Great Country Academician

In December 2023, the Xinghai Research Institute and NASA had a "cordial and friendly conversation" on the use of the Xinghai space shuttle to repair the Webb outer space telescope. The two parties "fully exchanged views" and finally reached a perfect agreement Cooperation goals.

cough.

After finishing the video call with NASA, Xu Chuan hung up the phone. A bright smile instantly appeared on his originally expressionless and even a little irritable face, and he clenched his fists and waved vigorously.

"Well done!"

If he could rate himself for this performance, he would rate himself 99 out of 100!

If you lose one point, you are afraid that you will be proud and enter the entertainment industry directly!

After all, he is handsome, has acting skills, and is famous. If he is not popular, who will be popular?

At present, although both parties in this video conference and cooperation have their own evil intentions, it is obvious that he is the one who makes more money.

After all, as long as there is no hijacking incident, even if NASA engineers wander around and look at Xinghai, they will still make money.

After all, the small controllable nuclear fusion reactor technology and aerospace engine are hidden inside the body, and you can only confirm a few things with a second glance.

Apart from these two core technologies, other technologies on the space shuttle are basically of little value to be honest.

Of course, this is of little value only to big aerospace countries like China and America.

As for most other countries, whether it is the life support system, the internal circulation system, or even the design of the wings, the materials used, etc., it is a treasure to obtain any one of them.

Currently, the only two countries that have the ability to send astronauts to the moon alone, no, even jointly, are China and the United States, right?

Even the European Union, and even Tsarist Russia, which inherited the Red Soviet aerospace fortune, lag far behind them in this regard.

After determining the general cooperation, the remaining specific matters can be left to Xinghai Research Institute.

Xu Chuan is not good at diplomatic work, nor does he like it very much.

His favorite fields are still academic and research and development.

Time passes, and more than a month has passed in the blink of an eye. It is the first ten days of the twelfth lunar month of 2023. In just one week, the annual winter vacation will come again.

In this season, Jinling has already entered the cold winter. On the campus of NTU, countless students wrapped in down jackets are rushing in and out, preparing for the last few days of classes and winter vacation.

Sitting in his office, Xu Chuan first made himself a cup of steaming coffee, and then took out the manuscripts he had compiled during this period on the quantization and mathematics of electrochemical microscopic reactions from the drawer.

"Quantum theoretical model of the microscopic substantive reaction process of electrochemistry! 》

Looking at the title on the manuscript, Xu Chuan gently blew the foam floating on the coffee and took a sip.

Electrochemistry is the science that studies the phenomenon of the charged interface formed by two types of conductors and the changes that occur on it. It is an important branch of traditional chemistry and the core pillar theory of today's battery industry.

He chose this field to start with, partly because electrochemistry is just a branch, and this branch is relatively simple enough compared to the large and complex field of traditional chemistry.

Yes, traditional chemistry is too complicated. The material structures of various atoms, molecules, ions (clusters), chemical bonds, intermolecular forces and other interactions. It is absolutely a huge project to establish a unified theory and model.

Electrochemistry only studies the charged interface phenomena and related changes formed by two types of conductors.

On the other hand, he has enough experimental data to support it.

Whether it is lithium-ion batteries brought by artificial SEI films or experimental data related to lithium-sulfur batteries, they can support him in completing research work in this area.

It is a very good choice to start with electrochemistry, break a hole in traditional chemistry, establish a theoretical model, and then continue in its direction.

However, for electrochemistry, since its development in the 1980s, no one has been able to provide a theoretical model that can be relied on to fully explain the chemical changes in the process.

For example, how to detect or simulate the dynamic structural changes of complex electrochemical interfaces under in-situ/working conditions at the microscopic level, and establish its relationship with macroscopic electrochemical performance?

Another example is how to construct a high-efficiency gas diffusion electrode three-phase interface, understand the mass transfer and charge transfer mechanism and its process enhancement?

These problems sound simple and seem not difficult to describe, but they are still world-class problems.

It can even be said that most chemistry students, even at the master's or doctoral level, have never heard of these problems in textbooks or from their instructors.

In fact, not only electrochemistry, but also many fields of traditional chemistry are facing this dilemma, that is, it is difficult for theoretical development to catch up with practical applications.

Quite simply, because compared to mathematics, chemistry is an experimental science.

Experiments are the basis, and all theoretical calculations are based on experimental results. Without experimental data, theoretical calculations would not be possible.

However, so far, experimental data in most fields of chemistry are theoretically sufficient for chemists to complete theorizing work.

As for why these problems have not been solved so far, on the one hand, it is because for electrochemistry, practical applications are more valuable than theory.

Many research institutions are more willing to invest funds in a specific problem of batteries and obtain patents and profits, rather than analyzing extremely difficult theoretical problems.

On the other hand, the difficulty of these problems is extremely high.

Just like mathematics, if it is not for true love, it can be said that it is difficult to carry out research in the field of pure mathematics.

