Great Country Academician

After handing over the original experimental data of the ATLCE detector to Chen Zhengping for processing, Xu Chuan hurried back to the magic capital without stopping.

The research and development of semiconductor materials in the second phase of the nuclear energy project has reached a critical point, and he has to go back to take charge of the overall situation and speed up the process.

After all, it is now the middle of December in the lunar calendar, and the new year will be celebrated in a few days.

After the new year is over, it is almost time for the laboratory to take the annual leave.

In Shanghai, in the Nuclear Research Institute of the Academy of Sciences, Xu Chuan, wearing white polyester gloves, controlled the ion implanter in front of him and sent the metal ion materials in the equipment into the ALD vapor deposition instrument.

This is a critical step in the manufacture of semiconductor materials, implanting impurities into the semiconductor substrate.

Of course, this impurity is not an impurity in our traditional concept, it is somewhat similar to the semiconductor silicon-based chips used in our mobile phones.

As we all know, a semiconductor refers to a material whose conductivity at room temperature is between that of a conductor and an insulator.

Its conductivity is controllable and susceptible to changes due to trace impurities and external conditions.

Doping materials with different resistances such as phosphorus, arsenic, and gallium inside can make it form an NP pole, which serves as a gate to control the charge switch.

This is the core foundation of semiconductor materials.

Among them, it is very famous, and it is also based on this that we are easily exposed to photovoltaic power generation in our daily life.

But it uses another part of it - the 'photovoltaic effect' unique to semiconductors.

Photovoltaic power generation is a phenomenon in which a potential difference is generated between different parts of an inhomogeneous semiconductor or a combination of a semiconductor and a metal by light.

It starts with photovoltaic panels converting photons (light waves) into electrons, converting light energy into electrical energy, which is then allowed to form a voltage.

With voltage, it is like building a high dam on a river. If the two are connected, a current loop will be formed.

This is the core principle of photovoltaic power generation, and also one of the principles of nuclear energy beta radiation energy accumulation and conversion of electrical energy mechanisms.

However, the traditional photovoltaic power generation technology has a big disadvantage, that is, the wavelength range of the spectral response of general solar cells is basically between 320-1100nm.

That is, the light wave at this wavelength can be used by solar panels, and it cannot be used if the wavelength is smaller than or exceeds the light wave.

This is doomed to the fact that the efficiency of ordinary solar power panels cannot achieve a qualitative leap, nor can it deal with the radiation emitted by nuclear waste.

Because of the radiation emitted by nuclear waste, except gamma rays which belong to electromagnetic waves, alpha, beta and neutron currents are not electromagnetic waves.

And even gamma rays, whose wavelength is shorter than 0.1 angstrom (1 angstrom = 10 to the minus 10th power meter), cannot be utilized by traditional photovoltaic power generation panels at all.

Harnessing this radiation would require almost a complete redesign of conventional photovoltaic panels.

In order to solve this problem in his previous life, Xu Chuan really thought about it. He consulted countless physics experts and material experts, but he couldn't get an answer.

In the end, what inspired him came from a field that he had never thought about--'biology'.

He was inspired by a butterfly known as the 'Red Swallowtail'.

This kind of butterfly sounds like a red butterfly, but in fact, most of its body is black, only the abdomen, face, chest, etc. have some red features, and it is widely distributed in East Asia.

In this butterfly, biological scientists have discovered a very strange phenomenon.

Its wings are randomly distributed with lattice structures of irregular size and shape.

It is this lattice structure. It can help butterflies absorb more sunlight in the cold season, and regulate and preserve body temperature, so as not to be frozen to death in cold winter.

In fact, it is not uncommon to obtain scientific research inspiration from biology.

Many technologies actually come from various organisms.

Bionic robots, fin swimsuits, cold light, radar and other very common things are actually designed based on various creatures.

From this lattice structure, Xu Chuan found a way to absorb the radiant energy of non-electromagnetic radiation and convert it into electrical energy.

The principle lies in something called a 'structural gap'.

