Master of time and space

"Listening to you say that, are nanomaterials more valuable the smaller they are cut?" Yang Wentian sat on the chair, supported his chin with one hand and gestured in the air with the other: "Is it really so difficult to achieve from 0.5 nanometer cutting to 0.4 nanometer cutting?" It seems that it is enough to simply put the probe tip in the middle of the material and cut it.

"Just by your words, I know that you have never done an experiment before, and I really can't imagine how you got admitted to the seminar." Yang Wentian's unintentional words, but offended all the scientists in the world, Kong Fanxi's face suddenly sank, gritted his teeth before saying: "The leap from 0.5 nm to 0.4 nm is the goal that countless scientists are striving for, just like the athlete's 100-meter run, from nine seconds to eight seconds, or even more difficult." "In this day and age, if someone can't make nanomaterials, they're embarrassed to say they're scientists.

"Kong Fanxi, Brother Xi, don't be angry." Yang Wentian spread out his hands and gave Kong Fanxi a smile, "In the past, when I was at home, I mainly studied theoretical knowledge, and I really didn't try to do experiments with my hands. "Yang Wentian has been under the guidance of Peony's sister since he was three years old and now more than six years old, learning various theoretical knowledge during the day and conducting combat training at night. According to the educational syllabus arranged for him by his parents, he has not yet reached the stage of experimentation.

"Now let's review quantum physics and electronics." Kong Fanxi nodded, and operated a few times on the learning machine screen as usual, displaying the relevant knowledge of quantum physics and electronics required to make the spacecraft engine.

Although Yang Wentian had already learned this knowledge, he was still patient and reviewed it all under Kong Fanxi's guidance, and did not stop to rest until lunch.

"Yang Wentian, now let me explain to you the experimental steps of segmentation and extraction of nanomaterials." Lunch is very simple, most of the members of the research team are eating boxes or eating some nutritious food as a meal, for good scientists, eating is a waste of time. Yang Wentian was fortunate to eat a lunch box on the first day, and as soon as he dropped his lunch box, Dong Qiuhong couldn't wait to pull him straight to the place where the nanomaterial making equipment was parked.

It is a transparent glass room divided into two entrances, inside and outside. The whole room was spotless, only two test tables, two chairs and a row of shelves, a scanning tunnel microscope on each of the test table, and a light regulator, sterilizer and other devices on the glass walls on all four sides. The inner is a small automatic high-speed crushing and cutting plant, equipped with a set of high-speed crushers and a set of fine cutting machines for material processing and extraction.

"The resolution of these two scanning tunneling microscopes is 0.1 nm laterally and 0.01 nm vertically, calibrated by graphite crystals." After both of them changed into experimental work clothes that wrapped their whole bodies, Dong Qiuhong took Yang Wentian into the laboratory, moved both chairs to one of the experimental tables, and explained while motioning for Yang Wentian to sit down.

"This scanning tunneling microscope is connected in parallel with the next one through the wisdom brain, and the scanning tunneling microscope next to it can be networked with the inward factory wisdom brain." As soon as Dong Qiuhong entered the laboratory, the whole person's temperament changed significantly, becoming very focused and rigorous, all movements were also extremely regular, the pace of movement, the posture of sitting, and the weight of the movements were in line with a certain standard.

"This lab is designed to extract nanomaterials, and I'm sure you've already reviewed the knowledge. Now I'll give you an experimental demonstration and pay attention to my steps and action essentials. "In the laboratory, Dong Qiuhong is definitely a strict teacher, a rigorous scientist, speaking methodically, and calmly, and after seeing Yang Wentian sitting down, he began to experiment and demonstrate.

"Now I will demonstrate once in the whole process, how to extract carbon nanomaterials." Dong Qiuhong did not immediately use the scanning tunneling microscope, but first used his wisdom brain to direct the small factory that was inward.

"Carbon comes in many solid forms, and this time we experimented with graphite crystals." Dong Qiuhong quickly entered a command in the smart screen with both hands, and a robotic arm in the small factory took a fist-sized graphite crystal from the alternative material library and put it into a high-speed crusher, and after the crusher was run, the graphite crystal was crushed into crystal particles of the same size.

