I Have a Research Support System

Meeting room on the third floor of Material 1, group meeting.

Wei Xingsi was the first to say: "Congratulations to Xu Qiu for publishing an article on AM and an article on "Joule". I will give you the reward for the article later. Everyone applauds."

After finishing speaking, everyone looked at Xu Qiu enviously and clapped their hands.

And Wei Xingsi was smiling, but he was muttering in his heart:

'Originally, the article bonus policy was originally estimated according to the publication situation when I was in the beautiful country. At that time, I thought that it would be very good to publish five to eight articles with an impact factor of about 10 in the one-year group. The expenditure is no more than 10,000 to 20,000 a year, and part of the labor costs in the project can be reimbursed. If it is not enough, it is acceptable to pay some by yourself. '

'As a result, the students in the group now publish AM-level articles twice every three days. One article costs 4,000 yuan, and "Joule" with an impact factor of 30 costs 6,000 yuan. After that, there may be "Natural Energy "This kind of impact factor exceeds 40...'

"Following this trend, I'm afraid I have to sell the houses in the beautiful country or Shanghai to support these students..."

Ten seconds later, after the applause gradually subsided, Wei Xingsi said, "Let's have a group meeting."

Wu Feifei first reported that she continued to write the work of "Introducing ITIC non-fullerene-like stacked devices into two-dimensional perovskites" last week. The current progress is about 50%, and the target journal is JMCA.

Sun Wo ACSAMI's article has been held back for more than a month, and finally it was released. After three days of revisions with Wu Feifei and Wei Xingsi, the article was corrected and submitted last Sunday.

The two backbones in the field of perovskite in the group have basically cleared the work at hand, and they are also trying to find new research directions.

In the end, they chose a more conservative research strategy. The route they took was the one that the organic photovoltaic field in the group has gone through, or is now going. The main work is some conceptual work, including: "Based on two-dimensional perovskite Semi-transparent devices", "True stacked devices based on two-dimensional perovskite" and so on.

On the one hand, it is because they realize that their own hard power is not strong enough, and they do not have the courage to develop new materials to hit the world record of efficiency in a certain subdivision of perovskite, so they have to choose some leftovers to do the work.

On the other hand, it is also because the main person in charge of the perovskite team is Wu Feifei. She is now in her second year of Ph.D. , Insufficient pioneering spirit.

Otherwise, if there is a sudden major breakthrough in the third year of the Ph.D., you will face the situation of choosing between the essay or the delay of graduation.

If you are determined to engage in scientific research and go all the way to the dark side, you don’t need to think too much about it, and you will be done. But Wu Feifei is not sure about the next path, whether it is to go abroad to do a postdoctorate, to develop in the industry, Or choose another path.

Foreign postdocs, especially the better research groups, are not so easy to get in now. Generally, postdocs are required to bring their own funds for research. Many large groups do not accept postdocs without funds, and many of them are beautiful. Chinese schools do not recognize domestic doctoral degrees, so you need to read a doctorate again.

However, with Wu Feifei's current scientific research results and her background in Shanghai's comprehensive university, it is not difficult to find a postdoctoral position in a better research group in Pretty Country, and Wei Xingsi also has some contacts in Pretty Country that can be used For example, you can recommend her to Bazan's research group, or some research groups in NREL before.

Wu Feifei was actually quite conflicted.

As the saying goes, no comparison does no harm.

Although she has also won the national award now, her scientific research output is also overwhelming that of other doctoral students in the same grade.

But the existence of Xu Qiu in the group made her doubt herself:

Are you really good enough? Is it really suitable for scientific research?

If you are not good enough and cannot be the top group of people in the scientific research circle, how should you go on the road of scientific research in the future?

It is foreseeable that the sea of ​​scientific research will only become more and more popular, and the room for advancement of scientific researchers who are not top-notch will become smaller and smaller.

If there is no room for improvement, maybe it is a better choice to go to the industry to develop?

At least now that Chen Wanqing and Duan Yun in the group have graduated, they can still earn 200,000 a year.

Although I am not as good as Xu Qiu in terms of scientific research achievements, I am still comparable to them. There is a high probability that I can find a job with the same price or even a higher price.

If you take the road of scientific research, if you are an ordinary scientific research worker, your salary before retirement may not even reach 20W.

Wu Feifei's considerations are more realistic, she purely regards scientific research as a business, and cares more about material gains and losses.

In fact, for each individual, this is also an inevitable choice.

After six years of primary school, three years of junior high school, three years of high school, four years of university, five years/six years of master's degree and 21/22 years of hard work, the income and expenditure during this period are calculated and deducted from tuition fees. Mostly negative income.

Moreover, how many 20 years can there be in life?

After working so hard for so many years, I must consider finding a good place for my future.

