From university academician to chief academician

Three months passed in the blink of an eye, and it was June!

Graphene Research Institute, Carbon Nanotube Research Institute!

"Academician Wang!" Ye Fei led a group of people in the research institute and showed them the research results of the institute.

The higher authorities attach great importance to the research on carbon nanotubes and require the Graphene Research Institute to report the research results of carbon nanotubes to the higher authorities every other month.

Recently, Ye Fei and his colleagues have made some progress in their research, replicating the structure of C72 fullerene.

Carbon nanotubes are tubular nanoscale graphite crystals. The structure is a seamless nanotube formed by curling single or multiple layers of graphite sheets around the central axis at a certain helix angle. The C in each layer is SP2 hybridized to form a hexagonal carbon nanotube. A flat cylindrical surface.

The most important thing in carbon nanotubes is the central axis, and the central axis of traditional carbon nanotubes is the C60 fullerene structure.

Therefore, Ye Fei and his colleagues now copied the structure of C72 fullerene and transplanted it into the central axis of the carbon nanotube.

See if you can make carbon nanotubes.

After Ye Fei and the others had some research results, a group of people were sent to check it out. Academician Wang was the leader, leading a group of materials science experts.

Ye Fei pointed to the LCD screen in front of him, which showed the C72 fullerene structure.

The C72 fullerene structure slowly rotates clockwise in the display.

The structure of C72 fullerene is very beautiful, even more beautiful than that of C60 fullerene. It is a snowflake-like structure.

Ye Feidao: "This is the structure diagram of C72 fullerene."

Academician Wang and others were surprised. They did not expect that the structure of C72 fullerene was so beautiful.

Academician Wang said: "Is this the structure of C72 fullerene?"

Ye Fei nodded and said: "Yes!"

Academician Wang said with emotion: "It's so beautiful. I have seen countless material structures, but the structure of C72 fullerene is the most beautiful I have ever seen."

Academician Wang turned to look at Ye Fei beside him and asked, "How will you study next?"

Ye Feidao: "After copying the structure from C72 fullerene, we then use the structure of C72 fullerene as the core and use single or multi-layer graphene sheets to find the best ratio around the C72 structure to see if it can Create carbon nanotubes."

"It would be great if we could make carbon nanotubes, but if we can't, we will still make carbon nanotubes with a C60 structure."

"Then we will study the mass production of C60 structural carbon nanotubes."

Academician Wang said: "Are you going to break the traditional carbon nanotubes and create a new structure of carbon nanotubes?"

"Yes!" Ye Feidao.

Academician Wang nodded without saying anything.

He didn't ask Ye Fei whether it would be successful. There is no way to say whether it would be successful in scientific research.

Research is about progressing through exploration, and no one can decide whether it will succeed.

Afterwards, Ye Fei took them to see the research on C72 structure and graphene ratio.

Ye Fei and the others have tried tens of thousands of combinations of C72 structures and graphene, but failed every time.

Depending on the ratio, some can produce carbon nanotubes, while others cannot.

Some of the carbon nanotubes produced are of very poor quality, and some are close to the quality of carbon nanotubes with a C60 structure.

What Ye Fei wants is carbon nanotubes whose quality exceeds the C60 structure.

After a long time, they left the institute.

Another two months have passed and it’s August!

Ye Fei was sitting in front of the computer, which was a full touch-screen computer that lay flat like a desktop.

Ye Fei is using his hands to design the ratio between the C72 structure and graphene.

"Director, come and take a look!" A researcher came over and said: "This set of ratios seems to have a new thing."

Ye Fei raised his head and looked at the researcher suspiciously, and asked, "What is it?"

The researcher shook his head and said, "I don't know what it is."

Ye Feidao: "I'll go take a look."

After saying that, Ye Fei left the laboratory and walked towards the manufacturing area.

The Carbon Nanotube Institute's manufacturing area is where the materials are made.

"Director, look!" The researcher brought a test tube with a little black powder in it.

"This is test data!"

The researcher handed Ye Fei a piece of paper with a lot of data written on it.

Ye Fei first put the test tube in front of his eyes and looked at it carefully. To the naked eye, it was just black powder and nothing else could be seen.

Then Ye Fei looked at the data again.

【Colour: Black

Odor: none

Appearance: powder

Melting point: 5200-5500℃

Density: 1.7g/cm]

"Huh?" Ye Fei frowned: "Is this a C72 structure carbon nanotube?"

The ignition point of carbon nanotubes is between 3652 degrees and 3697 degrees.

Density is 2.1g/cm.

From this set of data, it can be seen that the black powder in the test tube is of much better quality than C60 carbon nanotubes.

The researcher shook his head and said, "No!"

