Chapter 316: Taking Advantage of Western Countries
Hearing Brother Fan's question, Xu Chuan smiled and replied.
"There is no such thing as being optimistic or pessimistic about the research and development of superconducting materials. Everyone is currently exploring."
"I chose copper-carbon-silver composite materials because the mathematical model made by our laboratory can help it to a certain extent."
Hearing this, Fan Pengyue nodded and said, "This is fine. Some parameter information of these materials has been entered as you instructed before."
Xu Chuan smiled and said, "Yes, there are two tasks for the institute next. One is to collect and purchase some data on high-temperature superconducting materials. There is no need to be too anxious about this, and there is no need to force it. It is best to collect it. It doesn't matter if it can't be collected."
"The main task is to conduct experiments on copper-carbon-silver composite materials. Each formal researcher can be arranged to bring two assistants, start with 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 his desk, wrote down Xu Chuan's requirements, and asked:
"Are there any other requirements? Do you only take the low-temperature and high-temperature route, or do you also fill in the high-voltage route?"
Currently, there are two main paths for the industry and materials industry to explore superconducting materials.
‘Ultra-low temperature’ and ‘ultra-high pressure’.
In fact, the so-called room-temperature superconductivity does exist at present.
Professor Ranga 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 of the critical temperature of superconductors.
His team used a research device for testing trace materials under extremely high pressure, the diamond anvil, to prepare a special carbon-containing hydrogen sulfide system and form superconducting compounds under extremely high pressure.
As the pressure of this superconducting compound continues to increase, the superconducting transition temperature will also increase.
When the pressure reaches 267±10 gigapascals, which is about 2.6 million times the atmospheric pressure at sea level, this material can achieve superconductivity at room temperature.
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, so at this stage, using ultra-low temperature is the only means to commercialize the superconducting phenomenon.
However, since Xu Chuan proposed to conduct superconducting experiments, he naturally had to ask whether only temperature superconductivity or pressure superconductivity would be conducted together.
After all, high-pressure superconducting experiments can also bring certain data experience, which is still helpful for subsequent research.
Xu Chuan: "No, if you can find other laboratories to exchange or buy some foundation for ultra-high-pressure superconducting experiments, it is okay, but there is no need to do it yourself."
"In addition, you can arrange a group of people to analyze the low-temperature and high-temperature superconducting materials currently on the market."
"It is not required that researchers must do this, doctoral students and interns can do it."
"Mainly analyze the electronic structure of the material, the interaction between electrons, the band structure and other aspects, which can provide a certain foundation for our own subsequent research."
Xu Chuan doesn't know if the ultra-high-pressure superconducting material path is feasible.
But anyway, when he was developing superconducting materials in his previous life, he didn't take this path. He took the route of ultra-low temperature to low temperature and then to room temperature.
Compared with ultra-high-pressure superconducting materials, this route is easier, and it is also the mainstream route for the current research and development of superconducting materials.
Although he can directly prepare copper-carbon-silver composite superconducting materials, it is obviously not scientific.
For now, it is better to do some relevant experiments honestly and accumulate some data before taking out the superconducting materials.
Otherwise, there is no experimental data at all, and it is completely inconsistent with the principle of material research and development to go straight to copper-carbon-silver composite superconducting materials.
The last time he developed artificial SEI film, it can be regarded as a single-handed approach.
If it comes again, it is still a more important superconducting material. I guess the spies or people with bad intentions around him will be directly piled up at that time.
For the sake of safety, it is better to follow the conventional steps of material research and development step by step, and don't add too much burden to the country.
Moreover, there is no need to take out room-temperature superconducting materials directly at one time. The superconducting materials used in this controlled nuclear fusion reactor are enough to be high-temperature superconducting.
The so-called high-temperature superconductivity does not actually refer to superconductivity under high-temperature conditions of hundreds or thousands as most people think. Instead, the temperature is much higher than the superconducting materials previously studied using liquid helium.
Generally speaking, the temperature of high-temperature superconductivity usually refers to materials that are superconducting above the liquid nitrogen temperature of 77 K (approximately 196℃ to 150℃).
Perhaps some people would think that it is close to minus 200 degrees, how can it 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 270 degrees.
The temperature of high-temperature superconductivity has increased by nearly 70 to 130 degrees. In contrast, when the high-temperature superconductivity phenomenon 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 laboratories in various countries, mainly focusing on copper-based superconductors and iron-based superconductors, and there is no large-scale application yet.