Of course, if you have a mine at home, then you don't have to be so entangled, just do what you want, and the interest comes first.

Unfortunately, most people do not have mines at home.

Duan Yun is still the same. Although he still hasn't received a formal offer, two companies entered Ermian last week. In addition, his hometown Taicheng Vocational and Technical College has a teaching position as a guarantee, so he is not very panicked.

In addition, his graduation project is almost finished. Last week, everyone in the research team was invited to drink milk tea to help him check for formatting and typos.

Tian Qing continued to carry out "Research on the charge transport mechanism of non-fullerene systems with linear changes in three HOMO energy level differences", and there was not much progress. He was mainly waiting for the test data from Feng Shengdong in Sweden before deciding which model to use. explain.

Chen Wanqing’s graduation thesis is basically finished. She has more content than Duan Yun, but she writes it faster than Duan Yun. The main reason is that many of the contents have been written in Chinese in the previous annual fund report, so they can be copied and pasted directly. That's it.

Last week, she mainly helped Xu Qiu to do repeated experiments and some basic characterization of the "full solution, colorful, translucent device" system, and now the data is complete.

At the same time, she formally signed an internship contract with Blue River last week, and fixed three days a week. Although the salary in name has not been reduced, but because she has to pay taxes, the actual money she gets should be less.

The less here is really only less. A salary of 10,000 yuan requires about 300 yuan of tax.

Usually, a lot of deductions are due to the need to pay social security, provident fund, etc., and those are the major deductions from wages.

Interns who have not yet graduated cannot sign a formal labor contract, so they do not need to pay social security.

Speaking of which, the senior sister just found a corresponding job, which is quite rare in the material major.

Most people have changed careers. For example, among the several positions Duan Yuntou has, none of them are related to thermoelectricity.

In addition, the squeegee coating machine developed by Blue River, the film produced by squeegee coating is relatively stable now, and the first generation prototype machine is being assembled and tried to sell.

After receiving the news, Wei Xingsi said on the spot: "Let's buy Blue River's first machine."

On the one hand, it is to give support to the partners. On the other hand, the group really needs such a machine now, which can make the experimental methods more diversified in the future.

Finally it was Xu Qiu's turn to report, although he really wanted to share the results of Y4 and Y5 with everyone, so that others would know that he had broken through the device efficiency to 14.8%, close to 15%.

But Xu Qiu still suppressed his restless heart, and reported seriously:

"Last week, Han Jiaying and I synthesized PTQ1, the first-generation donor of the PTQ series, and purchased the raw materials for the Y series of acceptors. In addition, progress has been made in stacked devices..."

Although Xu Qiu mentioned many directions, he didn't go into details, but left it to other people to explain.

Han Jiaying wrote about 30% of the AM article on J4 donor materials last week, and she also reported the progress of the experiment last week:

"The PTQ1 donor material was synthesized last week. The main advantages of this material are fewer synthesis steps and a simple molecular structure. At the same time, basic characterization tests have been done. The band gap of PTQ1 is about 1.7 electron volts..."

"The photoelectric performance of PTQ1 is also good. When combined with benchmark non-fullerene acceptor materials, including ITIC, IDIC, IEICO, etc., they all show high device performance, which can reach more than 11%. Combined with IDIC-4F, the efficiency It can even reach 12.8%..."

Wu Shengnan was mainly writing articles last week, IHIC and 4TIC two kinds of materials, the target journals are JMCA and CM respectively.

Among them, IHIC's JMCA has been written and submitted, and 4TIC's CM has completed 40% of the progress.

Mo Wenlin continues to work on the ternary system, the current system is J2:PCE10:IEICO-4F, the performance is not bad, and the device efficiency can reach more than 12%.

Her previous three ternary systems were all based on one donor and two acceptors. In order not to repeat the previous system, this system uses two donors and one acceptor material.

It is important to differentiate the work you do now from the work you have done in the past.

If Mo Wenlin continues to work on the system of one donor and two acceptors, although it is unlikely that the article will not be published, but it was originally possible to publish the AM, but now it may only publish the sub-journal AFM.

At the same time, she also reported the results of the "four-terminal method" laminated device that Xu Qiu helped to do last week.

Because the preparation process of the "four-terminal method" is much more complicated than that of the "two-terminal method", she does not have many systems:

The bottom battery uniformly chose the J2:IDIC-4F system with the best performance (efficiency 13.5%), while the top battery tried four different systems.

Among them, in the best stacking system, the effective layer material of the top cell is PCE10:IEICO-4F (efficiency 12.3%), and the device efficiency can reach 12.5%.

It seems that "13.5%+12.3%=12.5%", the efficiency has not exceeded the height of the original single-junction system, and the previous "two-terminal method" of "12%+10%=9%", "13%+10%= 10%" is about the same.

