I'm not an expert on chemistry but it sounds like this would make it ridiculously hard to obtain a high quality sample. Copper can substitute for either lead si

I'm not an expert on chemistry but it sounds like this would make it ridiculously hard to obtain a high quality sample. Copper can substitute for either lead site; I'm not aware of macroscopic processes that would favor one over the other. Problems like that are usually handled ad hoc. The authors seem to have bumped and shuffled their way there through the darkness. For context, the preparation of tetrataenite was pursued for decades (first partial success October 2022) even though the structure was well-known and the constituents are just nickel and iron.