"Our analysis found that there is not only C72 fullerene and graphene, but also a new substance."

"New substance?" Ye Fei frowned and asked, "Show me the structure diagram."

"OK!"

Soon, the researcher showed the structure diagram to Ye Fei.

Ye Fei looked at Ye Fei's diagram. Around the C72 structure, there were two single-layer graphene structures, one double-layer graphene structure, and three new structures.

These three new structures resemble two triangles intersecting to form hexagons.

Ye Fei looked at it for a long time, reviewing all the material structures he had seen before in his mind, but he could not figure out what this thing was.

Ye Fei said: "Let's go back and find out what this is."

"Okay!" The researcher nodded.

Soon, they returned to the laboratory. Ye Fei searched through the Academy of Sciences database to see if there was any information on what kind of material this structure was.

"No?" Ye Fei was surprised: "Is it a new material?"

Ye Fei looked at the researcher beside him and said, "Let's put this aside for now and continue studying carbon nanotubes."

Ye Fei made a note of this in his mind and would study the discovered materials later.

The main task now is to research carbon nanotubes.

The researcher said: "Okay."

One month later!

Ye Fei took a long breath, looked at the newly designed structural diagram, and said, "This structural diagram should be enough!"

This structural diagram is based on the C72 structure as the core, surrounded by three double-layer graphene and three single-layer graphene, arranged at different angles at different angles.

After speaking, Ye Fei passed the structural diagram to the researcher who made the carbon nanotubes.

Afterwards, Ye Fei walked out of the laboratory and walked towards the manufacturing area.

He was going to see if he could make carbon nanotubes.

After a while, Ye Fei entered the manufacturing area.

The manufacturing of carbon nanotubes starts with adding raw materials, followed by the preparation of nanocatalysts, then growing the carbon nanotubes, adding hydrocarbons, purifying the carbon nanotubes, recovering the catalyst, and then testing the finished product.

After a long time, a researcher held the data in his hand and said excitedly: "Director, it's a success, it's a success."

Ye Fei's eyes lit up when he heard this, and then he took the data from the other party.

【Colour: Black

Odor: none

Appearance: powder

Melting point: 4000-4050℃

Density: 2.1g/cm

Autoignition point: 1000℃

Flexibility: 10N】

When Ye Fei saw this data, he took a deep breath. This data was so perfect.

The melting point of C60 structure carbon nanotubes is between 3652 and 3697.

The autoignition point is 900 degrees and the flexibility is 10 Newtons.

The carbon nanotubes made from C72 have much higher data than C60 carbon nanotubes.

"Director, how is it?"

At this moment, Ye Fei was surrounded by many researchers, and everyone looked at Ye Fei nervously.

Ye Fei looked up at them and smiled: "The data is very good. We have created brand new carbon nanotubes."

"Oh!" Everyone cheered excitedly.

Although the internal structure was mainly designed by Ye Fei, they also contributed a lot.

When everyone stopped cheering, Ye Fei smiled and said: "Let's start the next step of research!"

"Xiao Ming, you and I will write a research report together. If the carbon nanotubes made with the C72 fullerene structure as the central axis are released, it will cause a big sensation!"

In the past, the central axis of carbon nanotubes had a C60 structure, but now it has a C72 structure.

Moreover, the performance of carbon nanotubes produced with C72 structure is much better than that of C60 structure carbon nanotubes.

Xiao Ming said helplessly: "Director, can you please stop calling me Xiao Ming?"

"Okay, Xiao Ming!" Ye Feidao.

"Hahaha..." The other researchers around laughed.

The full name of this researcher named Xiao Ming is Wang Ming.

He is an intern researcher, 28 years old, and has just graduated with a Ph.D.

Except for Ye Fei, he is the youngest in the institute.

Therefore, everyone likes to call him Xiao Ming.

A week later, Ye Fei posted the research report on arxiv.

Not only can you post papers on arxiv, you can also post research reports.

The so-called research report is just like a newspaper, simply explaining one's research results.

Soon after the research report was posted on arxiv, the entire materials community paid attention to it.

Japan, Kyoto Electric Co., Ltd.!

"Professor Iijima, look at this research report!" A researcher walked into the laboratory, where Sumio Iijima was doing experiments.

After saying this, the researcher placed the tablet next to Sumio Iijima.

Iijima Sumio scolded without looking back: "Didn't you see that I was doing an experiment? Take it away."

"Professor Iijima, this is Xia Guo Ye Fei's latest research report. He said that he created a brand new carbon nanotube." The researcher said anxiously.

"Huh?" Iijima Sumio stopped his movements, put down all the things in his hands, and then looked at the tablet next to him.

Soon, he picked up the tablet in surprise, slid his fingers on the screen, and watched carefully.