It seemed like the attempt had failed again, but it wasn't.

Because when people look at stacked devices, they actually treat stacked devices as a whole.

I don't pay special attention to the performance of the original device, but only in the same subdivision field, that is, make a horizontal comparison with other stacked devices.

However, the preparation threshold of organic photovoltaic laminated devices is relatively high, and there are relatively few research groups. In addition, there are no good materials before. The acceptor is almost only PCBM, and the donor is only a few donor materials such as PCE10. the shot.

Therefore, the world record of the laminated system at this stage is only 12.28%.

That is to say, Xu Qiu asked Mo Wenlin to try stacked devices, took a casual step, and accidentally broke the world record for efficiency in a segment of organic photovoltaics!

As a result, he had no choice but to change the strategy he had set before.

Originally, Xu Qiu planned to ask Mo Wenlin to make the laminated device first, and to synthesize the Y-series receptor material by himself.

Now that he sees the hope of the rise of stacked devices, he plans to follow up at the same time.

Xu Qiu now has a deep understanding of the field of organic photovoltaics, and soon thought of five possible "optimization ideas for stacked devices", and left all these ideas to senior simulation experimenters to explore.

Next, the four undergraduate students reported that they had completed the opening defenses for the two projects they applied for.

Wei Xingsi announced the end of the group meeting, and at the same time called Xu Qiu to the office alone.

After closing the door of 218, Wei Xingsi did not hide it, and said directly: "For the article bonus, I will transfer 1W to you later, but I think our research group needs to change the rules in the future, according to an impact factor of 200 yuan Some are too expensive, and now the labor fee in the group is almost out of money, and the new project has not yet been applied for, so poor..."

Wei Xingsi changed the subject, and continued: "But if you don't give rewards for publishing articles, it's not very good, and it will inhibit the enthusiasm of students to work. What do you think, Xu Qiu? Do you have any good suggestions?"

"Uh..." Xu Qiu acted like he was thinking, and began to calculate in his heart.

The team currently has about 3 million fund project funds, of which about 15% is labor costs, which is about 45W, an average of about 9W a year.

It seems that 9W a year is a lot, but in fact, subsidies are given to the students in the group every month.

Now Xu Qiu and Wu Feifei receive slightly more subsidies, 3,800 and 1,500 yuan respectively.

For other people in the group, the monthly subsidy for each person is about 500-1000 yuan.

Because the school subsidy is only 600 yuan, master students are paid more, usually 1000 yuan, and doctoral students are paid less because the school subsidizes 2000 yuan, usually 500 yuan.

There are currently thirteen members in the research group. Except for Wu Shengnan, there are four new undergraduates who need to be paid. There are eight people in total. Mo Wenlin and Han Jiaying are paid as doctoral students and master students respectively. .

Eight people add up to a total of about 8,800 yuan per month, which is 88,000 yuan a year. If calculated based on 90,000 labor costs per year, the average annual balance is 2,000 yuan. If other labor expenses are deducted, the annual balance will become negative. up.

Of course, because there were relatively few people in the research group in the past few years, and there was no big labor fee eater like Xu Qiu, so there was still some labor fee left.

But now the number of scientific research achievements is expanding too fast. In the past year, Xu Qiu led the organic photovoltaic team, and published about 10 articles at the AM level. Including other CM and JMCA with an impact factor of about 10, there are also 10 articles. about.

It is estimated that a total of 50,000 to 60,000 yuan in bonuses were distributed around Wei Xingsi, which has almost covered the remaining part of the project, and may even make up for the gap of tens of thousands.

Moreover, before Wei Xingsi returned to China, he had a lot of start-up funds. If there are no major projects in the future, for example, if he fails to apply for key projects and outstanding youth projects, according to the current situation to send money to students, the gap will only become bigger and bigger.

Xu Qiu didn't pay much attention to the article bonus.

On the one hand, he has basically realized the freedom of wealth at the "student stage". As long as he doesn't mention buying a house, he basically doesn't have to worry about material needs. This kind of annual bonus of 1W or 2W is not very useful because of the marginal effect.

And what is more important to him at this stage is to improve himself, and the ability to obtain sustainable and stable income in the future is the kingly way.

Most of the time, making quick money can be harmful. It is a matter of habit. It is easy to go from frugal to extravagant, but difficult to go from extravagant to frugal.

I am used to making quick money. If one day I can't make this money, then it is easy to have problems in my mentality.

Of course, quantitative changes lead to qualitative changes. If it is 500W or 1000W, it will be different.

This kind of quick money, Xu Qiu said, the more the better, even if the deposit bank does not pursue the return on investment, it can basically leave a way out for yourself, and you don't have to worry about it for half your life.

On the other hand, Xu Qiu knew that even if he cared about the bonus, nothing would change.