By means of nanotechnology, the semiconductor constructed by atomic cycle technology is processed into a material with special nano-gap.

Materials with this special gap can absorb and utilize radiation energy, and combined with the characteristics of semiconductor materials, it can be further converted into electrical energy.

This is another technology that is as important as the 'atomic cycle' in the mechanism technology of nuclear energy beta radiation energy concentration and conversion of electrical energy: 'radiation gap band'

After waiting in the laboratory for more than six hours, the first piece of semiconductor material for vapor deposition processing finally completed the gap filling and film step coverage.

After the long waiting time passed, Xu Chuan put on gloves, masks, goggles and other protective equipment again, opened the vapor deposition furnace and took out the processed materials inside.

The first batch of processed materials is not too big, with a side length of only 30*30cm, but as an experimental body, it is enough.

It is worth mentioning that although its area is not large, its thickness is much thicker than that of materials that generally need to be processed by vapor deposition equipment, and it is nearly two centimeters thick.

After all, it is used to deal with nuclear waste. If it is too thin, it cannot completely absorb the radiation emitted by nuclear waste.

In fact, this is not the first time he has made this semiconductor material.

In the previous time, he had correspondingly made three completely different new semiconductor materials, but the test results were not satisfactory.

Of course, this was his intention. After all, it was a bit unbelievable to do it successfully at the first time.

As for the materials that failed in the three materials, it was much more reasonable to complete the research and development of the materials after giving him enough adjustment data from tests and theories.

Although compared with the material development process of other laboratory research institutes, this is still much simpler.

We must know that many laboratories or research institutes may have to fail dozens, hundreds or even thousands of times to develop a new material.

"Wang Yuan, take some materials and do a comprehensive routine test first."

In the laboratory, Xu Chuan first visually observed the synthesized materials in his hand, and then said to the researcher beside him.

This researcher named Wang Yuan is the young man whom the Clay Research Institute met on the phone before.

Although some like to gossip, but he is quite careful and talented in doing things, and he is not very old, so he personally brought him by his side and asked the other party to help him.

For an ordinary researcher, is it called doing odd jobs with a Nobel Prize winner?

"Good professor."

Wang Yuan calmly took the materials from Xu Chuan, cut off a small part, and left the laboratory quickly.

As for Xu Chuan himself, he brought the remaining materials to the radiation room and personally tested the actual conversion ability of this material.

The test method is not complicated. This material is made into a device similar to a solar panel, and then nuclear waste with different radiation intensities is used for testing.

From the most critical power generation capacity, to the damage of ionizing radiation to this semiconductor material, to the conversion efficiency, etc., let's see if it can meet the specified indicators.

If it can, it means that this new material has been successfully developed. If not, then we need to find out what is wrong, and then check for leaks and fill in the gaps.

However, Xu Chuan is full of confidence in the new materials in his hands.

This new semiconductor material has been verified by actual application after being fully optimized in the previous life.

Completely reliable in terms of performance and security.

It took some time, and with the help of other researchers in the laboratory, Xu Chuan processed this new semiconductor material into a crude device.

The various detection devices connected to it make it look a bit like the engine on the front of an old-fashioned tractor.

Although it looks a bit ugly, it is truly the most cutting-edge and cutting-edge technology.

The core of the whole set of equipment is composed of semiconductor radiation power conversion materials + previously developed protective materials. The former completes the conversion of radiation energy into electrical energy, and the latter serves as a safety protection measure to prevent nuclear radiation from leaking out after accidents in the equipment inside.

As for the various detection equipment connected to it, they all need to be dismantled after completion.

Wearing a protective suit made of lead-free nanocomposite reconstituted protective materials, a laboratory worker sent a piece of nuclear waste with heavy nuclear radiation into a fully enclosed inner experiment through a lead glass in the room.

The moment the nuclear waste was taken out of the closed lead box, various radiation detectors placed in the fully enclosed laboratory screamed and buzzed, and various alarms sounded continuously.