Therefore, Xu Chuan planned to sell the high-temperature superconducting phase results of copper-carbon-silver composite materials and make a fortune after completing them.
For him, this is a no-win situation.
There are currently very few high-temperature superconducting materials on the market that can be used in practical applications. Even CERN's Large Strong Particle Collider still uses low-temperature superconducting materials for the time being, which are frozen with liquid helium.
If you replace it with high-temperature superconducting and use liquid nitrogen for freezing, the cost can be reduced by hundreds or even thousands of times.
The simplest one is the different prices of liquid helium and liquid nitrogen.
If liquid helium costs 1,000 yuan per ton, then liquid nitrogen costs one yuan per ton. Such a big gap is enough for high-temperature superconducting to be widely used in some fields that would otherwise be unavailable.
This is a relatively blank area, but the market is equally huge.
The laboratory also has to make money, and Xu Chuan has a big plan in mind that requires countless funds to support.
So if you can gather more wool from Western countries, just gather more.
"By the way, are you personally involved in this research and development of superconducting materials and carbon-based materials?"
In the office, Fan Pengyue asked curiously after remembering Xu Chuan's request.
This is very important to him or the entire institute. The participation of one more Nobel Prize winner will definitely increase the scientific research power exponentially.
And he also wanted to judge from this point whether this junior brother wanted to study these two materials on a whim or whether he was already certain about it.
If he personally participated in research and development, he would most likely be a little unsure. If he didn't participate, he might just want to accumulate some data and pave the way for the research.
Two different paths naturally cost different amounts of scientific research funds, and he had to control this aspect well.
Xu Chuan thought for a while and said: "I will not participate in the early research. After you accumulate 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 okay. If there are no other requirements, then we will proceed according to this plan."
"However, in order to study these things, there is still a lack of some equipment that needs to be purchased. Not to mention other things, a spin-resolved angle-resolved photoelectron spectrometer is a must, as well as ion doping equipment."
Xu Chuan: "Well, just make a list of these things for me. When it comes to 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 to the scientific research process.
Just like the 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 the "fishing line" and the "fishhook", the superconducting sample under test is the "fish pond", and the electrons are the "small fish".
If you want to know what "fish" is in the "pond", you can "fish" it out and see.
Only with advanced angle-resolved photoelectron spectrometers can we know the electronic structure of superconducting materials, which is an important part of the study of superconducting mechanisms.
After arranging the tasks of Sichuan-Hai Materials Research Institute, Xu Chuan returned to NTU.
As soon as he returned to Nanda, someone came to his door.
"Hey, Professor Zhou, why do you have time to come to my place?"
Xu Chuan stood up with a smile, greeted the middle-aged man in front of him, and then looked at the students following him to say hello.
The person coming was Professor Zhou Hai from the School of Mathematics, who was half his teacher. When he was an undergraduate, he had no tutor in mathematics because he studied physics and mathematics with Chen Zhengping.
But Zhou Hai taught him a lot and laid a lot of foundation for him on the path of mathematics.
Zhou Hai smiled and joked: "A great professor in our school, a winner of the Nobel Prize and the Philippine Prize, why don't you come over from time to time to make yourself familiar?"
Xu Chuan smiled, bowed his hands, and said, "Please spare me."
Zhou Hai smiled and shook his head and said: "To get down to business, I want to ask if you have any plans to recruit students next year?"
Xu Chuan thought for a moment and said, "I don't know yet. Does Professor Zhou want 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 slightly awkwardly and greeted Xu Chuan: "Professor Xu, long time no see."
Xu Chuan looked at it twice and felt a little familiar. He suddenly realized it 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. Senior brother really can't afford it."
Xu Chuan smiled. Opposite him, Zhou Hai continued with a smile:
"Cai Peng, the student who studied for a Ph.D. with me before was the one who had a second graduation thesis topic because of the Weyl-Berry conjecture when you were still an undergraduate."
"But thanks to your interruption, this kid seems to have come to his senses in the past two years. He has become more savvy in mathematics and has already received an offer from Princeton."
"It's just that this kid doesn't seem to want to go abroad very much, so I wanted to ask you whether you will accept students next year. If possible, I would like to study with you for further study."
"Of course, if you don't have any plans for next year, just let him go to Princeton."
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