Because the benefits brought by purely theoretical research are far less than those in the laboratory.

Theoretical chemistry goes even further on this basis.

Sometimes an experiment, if you are lucky, may solve a difficult problem.

However, the advancement of theoretical chemistry requires the accumulation of data from countless field experiments for calculation and development.

In many cases, even if the theory is solved, it is difficult to realize it. It benefits all mankind, rather than turning it into a patent and bringing wealth to one person.

But for academic development, if these questions are answered one by one, the impact will definitely be more important than solving a certain practical problem.

Apart from other things, if these problems can be solved, then there will be no problem in winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for several years.

This is also the reason why the selection committee members prefer theory and the changes brought about by theory, because work in the theoretical field changes the development of mankind and the process of civilization.

But even with the support of the Nobel Prize, there are still many theoretical problems in the field of chemistry.

Even if Xu Chuan wanted to establish theories and models for the microscopic substantive reaction processes of chemistry, it would be impossible to solve all the problems.

Some people may ask, if you can't solve these problems, how can you build a theoretical model for it?

This involves the core of theoretical work.

This is also the biggest problem in this theoretical research, and more than a month has been spent on it.

"Professor, are you free?"

In the office, while Xu Chuan was thinking about how to mathematically solve the difficult problem of the electrochemical microscopic reaction process, a clear and sweet voice sounded in his ears.

Xu Chuan turned around and saw that Liu Jiaying, his new primary school student just two months ago, was standing at the door looking at him.

Smiling, he asked: "What's wrong?"

Liu Jiaying hurriedly walked over, handed over the question paper in his hand, and asked: "I don't understand this question, can you explain it to me?"

"Let me take a look." Xu Chuan reached out and took the notebook and read it.

"Manifold Cn(R), which is a configuration space composed of all n different points in R3, each vector difference is equivalent to a phase., there is a continuous mapping fn for each n: Cn(R) → U(n)/T, is it compatible with the role of Sn."

The questions on the notebook came into view. Xu Chuan smiled and said, "The question about manifolds is quite interesting."

Saying something to himself, he stood up, walked to the other side of the office with his notebook, and pulled out a blackboard from the corner.

"Come here, let me explain it to you."

Hearing this, Liu Jiaying hurriedly came over. Xu Chuan glanced at the notebook in his hand, thought for a while and then said: "From the surface, this is a problem in the field of manifolds."

"But if you think deeply, you will find that it actually involves concepts in the field of permutation groups in addition to manifolds."

"First, construct a mapping n 1 degree polynomial pi =Yj=i(t tij ) about the variable t"

"Here you need to understand that the number of equivalence classes induced by the permutation group 〈G,·〉 is equal to the average number of invariants under each permutation in the permutation group."

In front of the blackboard, Xu Chuan did not directly give the answer to this question. Instead, he broke down the guiding ideas bit by bit based on his own understanding.

Standing aside, Liu Jiaying had a thoughtful look on his face and nodded in understanding.

This problem was somewhat beyond her scope of study. She had not yet studied the knowledge of group structure and displacement in depth. However, under Xu Chuan's explanation, she already had certain ideas and ideas about this type of problem.

"Solving this problem requires you to have a certain understanding of groups and number theory. If you go back and read more books, you should be able to solve it." He threw the chalk in his hand into the basket and looked at the man standing aside with a smile. Liu Jiaying said.

"Thank you, Professor."

"You're welcome, go ahead."

After clapping his hands, Xu Chuan smiled and glanced at Liu Jiaying, who was walking out with his notebook in his arms, and returned to his desk.

This newly recruited primary school student is worthy of being an IMO player with perfect scores, and his talent in mathematics is quite good.

As for how she compares with her sister, it depends on her own efforts and future luck.

But from now on, she is still quite diligent.

Sitting back at his desk, Xu Chuan picked up the manuscript in his hand again. Just when he was about to study the theory of quantum chemistry again, a light suddenly flashed in his mind.

Permutation groups, number theory, manifolds.

The mathematical knowledge points just explained to Liu Jiaying were suddenly re-introduced to his eyes, which made him stunned for a moment, with some contemplation in his eyes.

"If a Cn(R) type space is constructed by using n points in the manifold, the continuous mapping problem can be solved by using the permutation group Sn of n elements to act freely on Cn(R)."

“So can this idea be applied to quantum chemistry?”

"You know, the spin statistical theorem of quantum mechanics itself is related to this."

Xu Chuan muttered to himself, staring at the blackboard in front of him with unfocused eyes. Feasible theories were quickly assembled into a staircase by him like building blocks.

I don’t know how much time passed, but my unfocused eyes became bright again.

Staring at the blackboard not far away, a smile appeared on Xu Chuan's face. Perhaps, he knew how to solve the mathematical theory of establishing theories and models for the microscopic substantive reaction processes of chemistry!

PS: There will be another chapter later, but it will be quite late, it’s the end of the month, please give me a monthly pass.