Great Country Academician

Hearing Brother Fan's question, Xu Chuan smiled and replied.

"There is nothing good or bad about the research and development of superconducting materials. Everyone is currently exploring."

"I chose copper-carbon-silver composite material because the mathematical model made by our laboratory can help it to a certain extent."

Hearing this, Fan Pengyue nodded and said: "This is possible. According to your explanation, some parameter information of these materials has already been entered."

Xu Chuan smiled and said: "Yes, there are two tasks for the research institute next, one is to collect and purchase some data on high-temperature superconducting materials, there is no need to be too urgent about this, and there is no need to force it, the best you can collect. It doesn't matter if you can't collect it."

"The main task is to conduct experiments on copper-carbon-silver composite materials. We can arrange for each official researcher to bring two assistants to conduct experiments starting from low-temperature superconducting materials, and then develop towards high-temperature superconducting materials. Record the data for each experiment. .”

Fan Pengyue nodded, got up and took out a notebook from the desk, recorded Xu Chuan's request and asked:

"Are there any other requirements? Do you only take the low-temperature and high-temperature route, or is the high-pressure route also filled in?"

At present, there are two main paths for exploring superconducting materials in the industry and material circles.

'ultra-low temperature' and 'ultra-high pressure'.

In fact, the so-called room temperature superconductivity is not unknown at present.

Professor Langa Dias of the University of Rochester, one of the Ivy League schools in the United States, and his team used a carbon-containing hydrogen sulfide system to refresh the record for the critical temperature of a superconductor.

His team used a research setup for testing tiny quantities of materials at extremely high pressures—the diamond-anvil counter-anvil—or fabricated a special carbon-containing hydrogen sulfide system and formed superconducting compounds at extreme high pressures. .

As the pressure increases, the superconducting transition temperature of this superconducting compound becomes higher and higher.

The material can superconduct at room temperature when the pressure reaches 267 ± 10 gigapascals, about 2.6 million times the atmospheric pressure at sea level.

But to be honest, this can only be used as data research material, and has no practical significance.

After all, it is very difficult to create a pressure environment of 10,000 atmospheres on a large scale. Therefore, at this stage, the use of ultra-low temperature is the only means to realize the commercialization of superconductivity.

However, since Xu Chuan proposed to conduct superconductivity experiments, he naturally had to ask whether to conduct only temperature superconductivity or pressure superconductivity as well.

After all, the high-voltage superconducting experiment can also bring a certain amount of data experience, which is still helpful for subsequent research.

Xu Chuan: "No, if you can find other laboratories to exchange or buy some foundations for ultra-high-voltage superconductivity experiments, it is fine, but there is no need to do it yourself."

"In addition, another group of people can be arranged to do an analysis of the low-temperature and high-temperature superconducting materials currently in the world."

"It doesn't have to be a researcher to do this, doctoral students and trainee researchers are fine."

"Mainly analyze the electronic structure of the material, the interaction between electrons, and the energy band structure. These can provide a certain basis for our own follow-up research."

Xu Chuan didn't know if he would be able to go down the road of ultra-high voltage superconducting materials.

But anyway, when he developed superconducting materials in his previous life, he did not take this path. He took the path of ultra-low temperature to low temperature and then to room temperature.

Compared with ultra-high-voltage superconducting materials, this route is easier, and it is also the mainstream route for research and development of superconducting materials.

Although he can directly prepare copper-carbon-silver composite superconducting materials, it is obviously not scientific.

At present, it is still necessary to do some relevant experiments honestly, accumulate some data and then take out the superconducting materials.

Otherwise, there is no experimental data at all, and they go straight to copper-carbon-silver composite superconducting materials, which is completely inconsistent with the requirements of material research and development.

The last time he developed an artificial SEI film, it could be regarded as a straight-forward approach.

Once again, it is still a more important superconducting material. It is estimated that the spies around him or people with malicious intentions will be piled up directly.

For the sake of safety, it is better to follow the conventional steps of material research and development bit by bit, so as not to add too much burden to the country.

Moreover, there is no need to take out the room-temperature superconducting material directly at one time. The superconducting material used in this controllable nuclear fusion reactor is enough to use high-temperature superconducting materials.

The so-called high-temperature superconductivity does not actually refer to superconductivity under the conditions of hundreds of thousands of high temperatures that most people think. Instead, the temperature has increased a lot on the basis of superconducting materials previously studied using liquid helium.

In general, the temperature of high-temperature superconductivity usually refers to materials that are superconducting above the liquid nitrogen temperature of 77 K (approximately 196°C to 150°C).

Some people may think that it is close to two hundred degrees below zero, how can this be called high-temperature superconductivity.

But the fact is that in the era of liquid helium superconductivity, people often have to lower the temperature of low-temperature superconducting materials to minus two hundred and seventy degrees.

The temperature of high-temperature superconductivity has been raised by nearly 70 to 130 degrees. In contrast, when the phenomenon of high-temperature superconductivity was discovered at that time, it was naturally called an increase in temperature.

At present, the research on high-temperature superconducting materials is still the most cutting-edge field in various laboratories in various countries. The two main research objects are copper-based superconductors and iron-based superconductors, and there is no large-scale application for the time being.

