Go back to the past and be a schoolboy

Chapter 199 Independent Research Route

"Dean, you said that people call it 'contact' and 'catalyst', why is our Academy of Sciences called 'catalysis', isn't it a bit too maverick?"

On an unknown afternoon, Cheng Nuo, as usual, set aside 15 minutes for the researchers in the School of Chemistry to answer questions and consolidate the foundation.

The stall is getting bigger and bigger, not to mention the alkali production in the front, the acid production in the back, and the ammonia synthesis at the moment. Each link requires a large number of chemical researchers. With the strength of Cheng Nuo and others, it is really stretched.

Moreover, ammonium sulfate (铔) is only the starting point of chemical fertilizers, not the end.

In the future, whether it is to increase production and income, protect the environment, or fight against Chilean saltpeter (the main component is sodium nitrate, which is a natural raw material for refining ammonia, potassium, sodium, sulfur and other fertilizers and iodine elements), it is necessary to increase the types of chemical fertilizers.

In the final analysis, in addition to the weak chemical foundation in China, there is also a lack of a large number of chemical talents.

Therefore, Cheng Nuo, in addition to working on technical problems in the fertilizer factory all day long, also established an evening school at night. Class chemical knowledge, so as to achieve the purpose of training students in batches.

Thinking about the later anti-Japanese war, when the little devils used chemical weapons against our compatriots out of conscience, Cheng Nuo couldn't suppress the anger in his heart, and secretly planned to do something in advance.

Repay grievances with virtue, how to repay virtue, and repay grievances with straightness.

"Dean, Dean, Dean?"

"It's all Catalysis, isn't it 'contact effect', why must it be called catalysis?"

Thinking that Cheng Nuo didn't hear clearly, the student deliberately repeated the question several times, and the curiosity in his eyes almost melted into water.

"Ahem, because the above two words are too simple to describe the reaction." The embarrassment on Cheng Nuo's face flashed, and he cleared his throat and explained solemnly: "The catalyst is to increase the reaction rate. Substances that do not change the total standard Gibbs energy in a reaction, this process is called catalysis..."

In the following time, Cheng Nuo explained the concept of catalysis and catalysts one by one.

In fact, to trace the application of catalytic technology, we have to mention brewing technology.

China is one of the first countries in the world to master wine-making technology.At first, the ancients used Li as raw material and adopted the "wine chewing method", chewing rice into pulp, and using the amylase in saliva to ferment it into wine.Later, people learned to use "koji" to catalyze wine making. The "koji" here is the catalyst, which is composed of fermentation agent, saccharification agent and other substances.

The earliest written record of Jiuqu is "Shangshu·Shuoming" "If you make wine, you can only use koji", in which "koji" refers to jiuqu.

As far as China is concerned, it is currently recognized that the earliest wine-making technology originated in the Neolithic Age when agriculture began, about 5000 years ago. With the deepening of research, the origin of Chinese wine-making may be even longer.

In other words, the concept of our country using catalysts has a history of 5000 years.

It's a pity that like other technologies in our ancient times, they only exist in reality and cannot rise to the height of natural science theory.

As for modern catalysis and the concept of catalyst, it was not until after the industrial revolution and with the development of modern chemistry that this theory was gradually enriched and perfected, and it was not officially confirmed until the end of the 20th century.

What Cheng Nuo just told the students was the concept revised by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC).

Following the pulse of the development of modern chemistry, Cheng Nuo wrote on the blackboard:

"Taking the chemical phenomenon of forming unstable active intermediates during the reaction of simple halogens with hydrogen as an example, we can propose a chain reaction mechanism hypothesis, namely
Cl*+ H→ HCl + HCl*
HCl*+Cl→HCl+Cl* (* indicates an excited state molecule)
......"

Fortunately, the front is all fermented concepts, and these students in the audience can understand it.

But at the end, Cheng Nuo's brain power was fully utilized, starting from some basic chemistry, until he calculated the chain reaction mechanism, until he got the general meaning of the chain reaction mechanism.

Finally, I threw down the chalk, and when I looked back, I found that the sky was already dark, and I didn't even know when the moon would rise.

Opening his eyes and looking closely, all the students off the field had already left, leaving only Jiang Jiangzuo sitting in the classroom.

In a trance, Cheng Nuo couldn't help feeling a little disappointed.