After a long time, he said in shock: "There are actually such carbon nanotubes."

"The performance of carbon nanotubes is better than that of C60 structure."

"Such carbon nanotubes can be used in many more fields than carbon nanotubes with a C60 structure."

The performance improvement of carbon nanotubes can go beyond just improving performance.

The improvement in performance is accompanied by a wider range of applicable fields.

"Also, the C72 structure carbon nanotubes have a really beautiful structure. They are actually like snowflakes."

"Could it be that the structure of C72 fullerene is snowflake-like?"

“I really want to see the internal structure of C72 fullerene with my own eyes!”

At this moment, Sumio Iijima is full of curiosity about C72 fullerene.

At the beginning, when C72 fullerene first came out, Sumio Iijima was very interested in it.

It's just that Xia Guo didn't sell C72 fullerene to others, so he lacked interest.

But now he is more interested in C72 fullerene.

"C72 fullerene is a big treasure, and there are many things we haven't discovered yet."

"If I can study C72 fullerene, it will definitely be helpful to my research."

At this moment, the entire materials world was in a stir because of Ye Fei’s research report posted on arxiv.

This research report states that Ye Fei has created a brand-new carbon nanotube that is much more powerful than carbon nanotubes with a C60 structure.

They used to think that carbon nanotubes with a C60 structure were the most perfect carbon nanotubes.

But I didn't expect that the performance of carbon nanotubes could be improved a lot.

At this moment, C72 fullerene is mentioned again by people in the materials industry.

They are very curious about what else has not been discovered in C72 fullerene.

Stack Exchange, materials section, carbon nanotube section!

[It’s so awesome, Ye Fei is so awesome. Ever since Sumio Iijima created carbon nanotubes, I thought they were already the most powerful material in the world. I didn’t expect Ye Fei to improve the quality of carbon nanotubes a lot. 】

[That is, I admire Ye Fei so much. I dare say that he will definitely win the Nobel Prize. 】

[What are you bragging about? If you still have the Nobel Prize, no one in Xia Guo will win the Nobel Prize. 】

[Beili country people, get lost, you are jealous, our Xia country, Ye Fei, has created a brand new carbon nanotube. 】

[Isn’t it just brand new carbon nanotubes? If you have the ability, let him develop a batch manufacturing method of carbon nanotubes. This is the most difficult part of carbon nanotubes. 】

[You are still jealous, just be jealous. No matter how jealous you are, your Beili country will never have a genius like Ye Fei. 】

[There are many geniuses in our country of Beili. Who is Ye Fei? 】

[Then can you find someone who can create carbon nanotubes with better quality than C60 carbon nanotubes? 】

【……】

Ye Fei created carbon nanotubes with a C72 structure, and the news spread around the world.

Many people were shocked by this news and lamented the magic of C72 fullerene.

Of course, they marveled at Ye Fei's genius.

Beili country!

MIT, Nanomaterials Institute!

Boyi said anxiously: "Professor Lucas, Ye Fei has now developed a new type of carbon nanotube."

Lucas nodded: "I know about it."

Boy said: "What should we do now? Ye Fei is really likely to develop a batch manufacturing method of carbon nanotubes."

"Don't worry!" Lucas said: "Such high-quality carbon nanotubes should be more difficult to mass-produce than carbon nanotubes with a C60 structure."

Boy looked at Lucas in disbelief and asked, "Really?"

"Of course!" Lucas nodded affirmatively: "Ye Fei was able to create carbon nanotubes with a C72 structure because he discovered C72 fullerene before."

"But the most difficult thing about carbon nanotubes is mass production, which is also a research problem that plagues countries around the world."

"You have to believe me, he will definitely not be able to develop a method for mass production of carbon nanotubes."

Boy took a deep breath and said, "Okay, I will believe you again."

England, State University of New York!

Stanley Whittingham is a Nobel Prize winner in chemistry, focusing on materials science.

After reading Ye Fei's research report on arxiv, Stanley sighed: "C72 fullerene is really a big treasure. I really want to study C72 fullerene!"

"Of course, Ye Fei is such a genius. I would like to have some academic exchanges with him."

"I'm sure Ye Fei may be able to develop a mass production method for carbon nanotubes."

“What if carbon nanotubes could be made in bulk?”

"I think Xia Guo will definitely be sold to outsiders in a few years."

"By then, many fields around the world will develop rapidly because of carbon nanotubes."

Carbon nanotubes have a wide range of applications and are of great help to many fields.

However, because carbon nanotubes cannot be mass-produced, carbon nanotubes cannot be widely used.

This limits development in many fields.

Stanley itched and said, "No, I must communicate with Ye Fei."