The rise of nanometers

February 19th.

Huang Xiuyuan and his party finally returned to Shanmei.

As soon as he returned to Shanmei, Lu Xuedong came to visit, and the two came to the semiconductor laboratory.

After changing into full-body protective clothing, the two entered a clean room. On a workbench, Lu Xuedong excitedly pointed to a translucent film: "Xiuyuan, look at this."

The film is very thin and light, and its four sides are clips that hold the film firmly in place.

"A film woven with nanowires?" Huang Xiuyuan obviously knew what it was.

Lu Xuedong nodded: "It's nanowires. Three days ago we successfully synthesized relatively strong silicon nanowires, which are strong enough to maintain the weaving operation."

Open the internal computer on the side and find the inspection report, which also includes the inspection screen of the lens electron microscope.

He saw a picture of neatly arranged silicon atoms, which was almost exactly the same as the picture in his memory.

Huang Xiuyuan turned his chair: "What about phosphorus, boron, arsenic, and aluminum?"

"There are already some ideas for phosphorus wires and arsenic wires. Hexagonal silicon oxide can synthesize phosphorus nanowires, but the current strength is still problematic and is being improved."

Lu Xuedong paused and then said: "As for boron and aluminum, I tried using pentagonal silicon oxide. Although I barely passed, I have never been able to synthesize nanowires."

Huang Xiuyuan was indeed clear about this situation, and he expressed his thoughts:

"No need to waste time on infinite silicon oxide, why not start with seven-sided silicon oxide."

"Heptagonal silicon oxide? But there is no suitable semiconductor material in the oxygen family." Lu Xuedong was a little puzzled.

"Haha." Huang Xiuyuan smiled: "Why not let oxygen atoms lead the way?"

Lu Xuedong was stunned and then reacted instantly: "This is indeed possible, but after the nanowires are formed, how to remove the oxygen atoms mixed in them?"

"You won't forget another property of nitrogen-16, right?"

After being reminded by him, Lu Xuedong's eyes suddenly lit up.

In addition to its strong catalytic function, nitrogen 16 also has another function. Under strong ultraviolet rays and a specific temperature, nitrogen 16 molecules will decompose into nitrogen gas. If there are oxygen atoms around, nitrogen 16 will be forcibly combined with oxygen atoms to generate nitric oxide. (NO).

Even the oxygen atoms in the oxide cannot prevent the forced binding of nitrogen 16.

In this way, the oxygen atoms in the nanowires formed of aluminum oxide and boron oxide can be removed through nitrogen 16 to form simple aluminum nanowires and boron nanowires.

Lu Xuedong planned to try it, but Huang Xiuyuan knew the synthesis technology: "Leave this part to me!"

"good."

Huang Xiuyuan, who returned to scientific research, led a dozen researchers to try to make boron oxide, aluminum oxide, and copper oxide form nanowires.

in the materials laboratory.

A seven-sided silica sieve, the funnel-shaped upper container is filled with boron oxide powder.

These boron oxide (boron trioxide) powders are in a sieved single-molecule state, which is also the state most suitable for use as synthetic raw materials.

Since boron oxide generally exists in an amorphous state, it is usually difficult to form crystals, but after high-intensity annealing, crystals can also be formed.

After trying more than a dozen times, Huang Xiuyuan improved the experimental heating method and used a laser to focus on the ejection port of the seven-sided silicon oxide.

This is a very delicate job. After continuously burning hundreds of seven-sided silicon oxide films, the qualified position was debugged.

The position where the laser focuses is only about 23 nanometers away from the ejection port of the seven-sided silicon oxide. This distance is already the limit.

It's not that we can't continue to approach, but if we get closer to the nozzle, the laser will quickly burn the seven-sided silicon oxide film.

Even at this distance, a seven-sided silicon oxide film can only work continuously for 10 to 12 hours at most before it will be completely scrapped.

After laser sintering, a boron oxide nanowire was formed.

Huang Xiuyuan ordered: "Test the strength and other characteristics of the boron oxide nanowires immediately."

"clear."

All the researchers were also very excited, and everyone was caught up in the excitement that they couldn't stop.

Wu Can, the researcher in charge of the test, loaded the boron oxide nanowires into the tensile strength tester, and then carefully increased the tensile strength.

Several other researchers tested the cross-sectional diameter, resistivity, melting point, thermal conductivity, magnetism, etc.

After passing through the sieve and laser sintering, some of the physical properties of the boron oxide nanowires formed have changed.

For example, in terms of tensile strength, although it is not as good as carbon nanotubes, it is almost the same as ordinary steel wires.

Wu Can from the laboratory took the test report and reported to Huang Xiuyuan: "Mr. Huang, the strength of the boron oxide nanowires is in line with expectations."

Huang Xiuyuan immediately started the next experiment, turned around and ordered: "Prepare for the oxygen atom stripping experiment."

"yes."

The oxygen atom stripping experiment is to place boron oxide nanowires in nitrogen-16 powder. The entire container is made of silicon nano-coating. Because nitrogen-16 will combine with oxygen atoms, the container must be silicon nano-coated.

The laid boron oxide nanowires are covered with a layer of nitrogen-16 powder, and the bottom of the container begins to heat. When the temperature reaches a specified position, strong ultraviolet irradiation is started.

Under temperature and ultraviolet light, nitrogen-16 molecules rapidly decompose, and the nitrogen-16 near the boron oxide nanowire combines with the oxygen atoms in the boron oxide to form nitric oxide.

When all the nitrogen-16 breaks down, only the boron nanowires remain in the container.

Several researchers took the boron nanowires out of the container gently and immediately sent them to the laboratory for testing.

Wu Can and others are still responsible for testing.

After the oxygen atoms are stripped away, the remaining boron nanowires become obviously weaker, and their tensile strength is about the same as that of ordinary cotton threads.

Regarding this result, Huang Xiuyuan is actually very clear that although the tensile strength is fragile, it is not impossible to solve it.

If a single boron nanowire is not strong enough, it can be braided with multiple threads to turn the boron nanowire into a boron nanorope.

And in related applications, the requirements for the tensile strength of boron nanowires are not too high. They only need to reach the strength of ordinary cotton ropes.

After completing the research and development of boron nanowires, the following aluminum nanowires and copper nanowires were also developed by Huang Xiuyuan.

On the contrary, Lu Xuedong's phosphorus nanowires and arsenic nanowires were in trouble.

In the rest area of ​​the laboratory.

Lu Xuedong took a sip of black coffee and then smiled bitterly: "You are too fast, how about trying phosphorus nanowires and arsenic nanowires?"

Hearing this, Huang Xiuyuan shook his head: "Let's follow the established route. Production through laser sintering consumes too much silicon oxide film."

"That's true. A film for more than ten hours is indeed a lot of trouble." Lu Xuedong also temporarily gave up the idea of ​​changing the route.

If phosphorus nanowires or arsenic nanowires of appropriate strength can be directly generated through a pentagonal silicon oxide film, the raw materials they need will be available.

"I believe you," Huang Xiuyuan patted him on the shoulder.

Lu Xuedong regained his strength, and Huang Xiuyuan led others to join him. More than a week passed.

Finally, we synthesized phosphorus nanowires, or phosphorus nanoropes, that meet the strength requirements. Because the strength of single-strand phosphorus nanowires has never been improved, we can only lower the requirements and weave five phosphorus nanowires to form a phosphorus nanorope.

At this point, all the raw materials Huang Xiuyuan needs have been prepared.

Thank you for your support, and thank you book friends "Niu B's Loneliness" and "Kong Kong" for your rewards (ω｀)