are about the same as a ship happening upon a previously undiscovered landmass.
“If you find any nitride in nature, it’s probably in a meteorite,” said Zakutayev, a scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
Formed when metallic elements combine with nitrogen, nitrides can possess unique properties with potential applications spanning from semiconductors to industrial coatings. One nitride semiconductor served as the cornerstone of a Nobel Prize-winning technology for light-emitting diodes (LEDs). But before nitrides can be put to use, they first must be discovered—and now, researchers have a map to guide them.
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