After all, the proposal of this kind of reaction mechanism can mark that the research of chemical kinetics has entered a new stage of development. The theory of free radical chain reaction makes the research of chemical kinetics go from the total package reaction to the elementary reactions that constitute the total package reaction, that is, by The transition from macroscopic reaction kinetics to microscopic reaction kinetics.

It was for this theory that two chemists were awarded the Nobel Prize in 1956.

Out of selfishness, Cheng Nuo didn't intend to announce the theory to the world in advance, and he didn't even plan to publish it in his own "National" magazine, but it didn't mean that Cheng Nuo wouldn't pass it on to his own people.

Selfishness only targets the great powers, not one's own compatriots.

But there was not a single student in the classroom right now. While Cheng Nuo was excited about successfully deriving the theory, he couldn't help feeling a little sad.

"These students don't cherish knowledge so much."

It was Jiang Jiangzuo who noticed the strangeness, hesitated for a while and said, "Zhiyuan, do you want to ask why there are only a few of us in the classroom and no students?"

Cheng Nuo pretended to be strong: "I didn't think too much about asking. After all, the calculation is not only difficult to understand, but also the chemical experiment in my mind can't be shared with the students. Everyone will leave if they don't understand. I will simplify the steps later. , it is not so difficult to learn new knowledge.”

Jiang Jiangzuo sighed, and pointed to the windows on both sides of the classroom. The glass was covered with students' heads.

It turned out that the students not only did not leave, but also stood on both sides of the classroom. In order to see more carefully, some students even climbed onto the tree and poked their heads to look inside.

Maybe it was because he was excited when he saw Cheng Nuo discovering him, or maybe it was because the tree was not strong in the first place, and the student fell from the tree before he even moved a second time.

Cheng Nuohu's student was eager to see what happened and ran out to check what happened.

Unexpectedly, Jiang Jiangzuo stopped him before he reached the door.

"Zhiyuan, it's not that the students don't want to accompany you in the classroom, it's that we deliberately blocked them from the door, so they couldn't get in."

"Why stop them, isn't it good for everyone to study together and discuss problems together?"

"This is for you!"

"for me?"

"Not to mention whether someone will disturb you during your calculation, but just to say, do you know how long you have been calculating here?"

"How long?" Cheng Nuo already had a bad guess in his heart.

"Three days, three days!" Jiang Jiangzuo blushed, and his tone was hurried and high-spirited: "For three days, you were doing crazy calculations in front of this blackboard, chanting words, without drinking a sip of water, It's like a madman, if it wasn't for an old Chinese doctor who came to make a diagnosis, we would have stopped you and danced a great god dance to drive away evil spirits!"

Hearing this, Cheng Nuo felt a huge sense of exhaustion in an instant. He was thirsty and tired, his stomach was buzzing, his eyelids were fluttering red flags, and he was about to die.

In the end, as soon as the eyes are blackened, the person will soon die.

It was Jiang Jiangzuo who had sharp eyesight and quick hands, and he took the first step to support him before he was about to fall.

On the other hand, before Cheng Nuo fell asleep, before he completely lost consciousness, the last words he heard were: "Come on, a few people, and carry your dean to the bedroom, you, hurry up and boil some hot water, put the Some salt, sugar..."

……

After an unknown amount of time, Cheng Nuo finally woke up unsteadily from the bed.

The hunger in the past few days almost drove Cheng Nuo crazy. The first step after waking up was not to get dressed, but to find something to eat immediately.

Jiang Jiangzuo and the others had considered this a long time ago. The table in the bedroom was full of all kinds of food, and upon closer inspection, they were all still hot.

"Lifu and the others are really serious. Alas, we really shouldn't waste our brains too much. If we die of starvation due to lethargy in the future, it will be too sad."

After taking a sip of water and licking his chapped lips, he felt a little refreshed.

Cheng Nuo suddenly discovered that there was still a stack of notes on the table, which were filled with concerns from students, comrades, and friends, which made Cheng Nuo feel warm in his heart.

However, there was one thing that caught Cheng Nuo's attention.

Hu Chihaisai filled his stomach a bit, Cheng Nuo put on his clothes and ran out immediately, walked to a flower bed, stood on a high place and said loudly:

"Comrades, I remember that before I fell asleep, some students asked me why I came up with the concept of "catalysis" and introduced the word 'catalysis'. Is there such a thing?"