Therefore, Xu Chuan plans to sell the copper-carbon-silver composite high-temperature superconducting staged results to make a fortune.

For him, this kind of money is nothing but nothing.

At present, there are very few high-temperature superconducting materials that can be practically applied on the market. Even CERN's large-scale strong particle collider still uses low-temperature superconducting materials for the time being, and uses liquid helium for freezing.

If it is replaced with a high-temperature superconductor and liquid nitrogen is also used for freezing, the cost can be reduced by hundreds or even thousands of times.

The simplest is the different prices of liquid helium and liquid nitrogen.

If liquid helium costs 1,000 yuan per ton, then liquid nitrogen costs 1 yuan per ton. Such a large gap is enough for high-temperature superconductivity to be widely used in some fields that could not be used otherwise.

This is a relatively blank field, but the market is equally huge.

The laboratory also needs to make money, and Xu Chuan has a big plan in mind, which needs countless funds to support.

So if you can get a little more wool from those Western countries, just get a little more.

"By the way, are you personally involved in the research and development of superconducting materials and carbon-based materials?"

In the office, after remembering Xu Chuan's request, Fan Pengyue asked curiously.

This is very important to him or to the entire institute. The participation of one more Nobel laureate will definitely increase the scientific research force exponentially.

And he also wanted to judge from this point whether this little junior wanted to study these two materials on a whim or whether he was already sure about it.

If he personally participated in the research and development, there is a high probability that he already has a little bottom in his heart. If he doesn't participate, it may be that he wants to accumulate some data and pave the way for the research institute.

The two different paths will naturally consume different scientific research funds, and he has to control this aspect well.

Xu Chuan thought for a while and said, "I won't participate in the previous research. After you have accumulated some experimental data, send the data to me first. I will study it first and then participate in the experiment."

Fan Pengyue nodded and said, "That's fine too. If there are no other requirements, then follow this plan."

"However, to study these things at present, there is still a lack of some equipment that needs to be purchased. Apart from other things, a spin-resolved angle-resolved photoelectron spectrometer is a must, and ion doping equipment is also required."

Xu Chuan: "Well, just make a list of these things for me. In terms of scientific research equipment, you can't be frugal, just buy what you need."

Scientific research equipment and scientific research personnel are one of the two keys in the scientific research process.

Just like a spin-resolved angle-resolved photoelectron spectrometer, one with top performance costs tens of millions, but without it, it is impossible to study the mechanism of superconductivity.

The process of measuring data is like fishing.

In this process, the angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy instrument is like a "fishing rod", the light source is a "fishing line" and "fishhook", the superconducting sample to be tested is a "fish pond", and the electrons are "small fish".

If you want to know what kind of "fish" is in the "pond", you can "catch" it out to see.

Only with advanced angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy can we know the electronic structure of superconducting materials, which is an important part of superconducting mechanism research.

After arranging the mission of Chuanhai Materials Research Institute, Xu Chuan returned to Nanjing University.

As soon as he returned to Nantah, someone came to his door.

"Hey, Professor Zhou, why come to my place when you have time?"

Xu Chuan stood up with a smile, greeted the middle-aged man in front of him, then looked at the students behind him and said hello together.

The person who came was Professor Zhou Hai from the School of Mathematics, who could be regarded as half of his teacher. When he was an undergraduate student, he did not have a tutor in mathematics because he followed Chen Zhengping.

But Zhou Hai taught him a lot and laid a lot of foundation for him on the path of mathematics.

Zhou Hai joked with a smile: "The big professor in our school, the winner of the Nobel Prize + Philippine Prize, why don't you come by from time to time to get acquainted?"

Xu Chuan bowed his hands with a smile, and said, "Just let me go."

Zhou Hai shook his head with a smile and said, "Speaking of business, I want to ask if you have any plans to recruit students next year?"

Xu Chuan thought for a while, and said, "I don't know yet, but Professor Zhou wants to recommend students to me?"

Zhou Hai nodded and said, "Well, I really want to recommend it to you."

As he spoke, he kicked the student who was following behind him, and cursed, "Why are you still standing behind?"

Behind him, a young man stood up in embarrassment and said hello to Xu Chuan: "Professor Xu, long time no see."

Xu Chuan looked at it twice, felt a little familiar, suddenly realized, and said with a smile: "Senior Brother Cai, long time no see."

Hearing this, Cai Peng waved his hands nervously and said, "Just call me Xiao Cai, I really can't afford it, brother."

Xu Chuan smiled, and on the opposite side, Zhou Hai went on laughing and said:

"Cai Peng, the student who followed me to study for a Ph.D. is the one who led to the re-opening of the graduation thesis because of the Weyl-Berry conjecture when you were still an undergraduate."

"However, thanks to your interruption, this kid seems to have become enlightened in the past two years. He has gained a lot of insight in mathematics research and has already received a notice from Princeton."

"It's just that this kid doesn't seem to want to go abroad very much, so I want to ask you to see if you will accept students next year. If possible, I want to study with you."

"Of course, if you have no plans for next year, just let him go to Princeton honestly."

PS: One shift will be delivered, and there will be two shifts in the evening, asking for a monthly ticket