The rise of nanometers

After giving them a warning, Huang Xiuyuan began to talk about the new material. First, he wrote a molecular formula with an oil-based pen on the small blackboard nearby, and then roughly drew the structure of the molecular formula.

He Wen, Lu Xuedong and others on the side were confused and didn't quite understand the molecular formula.

The molecular formula is: Si6O12

"Six silicas?" Lu Xuedong said, scratching his head.

"Is there such a compound?" He Wen was also racking his brains.

In the sketch of the molecular structure drawn by Huang Xiuyuan, six silicas are distributed in a plane, forming a regular hexagon.

There are six silicon atoms on the inside of the regular hexagon, and twelve oxygen atoms on the outside.

Huang Xiuyuan pointed to the molecular structure diagram and explained: "This is a two-dimensional material, but it is different from Dirac materials (graphene, silicene, black phosphorus, etc.), but a brand new nanomaterial."

He did not explain the specific functions, but began to assign work, break down the specific synthesis steps, start up the laboratory equipment, and start the first formal experiment.

Thanks to the specific synthesis steps he gave, they synthesized the first "product" using laboratory equipment in less than two hours.

He Wen wore full-body protective clothing, carefully used tape, dipped it in the black powder, and then sealed the piece of tape.

He took it to the transmission electron microscope and began to search carefully. After five or six minutes of searching, He Wen and his assistant discovered the first "hexagonal silicon oxide".

However, he did not report it immediately, but continued to search, and soon discovered more than a dozen "hexagonal silica" one after another, proving that this compound was not a coincidence, but had actually been synthesized.

He Wen walked out of the transmission electron microscope room and reported the situation to Huang Xiuyuan: "Mr. Huang, there is indeed the hexagonal silicon oxide you described. A dozen hexagonal silicon oxide molecules were found under the lens."

"Okay." Huang Xiuyuan looked a little excited, and then he immediately ordered: "Prepare for vapor deposition."

The synthesized black powder was taken to another area of ​​the laboratory, where Lu Xuedong and his people prepared the vapor deposition work.

Huang Xiuyuan extracted a little bit of black powder from the black powder, and then gently threw it into the vapor deposition box.

He gestured OK to Lu Xuedong.

Seeing his actions, Lu Xuedong operated the experimental equipment and started vapor deposition.

Before they knew it, it was time for lunch. They hurriedly took turns eating in the cafeteria, and then they returned to the laboratory again.

At this time, the vapor deposition has been completed. The deposited graphene film was taken out of the deposition box, and a translucent film with a radius of 50 cm appeared in front of everyone.

However, this thing is not a finished product, but a semi-finished product that needs further processing.

After cutting, mechanical grinding and cleaning multiple times, they obtained dozens of single-layer graphene films with a radius of 5 cm.

Returning to the transmission electron microscope room, He Wen inspected each film very carefully. The work was not that fast. He was busy for three days and finally found only 7 films.

"Mr. Huang, these seven films are films embedded with hexagonal silicon oxide. One of them contains six hexagonal silicon oxides..."

Looking at the pages of detailed test reports, Huang Xiuyuan showed a smile: "My assumption is indeed correct. Next, everyone will know the purpose of this thing."

"Then I'll wait and see." Lu Xuedong was also very curious about the purpose of this thing, but Huang Xiuyuan never explained it.

In fact, it's not that Huang Xiuyuan doesn't want to say it, but that without the actual object, no matter how much he says, it won't be convincing.

Next to the laboratory, the third unfinished factory building of the previous garment factory has been transformed into a steel structure factory building and has been renovated a few days ago.

A group of people brought seven pieces of film to the steel structure factory building. Six or seven engineers from the engineering team had already debugged several pieces of equipment.

These equipments are one of the special equipments that Huang Xiuyuan ordered to design before.

Du Jinhua, the leader of the engineering team, came over and said, "Mr. Huang, you are here. The equipment has been debugged."

"Where is the sealing workshop that was prepared before?"

"Mr. Huang, please come with me."

Arriving at a workshop with a purity level of 100,000, a piece of equipment was already on display. He handed a piece of film to Du Jinhua: "Install it at the filter layer of the equipment."

Du Jinhua took the film, opened the card slot of the device, installed the film firmly in the corresponding position, turned on the vacuum pump, and found no air leakage. He also tested the power on, and there was no problem.

"Mr. Huang, it meets the design requirements."

Huang Xiuyuan couldn't wait to speak: "Start the test."

"good."

Everyone was outside the workshop, observing through the windows.

Under the command of Du Jinhua, the equipment started slowly.

The upper part of the equipment is a conical container with a wide top and narrow bottom, and a gas pipeline is connected to the upper side.

The middle of the equipment is the part where the film is installed.

The lower part is a conical container that is narrow at the top and wide at the bottom, connected to the vacuum system.

The container on the upper side of the equipment is injected with a large amount of nitrogen; while the container on the lower side is quickly evacuated, creating a pressure difference on both sides.

It's just that due to the obstruction of the graphene film, nitrogen has no way to enter the bottom.

Soon, Du Jinhua pressed a power-on button, and a current with a set voltage passed through the graphene film.

Graphene itself does not change much, but the hexagonal silicon oxide embedded in the graphene film changes after electricity is applied.

The nitrogen molecules passed through the central hexagon of the hexagonal silicon oxide. The reaction was not over yet. Brand-new changes began to occur between the nitrogen molecules passing through the center of the hexagon.

In another tank of the vacuum system, a large amount of white powder was deposited little by little on the bottom of the tank. After about an hour, the gravity sensing system of the tank showed that the mass of the reactants inside had exceeded one kilogram.

Huang Xiuyuan saw that this product was enough for them to use, so he said: "Stop testing!"

The equipment stopped running, and the one kilogram or so of white powder was carefully taken out. Everyone was extremely nervous.

The people present were all majoring in materials chemistry. Nitrogen was turned into a solid powder without adding other reactants. And this thing didn't look like the low-temperature cold-distilled nitrogen fixation.

You must know that total nitrogen compounds are, to a certain extent, equivalent to explosives, and they are high-energy explosives.

After swallowing, He Wen asked in a low voice: "Mr. Huang, this thing won't explode, right?"

"Don't worry, it's not a big problem, as long as there are no ultraviolet rays." Huang Xiuyuan was extremely calm.

The white powder, which was sealed and stored away from light, was carefully transferred to the materials laboratory. In the lens room, nervous He Wen finally saw the molecular structure of the white powder clearly.

This is an allotrope of nitrogen, consisting of 16 nitrogen atoms. The three-dimensional structure of the space is composed of four nitrogen atoms forming a rhombus plane at the bottom, and the four layers of rhombus are overlapped.

Outside the lens room, Lu Xuedong asked curiously: "Xiuyuan, what is the use of this all-nitrogen compound? By the way, no one else participated in the synthesis process at Harvard, right?"

"Of course there is no one else. This is not my tutor's topic. All the materials and traces involved have been destroyed by me." Huang Xiuyuan replied with a smile. In fact, this was just an excuse. He did not study this kind of material at Harvard at all.