"The materials used in the experiment are prepared in advance and stored in specific containers." Dong Qiuhong glanced at Yang Wentian sitting next to him, and then stretched out his finger to point to a row of shelves next to the experimental table, on the shelves were different containers, on which the particles of various elements were marked with labels, "In order for you to master the complete experimental process, this time we start with the most basic steps." "

The first step is to obtain the particles of the experimental material, preferably 1 millimeter in diameter." Dong Qiuhong was explaining, and his hand was operating on the smart screen again. In the small factory, the robotic arm collected the graphite crystal particles in the pulverizer for later use, and only extracted a few graphite crystal particles as large as white rice into a small box, and sent them to an output port on the wall next to Yang Wentian and their experimental bench through the pipe.

"Go get the experimental materials." Dong Qiuhong waved his hand, and Yang Wentian obediently dropped from the chair to the ground, removed the experimental materials from the output port on the wall, and put them on the experimental table.

"Now we put the graphite crystal particles into the operating platform of the scanning tunneling microscope." The operating platform is a small sealable container, Dong Qiuhong clamped a graphite crystal particle with tweezers from the small box and put it on a slide, and then opened the container of the operating platform, carefully put the slide into it and fixed it, and then closed the container.

"Different material elements, the environmental requirements for extracting nanomaterials are different, some can be carried out at room temperature, some need to be carried out at low temperatures, and some even require to be carried out at ultra-low temperatures close to absolute zero." After Dong Qiuhong demonstrated the experimental materials once, he instructed Yang Wentian to make another slide and put it into the operation platform of the scanning tunneling microscope on the experimental table next to him, before continuing: "Because the lower the temperature, the lower the amplitude of the movement of molecules, atoms and electrons of the substance, which is conducive to its precise segmentation and extraction." (Note: Absolute zero does not mean ordinary zero degrees Celsius.)

"Now we are trying to perform nanoscale segmentation extraction of graphite crystals at minus 10 degrees Celsius." After Dong Qiuhong finished speaking, he motioned for Yang Wentian to watch the Zhibrain screen, while he leaned his eyes on the observation mirror of the scanning tunneling microscope and operated it. Yang Wentian raised his little head and carefully watched the changes in the screen picture.

"Now we first probe the lens of the microscope at the graphite crystal particles, and then adjust the focal length to adjust the resolution to 50 microns." As Dong Qiuhong adjusted the scanning tunneling microscope, the picture on the brain screen continued to change, from the macroscopic level to the microscopic level, "Under normal circumstances, a resolution of 50 microns allows us to observe the preliminary situation of the atomic level of the substance and observe the molecular structure inside the substance." "

But the purpose of our experiment is to extract nanomaterials, and substances below 100 nanometers are called nanomaterials." Although the images of the wisdom brain screen were synchronized, Dong Qiuhong still let Yang Wentian lean on the observation mirror for intuitive observation for a while before continuing to adjust the resolution of the microscope until it showed a microscopic situation of 100 nanometers.

"We extract nanomaterials, which are directly segmented and extracted by nanoprobes on the lens, which is a bit like surgical endoscopic surgery, but the requirements are much more delicate." Dong Qiuhong briefly described the essentials of the action of dividing and extracting materials, and then operated again, "Now first divide the graphite crystal particles into 100-nanometer aliquots." We only need to do an accurate segmentation demonstration action, and then let the brain perform continuous segmentation according to the action parameters. "

The first cut is not too difficult on one side, the key is the second cut." While looking at the graphite crystal situation in the microscopic state through the observation glass, Dong Qiuhong manually fine-tuned the lens probe with his right hand, and after feeling that the state was good, he used the lens probe to do the first material division action, and immediately quickly divided the second time, and then used the lens probe to take the separated substance and extract it.

"As I get older, the sensitivity of this hand also decreases." Dong Qiuhong's division and extraction of 10-nanometer-sized graphite crystal materials this time seem to be easy and not so simple in essence, which is the result of more than two decades of tempering. After Dong Qiuhong gave the order to the brain, the scanning tunneling microscope carried out continuous segmentation and extraction actions under the operation of the brain, and continuously extracted 100 graphite crystal powders with a diameter of 10 nanometers on a millimeter graphite crystal particles.