Seeing the dean who hadn't seen him for a long time finally showed up, everyone was overjoyed, but they couldn't help rekindling their curiosity about this topic.

"Dean, are you feeling better, why don't you take a rest."

"Yes, Dean, you haven't eaten for such a long time, eat something to recover before we talk about it, we are not in a hurry."

"That's right, come down quickly, it's too dangerous."

Cheng Nuo waved his hands and paced on the flower bed by himself:
"First, as I said before, the specific concept of chemistry, whether it is 'contact' or 'catalyst', is too weak to support this concept, so we need to sublate it;
The second is the key point I want to talk about today, that is, the naming of countries. In fact, the concept of modern science comes from Japan. Both "contact" and "catalyst" come from Japanese, that is, words imported from Japan. Everyone knows that this means what? "

The quick-witted person answered first: "It means that our chemical concepts are all learned from Japan?"

Cheng Nuo nodded, sighed and said, "Although we don't want to admit it, we can't lie in front of the facts. Whether it's chemical terminology or chemical system, we all copy the Japanese, and we eat the leftovers from other people's chewing." , Walking is the road that other people have walked.

If we want to surpass Japan and go to the forefront of the world's disciplines, we must be independent, follow our own path, and establish our own discipline system. In this way, although we are walking slowly, we are better at being solid and step by step. When we accumulate enough, our The chemical achievements will completely usher in an explosion and stand on top of the world.

In view of the chaotic situation in the translation of scientific terms, I decided to unify scientific terms as one of the main tasks in the future. First, the strokes should be simple to facilitate writing; second, the phonology should be clear to facilitate oral presentation. "

As soon as the call ended, everyone below was moved and eager to try.

Cheng Nuo paused, and continued: "Comrades, we are taking a road that no one has ever walked before, every step is to create history, and every step is to create the future.

The so-called knowledge is more valuable than exchange, and utilitarianism is interlinked.Power is strong by gathering, and power is weak by dividing.If you don't make a sound, ask for security.It's not about unity, it's about making up and laughing at each other.And when the country's power is exhausted, neighbors are approaching, and they are rushing to catch up, fearing the future, the society and the country are eager to contribute! "

In this way, under the arrangement of Cheng Nuo, on the one hand, everyone was busy with the production of synthetic ammonia, and on the other hand, they also started to promote chemical knowledge.

Start with the enlightenment and popularization of chemical knowledge, disseminate popular chemical knowledge to Chinese people, then promote academic research and exchanges, and finally build a bridge between scientific research and chemical enterprises, and promote the transformation of chemical science and technology into actual industrial productivity.

Of course, for the Academy of Sciences, Cheng Nuo was still willing to spend his money. Every time there was a new progress in internal research, he would bring it out in time, so that comrades could learn and grow together.

Of course productivity is also a complex system.

In this system, it not only directly manifests itself as productivity, but also acts on other factors, such as improving the quality of laborers, promoting the progress of production tools and production techniques, and expanding the sources and types of labor objects, thus becoming a driving force for social development. important force in productivity.

The chemical industry generally refers to the manufacturing industry in which chemical methods play a major role in the production process.This determines that the biggest feature of this subject is that it needs both the guidance of chemical theory and the application of theory to actual production.

The discipline of chemical industry is the best embodiment of the combination of science and technology.

In this regard, Cheng Nuo was very good at transforming theoretical results into actual production results.

In the previous ammonia synthesis process, a synthetic ammonia catalyst mixed with iron, alumina, and potassium oxide was developed. However, the newly developed catalyst is easily poisoned by harmful impurities in the raw material gas and becomes invalid. Therefore, the synthesis reaction has very high requirements on the purity of the raw material gas. high.

In the process of Cheng Nuo's preparation of raw materials, the generated gas contained a lot of carbon monoxide.

How to remove harmful gases such as carbon monoxide in hydrogen has become an academic problem again.

"When one problem is solved, another problem arises. When is this going to be a head." Having said this, Fan Xudong's head got a little big.

Cheng Nuo patted each other on the shoulder with a smile: "The test is sad, the road ahead is long and bright, what's the matter, every problem solved means the growth of our team and another step forward .”

"But how to solve this problem now?" Fan Xudong was in trouble.

(End of this chapter)