Because doing scientific research is similar to doing business. It is not a capital market or real estate. There is no leverage, and money cannot be used to generate money. The total amount of money is limited, and it is impossible to make more money out of thin air.

Now there is a gap, either apply for more projects to get more funding, or Wei Xingsi directly subsidizes money for subsidies, or cuts student subsidies, there is no other way.

Specifically, most vertical projects such as surface projects have limited requirements, and it is impossible to acquire a large number of projects. For horizontal projects, organic photovoltaics or perovskite photovoltaics have no application value in the short term, and few companies are willing to develop them. This way doesn't work.

It is not a problem for Wei Xingsi to keep posting money to do scientific research.

Then we can only cut the student's subsidy, which is bound to happen.

There are roughly two options, one is to reduce the basic monthly subsidy for students, and the other is to reduce the bonus for publishing articles.

In fact, even in a top domestic university like Shanghai University, most of the research groups in the Materials Department don't have much funding.

More than half of the research groups have survived a general project, which is 80W for four years, and the labor fee accounts for 15%, which is 12W. On average, it is 3W a year and 3,000 per month.

In other words, all the students in the entire research group will be given a total of 3,000 yuan a month in subsidies.

The policy of most research groups is that doctoral students do not receive subsidies, but only get 2,000 from the school, master students receive a symbolic 500, and the school subsidies add up to 1,100. Anyway, food and lodging are all in the school, and more than 1,000 can basically not starve to death.

Therefore, don't be surprised when you hear that some people have already graduated from graduate school and ask their families for money, because it is really normal.

Moreover, for graduate students of biochemical and environmental materials, there are few part-time jobs that can be done, and maybe they can only do tutoring.

What's more, I'm already on 996, and I still want to work part-time, how can I have so much time and energy.

This is the danger of involution. When the total amount of resources that can be allocated is fixed, the harder people work, the lower the average rate of return will be.

In addition, even if the total amount of resources that can be allocated is not fixed, but will increase with the increase in the amount of labor, it may lead to the same result.

For example, in the actual production process of the processing and manufacturing industry, the more work done, the higher the gross output value, which seems to be more pay for more work.

But in fact, not all the things produced are valuable, and only when it is consumed by people can its value be revealed.

If 1 billion bowls are needed in the market, and 1.5 billion bowls are produced due to extra labor, then the value of the extra 500 million bowls will be greatly reduced, and the average rate of return will therefore become lower.

This is why people hate "scabs". More pay for more work is true when productivity is not saturated, but not necessarily true for more work and more pay when there is excess production capacity.

On the contrary, some people will lose their jobs due to overcapacity and the factory does not need too many employees.

To sum it up, Wei Xingsi didn't have much choice. He could go two ways, either reducing the student's monthly subsidy, or reducing the bonus for publishing articles.

Although Xu Qiu had a rough idea in his mind, he didn't want to express his opinion on this matter, so he shook his head and responded silently. Moreover, he knew that when Wei Xingsi asked this question, he probably had already thought about the answer in his heart.

Sure enough, seeing Xu Qiu's silence, Wei Xingsi took the initiative to say, "See if this works. We will publish articles in the future, not according to the impact factor, and we will set a unified price of 2,000 yuan for an article in the first district, and 1,000 yuan for an article in the second district."

Xu Qiu pretended to think about it for a while, then nodded: "Well... I have no objection."

It seems that Mr. Wei chose the second path, which is a bit of a loss for him, but it protects the interests of students like Sun Wo who have no articles in the group.

If the reward for the article remains the same, Sun Wo estimates that he can only get 1,000 yuan a month, which is probably not enough to spend, and he will go to his family to ask for money.

Xu Qiu asked casually: "Then what if it is sent to CNS?"

"CNS..." Wei Xingsi followed Xu Qiu's words and began to ponder. Suddenly, his eyes lit up, and he raised his head and asked, "You have made new achievements again? Have a chance to be on CNS?"

'I almost slipped my tongue,' Xu Qiu smiled and shook his head: "Not yet... I just asked."

In fact, if the Y-series receptor system can achieve more than 15%, there is a chance to hit a wave of CNS. In addition, if the stacked device can also break the current shackles and achieve an efficiency of more than 15%, there is also a chance.

From the current point of view, the possibility of a breakthrough in the Y series receptors is higher, after all, it is already 14.8%.

Xu Qiu intends not to report the early work of Y1 and Y2, and to directly select the best system and vote directly on CNS.

"Well...it is really necessary to distinguish." Wei Xing thought for a while and said: "CNS, "Nature" and your "Natural Energy" are all counted as 1W, and "Joule" is counted as 5,000. Well, even if I post the money, I will pay the money."

PS: Try to combine the two chapters.