science wizard

Chapter 168 Batch Production
Blackstone Castle, the processing workshop in the logistics area.

Li Hyuk manipulated various instruments, coming and going in the room.

From time to time, he ordered Alenkes to do some auxiliary work, and seemed quite busy.

After a while, Li He opened the gas tank and injected carbon dioxide into the liquid in the container, and saw that there were obvious white precipitates in the liquid.

That's aluminum hydroxide.

Without further ado, the precipitated aluminum hydroxide was collected through filtration, and then Li He opened the furnace in the processing workshop for calcination.

The hot flames are swallowing in the furnace, and the billowing heat waves leak out from the gaps in the furnace, making the processing workshop heat up rapidly.

Li He was unmoved, and operated meticulously.

After a while, the flame in the furnace went out, and Li He took out the finished alumina, that is, Al2O3.

And this is just the beginning.

With almost no rest, Li He collected the alumina and started the next step of processing.

Purify, remove impurities and grind alumina.

After a while, aluminum oxide powder like flour was obtained.

Immediately afterwards, another larger furnace was started, alumina powder was placed from above, hydrogen gas as fuel gas and oxygen as combustion aid were passed into it, and a violent flame was born and began to burn blazingly.

As soon as the temperature in the room dropped slightly, it was pushed to a higher level.

Sweat dripped from Alex's face.

Li He's cheeks were also a little wet, but he ignored them at all, and kept observing the situation of the furnace, adjusting the state of each part of the furnace, so that the inside of the furnace was in a specific temperature range.

After adjusting for a long time, Li He shouted out and ordered Alenx: "Go to the warehouse and get some of #998 material."

"Yes." Alenkes nodded quickly, left, and returned after a while.

Opening a small iron box retrieved by Alenx, one can see green crystalline powder inside.

Li Hyuk immediately poured it into a glass container for a new treatment.

Finally, the processed finished product is put into the furnace and heated together with the previous powder.

Busy, busy, busy...

For the next few hours, Li He did not stop at all, and kept circling the furnace in the processing workshop, constantly adjusting and feeding materials.

Several hours later, under Li He's operation, the furnace was extinguished and the temperature dropped slowly.

"Crack!"

The door of the furnace opened, and the scorching air of thousands of degrees inside spewed out, refracting the surrounding light.

After returning to normal in a moment, Li Hyuk looked directly into the furnace, looked at the final result, let out a sigh of relief, and showed a satisfied expression.

……

Not long after, Li He left the processing workshop and appeared on the first floor of the main test area of ​​the main castle.

Open a box on the huge test table in the center, and you can see that it is full of rubies—scientific means and artificially synthesized rubies.

Look carefully, and there is almost no difference from real natural rubies.

The only difference may be that the synthetic ruby ​​is purer, brighter and more beautiful in appearance.

After all, it is produced through step-by-step chemical reactions under human intervention, which is of higher quality than that produced by nature under the action of a series of random factors.

"Gems." Li He looked at the many rubies in the box, and murmured to himself, "I don't want magic stones, I want gems, I want rubies to trade... Well, use rubies. A hundred rubies... No It’s okay to ask for more in the future.”

It was still a bit troublesome for him to synthesize ruby ​​for the first time.

Although the chemical equation is very simple, the operation process needs to be straightened out constantly, and many links in the process need to be watched all the way in order to avoid accidents.

But after having this experience, it is easy to continue production.

If the required quantity is particularly large, he can find a way to design a production line for industrial mass production.

If the person in the night market insists on trading with rubies, he is confident that he can buy everything the other party can sell with rubies, no matter how many things there are, and he can directly buy the other party to "bankruptcy".

After all, ruby ​​is a precious symbol of wealth and nobility.

But in fact, it's just a chemical substance.

To put it bluntly, it is just a variant of alumina (Al2O3), that is, α-Al2O3.

The principle is very simple. After the aluminum oxide is heated to 1240°C, the "alumina uniform point", the so-called ruby ​​can be obtained. There are many details to be taken into account in the specific operation, but the principle is as simple as that.

Of course, the ruby ​​obtained in this way is actually colorless, so it is more appropriate to call it a white gem.

In order to give gems their beautiful red color, a coloring agent, chromium oxide, is added.

Only in this way can we truly synthesize a ruby ​​like blood.

It is also easy to get gemstones of other colors. With the alpha variant of alumina, just add different coloring agents.

Add cobalt oxide and it becomes an emerald.

Add iron oxide and it becomes sapphire.

By adding a variety of coloring agents and adjusting the composition and ratio, gems of various colors such as orange red, pink, purple red, chicken blood red, golden yellow, beige, grass green, dark green, sea blue, and purple can be produced.

If vanadium oxide is used as a coloring agent, color-changing gemstones can even be produced, which appear blue-purple in sunlight and red-purple in light.

In the eyes of other people, gems may be extremely precious, but in the eyes of researchers who have mastered scientific principles, they are really just a chemical substance.

If it doesn't have the advantages of high hardness, good wear resistance, and no corrosion, it can be used in many fields, and it is not much different from iron blocks.

"One hundred rubies...that's one hundred rubies..." Li He counted one hundred rubies from the box, put them into two cloth bags on average, put away the rest of the rubies, turned and walked out of the main castle.

……

In a blink of an eye, the next night.

The valley night market where the Darkheart Academy is located opened again, and Li He appeared in front of the booth selling meditation books as scheduled.

"You're very punctual." The stall owner, who was wrapped in a long robe, looked over and asked straight to the point, "Did you bring the ruby?"

"Speaking of which, after you promised me yesterday, I thought that within the sphere of influence of the Dark Heart Academy, somewhere new resource points were discovered and rubies were dug up, so you had the confidence to take out a hundred rubies. But I asked , there is no such thing at all.

At present, in the entire Darkheart Academy, apart from the private resources of some wizards, the rubies that can be purchased on the market, let alone a hundred, are difficult to buy even twenty or ten, and the price is exaggerated to a certain extent.

To be honest, I'm curious, can you really hand over so many rubies? "

Li Hyuk didn't speak, but responded with actions.

He took a bag from his robe and dropped it lightly on the booth.

When the bag was opened, a blood-red brilliance was reflected, which were densely packed exquisite rubies.

This!
The stall owner was a little stunned.

……

(End of this chapter)