From a university student to a chief academician

Chapter 178 Snowflake Fullerene
The fusion between fullerenes and non-fullerenes is not like water fusing, nor is it like iron being cast together.

Instead, the internal structures are fused together.

This requires precise calculations, using machines to analyze the internal structure, followed by high-temperature forging, and finally fusing the two substances together in a special way.

Fullerenes, which have a hexagonal internal structure, are very strong.

Whether it is high-temperature forging or fusion in a special way, it is very difficult.

It can't be done without half a month.

Half a month later!
Professor Gao was holding a test tube rack with two test tubes and a little black powder inside.

The two test tubes are labeled with the words C72 and H36, C94 and Y25 respectively.

Professor Gao put the test tube rack in front of Ye Fei and said, "The fusion is complete!"

Ye Fei picked up two test tubes, put them in front of his eyes, poked his head closer to check, and asked, "Is there any change in their properties after fusion?"

Professor Gao said: "There is almost no change."

"What is almost." Ye Fei said with a smile: "If there is a change, say there is a change, if there is no change, say there is no change. There is no such thing as almost in the field of science."

"Okay!" Professor Gao said: "The absorption of light has been increased by [-] degrees Celsius!"

The unit of light absorption is calculated by temperature. The temperature of solar energy absorption is to gather light, and the temperature will be about [-] degrees higher than the weather temperature.

If the weather is ten degrees, then the temperature absorbed by solar energy is thirty degrees.

In summer, if you put your hands on the solar absorbing panels, you may burn your hands.

Ye Fei said, "Is this due to non-fullerenes?"

Fullerenes absorb light weakly, and non-fullerenes absorb light strongly.

"Yes!" Professor Gao nodded, "Yes."

After thinking about it, Ye Fei asked, "Professor Gao, have you done any in-depth research on this phenomenon before?"

Ye Fei thinks there is research potential in this, maybe it can overcome the shortcomings of fullerene and make fullerene a substance with strong light absorption.

"Of course!" Professor Gao said, "But after about a year of research, I didn't get much results, so I gave up."

Ye Fei nodded, this is normal.

If there is not much result, of course give up.

Scientific research must not be stuck on one road, and there is a mentality that you will not die until you break through the south wall.

Such people can't do scientific research, and they won't have much scientific research results.

Unless this person is unlucky, maybe one day he will discover the result.

But such people are a minority after all.

Even Ye Fei would not die on one road.

Ye Fei asked: "Is there anyone in the world who has made a breakthrough in this?"

"No!" Professor Gao shook his head: "Maybe someone is doing research in this area, but fullerenes have only been out for a few years. Even if someone does research, there will be no results in a short time."

Fullerenes were discovered in 1996, so it has been 32 years.

But for a study, 32 years flies by.

Fullerenes in particular are one of the greatest discoveries of the twentieth century.

It is very difficult to do research on fullerenes.

Even now, the application of fullerenes is only used in antiseptic materials and cosmetics.

Such a great discovery, but the way of application is so tasteless.

It's not that they don't know the importance of fullerenes. Fullerenes are very important. There must be more important ways to use them. It's just that the research on fullerenes is too difficult.

Existing research cannot act on more pathways.

It can be said that people have not even used the fur of fullerenes.

It will take at least a hundred years to fully develop the usage of fullerenes.

Ye Feidao: "If someone can make a breakthrough research on this, I think he can win the medal of the Beili National Materials Society!"

The highest award in materials science is the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, followed by the Medal of the North American Materials Society.

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry must have a new discovery in a certain field, something that has never been discovered before.

For example, the discovery of fullerenes, the discovery of quasicrystals, the discovery of conductive polymers, the establishment of density functional theory...

The Medal of the North American Materials Society is for a major breakthrough research in a certain field of materials science that has been discovered.

Take the field to a new level.

Professor Gao said, "That's for sure."

Ye Fei looked at the black powder in the test tube for a moment, then put them on the test tube rack.

Ye Fei said: "Okay, leave it to me, you go to work!"

"Okay!" Professor Gao nodded and said, "Call me if you need anything."