In another observation room of the laboratory, Xu Chuan, Han Jin and others were observing the entire experiment through monitoring.

From the radiation count on the display, it can be seen that in the radiation room where the experiment is being conducted, the radiation measurement has exceeded 1,000 millisieverts (mSv), and this value is constantly increasing due to the influence of nuclear waste.

Without any protection, human beings entering this intensity of radiation environment basically means death.

This is still processed nuclear waste, its radiation intensity, radiation amount and other aspects have been processed. If it is a burning nuclear fuel rod in a nuclear power plant, its strength is much more terrifying than this.

The radiation in the laboratory did not continue to increase continuously. After the nuclear waste was placed in special equipment and fully enclosed, the alarm on the detector began to decrease, and the radiation measurement caused by nuclear radiation also began to be absorbed by other equipment in the laboratory. gradually weakened.

However, for nuclear radiation, this weakening is limited.

When the absorbing material is saturated, the absorbing material will become a new source of radiation to a certain extent, releasing radiation pollution continuously, until the nuclear radiation is dissipated hundreds of thousands of years later.

This is why after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, even though Hongsu disposed of and cleaned 21 million square meters of "dirty soil" at that time, there is still a large area in Ukraine that is still unsuitable for being too heavily polluted. The reason why it will take many years to live safely.

The pollution emitted by nuclear waste takes too long to decay.

However, this original defect is a huge advantage for Xu Chuan today.

The long radiation time means that its power generation duration is also long. It can be said that no fuel can "burn" for a longer time than nuclear waste.

If it can be made into an ordinary battery size, maybe future mobile phones and computers will not need to be recharged.

But for now, this idea is just a fantasy, because of security issues, it is impossible to make it so small.

Unless the protective isolation materials for nuclear radiation can be further upgraded.

As the converter for storing nuclear waste was closed, the detectors deployed outside also began to send back various data.

In the observation room, a researcher in charge of observing data was staring at the current display screen closely. When the data on it started to jump, the expression on his face also jumped.

"Current generation detected!"

After confirming that the data on the display screen was real, the researcher pushed away the chair under him, stood up abruptly and reported loudly, his voice trembling and excited.

Hearing this, everyone standing in the observation room was shocked. Academician Peng Hongxi, who was standing next to Xu Chuan, ran over quickly with a pair of legs.

The old man happened to be in Shanghai for a meeting these days, so he decided to come over here to see the situation. Just in time for this test experiment, he came along curiously.

Pushing away the original observer, he stared at the constantly beating and steadily increasing current data on the computer screen with cloudy eyes.

"4.7C, really, really did it!"

Looking at the beating data on the screen, Peng Hongxi could no longer suppress the shock in his heart.

In fact, it is not impossible to convert radiation energy into electrical energy, whether it is using metal materials to generate a potential energy difference, or using multi-layer carbon nanotubes, gold and lithium hydride materials to absorb radiation energy.

But above-mentioned these methods are all very low aspect conversion efficiency.

For example, the electric energy converted from the potential energy difference generated by metal materials is even less than a few milliamperes. A current of this intensity can only touch a sensitive detector, and it cannot be used for power generation at all.

But today's test is like a miracle that descended out of thin air.

Leaving aside other issues, just in terms of the conversion rate of radiant electric energy, based on the current data, it is already comparable to traditional solar panels.

The conversion efficiency of monocrystalline silicon solar photovoltaic with higher efficiency of traditional solar panels is only about 20%.

And calculated from the current output current, the conversion rate of the internal radiation energy of the 'radiation power conversion equipment' placed in the closed laboratory has reached about 15%, and this value is still increasing with the passage of time .

The conversion rate is 15%, which means that it has no problems in the conversion of radiant electric energy, and it can completely use the converted electric energy.

As long as the key material in the equipment - the new type of semiconductor can last longer in front of nuclear waste and meet commercial standards, then this method can be fully promoted, and from today, nuclear waste will no longer be difficult to deal with Waste, it becomes a treasure that can be used to generate electricity.