"Okay!" Ye Fei said.

After Professor Gao left, Ye Fei picked up the test tube rack, walked to the X-ray diffractometer, and poured the powders in C72 and H36 onto the X-ray diffractometer.

Then turn on the X-ray diffractometer, and a blue light continuously scans the black powder.

Then groups of data appear on the computer screen.

Ye Fei printed out the data.

Then, scanning electron microscope, Lapp spectrometer, thermogravimetric analyzer and Fourier transform infrared spectrometer were used respectively.

Put the black powder on these instruments and analyze them all. A set of data is displayed on the computer, and Ye Fei prints them out.

Then repeat these operations, analyze the data of C94 and Y25, and print out the data with a printer.

In the end, Ye Fei took ten long sheets of paper, all of which were filled with data, and walked to a table.

Lay out ten sheets of paper on a table and look at the data on them.

Calculate them using mathematical formulas.

Ye Feixin said: "Assume that fullerene is a connected planar square graph with only square and hexagonal faces..."

"There can be the following formulas."

【(G)=2MI>C=3...】

Ye Fei is now alone in one laboratory, while Professor Gao and others are in another.

At around three o'clock in the afternoon, Professor Gao and others sat together drinking tea.

The work of the Graphene Research Institute is considered a high-income, easy job.

After all, many research institutes around the world are researching graphene, but very few have made major breakthroughs.

However, graphene has to be studied, otherwise other countries will have a major breakthrough and will soon be able to seize the opportunity in the graphene market.

Xia Guo invested a lot of money in this area.

In 2018, Xiaguo's first fully automatic mass-production graphene organic solar optoelectronic device production line was launched in Heze, Shandong Province.

In 2021, the CCID Research Institute of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released the Xiaguo Graphene Industry Development Competitiveness Index.

A lot of money has been invested, but there are few breakthrough researches.

Seeing this situation, the people above didn't assign too difficult tasks, just let them study, maybe they can research something.

Because of this, the Kyoto Graphene Research Institute, as one of the top graphene research institutes in Xiaguo, has a very relaxed working environment.

A middle-aged man wearing thick glasses said, "Dean Gao, you said Dean Ye, can you find a fullerene that is more stable than C60?"

"Who knows!" Professor Gao said, "I also asked him to try it."

"It doesn't matter if there are no great discoveries, isn't that what science is?"

"That's right!" The middle-aged man laughed.

Suddenly, the middle-aged man looked at another young man, who was the youngest among all the people present, thirty this year.

The middle-aged man said helplessly: "Du Wei, you wiped your face with fullerene again. You said that all the research institutes are men. Who are you showing your love of beauty?"

The young man said: "I just feel that my face is a little wrinkled recently. I wipe it with fullerene. Anyway, the laboratory does experiments every day, and there are a lot of fullerene left. If you lose it, you will lose it. Why don't you use it to wipe your face?" .”

The rest of the people looked at the young man with a smile, feeling amused by the young man's behavior.

Professor Gao said: "If you put half of these thoughts on academics, you would have been an assistant researcher by now, and you wouldn't be an intern researcher now."

The young man said: "I also worked very hard, but the study of materials is too difficult, no matter how hard I try, I can't do it!"

"It's not that I don't work hard enough, but that material science makes me work hard."

Professor Gao laughed and said, "Just rely on it!"

The middle-aged man said: "By the way, Professor Gao, some time ago, it was reported in the North American Journal of Materials that the North American Fuxi Research Institute has made a major breakthrough in the field of graphene and developed a new graphene material."

"That's true." Professor Gao said with emotion: "Beili's scientific research strength is still strong, and the gap between us and them is too great."

"If we can find a fullerene that is more stable than C60."

"Then our country of Xia can also occupy a place in the upper reaches of the graphene field."

"Unfortunately, there are too many people who have this idea, and very few succeed."

The middle-aged man said: "I heard that the graphene material developed by Beili Country can be used in military industry."

"Hmm!" Professor Gao nodded, "What they have developed is a two-dimensional material that solves the gaps in advanced materials, composite materials and manufacturing processes, thus helping the original weapons and materials to realize better military capabilities. performance."

The middle-aged man shook his head, and said bitterly: "This way, the military capabilities of the Beili Kingdom will become stronger again."

"What can we do?" Professor Gao shook his head: "They have made major breakthroughs in materials, and they can use them however they want. If you want to blame them, blame our material research for lagging behind them."

"It's not a sin to be strong, it's a sin to be backward."

The middle-aged man said helplessly: "Unfortunately, many countries in the world have invested a lot of money in the research and development of graphene, but only North America and the European Union have really achieved results.

Everyone is very envious of North America and the European Union. They hope that their country is strong in the field of materials, but materials research is too difficult.

Many people knew when they were in school that materials science is a sinkhole.

Of course, the tiankeng mentioned here, on the one hand, is related to the employment environment, and on the other hand, it is related to Xia Guo’s limited innovation ability in the field of materials.

It is difficult to make major breakthroughs in the field of materials and prove world-class problems in the field of mathematics.

If a new material is discovered, the material will have a great effect, which is no less than proving the seven difficult problems of mathematics.

For example, the discovery of fullerenes is no less than proving the seven difficult problems of mathematics.

Professor Gao drank the tea in front of him, then stood up and said, "Okay, let's continue working, don't worry here."

"It's useless to worry about it. It's better to focus on research, maybe there will be a breakthrough."

"It's not much better than worrying about you here!"

Everyone nodded, and then entered the laboratory with Professor Gao to continue working.

A week later!

Ye Fei put down the pen in his hand and looked at the mathematical formulas on the paper.

"Haha..." Ye Fei laughed and said, "I finally found it for me. Between the sequence C80 and C82, there must be a fullerene with higher stability than the C60 fullerene."

After finishing speaking, Ye Fei sorted out the content of his calculations during this period, and then walked out of the laboratory to find Professor Gao.

"Professor Gao!" Ye Fei walked into another laboratory and said with a smile, "I found it."

Everyone who was doing the experiment was stunned for a moment, then turned to look at Ye Fei.

Ye Fei smiled and said, "What are you doing looking stupid?"

Ye Fei put the paper in his hand on the table, and said: "Everyone, take a look, this is the fullerene sequence region I found that is more stable than C60."

"You really found it!" Professor Gao said in surprise.

At that time, Professor Gao just wanted to try, maybe he could find it.

Of course, it doesn't matter if you can't find it.

After all it was just a try.

"Of course!" Ye Fei smiled and said, "Let me tell you, my idea is really right. Using fullerene and non-fullerene, combining the data of the two groups of materials, I found out that it is more stable than C60 fullerene." high fullerenes."

"Also, using fullerenes and nonfullerenes helps me find it more mathematically."

"So, it only took me half a month to find it."

When everyone thought about it, it was true that Ye Fei spent half a month to find it.

Everyone gathered around Ye Fei.

Ye Fei skipped the calculation process, even if the process was shown to them, they could not understand it, and pointed directly to the final result.

Ye Feidao: "The sequence interval is between C80 and C82."

"So accurate?" Professor Gao said in amazement, "I'm not as good at mathematics as you, so don't lie to me. Even if you find a fullerene that is more stable than C60, it is impossible to find such an accurate region!"

The range between C80 and C82 is very small, and the materials in between can be C80, C80.1, C80.2...C81, C81.1, C81.2...C82.

Look for fullerenes that are more stable than C80 in the range from C82 to C60, and you will find them soon.

All can be found within three months.

The smaller the remaining range, the more accurate and shorter the time to find the desired material.

And like Ye Fei, such a small area is equivalent to Ye Fei directly telling everyone where the materials they want are.

Ye Fei said: "No way, that's how I found it."

"Are you looking for the right one?" Someone asked.

Ye Fei looked at the man and said, "Are you questioning my math ability?"

The man shook his head quickly and said, "Dean Ye, I didn't mean that."

Ye Fei said: "It must be accurate, you can look for it at ease, if you can't find it, I will be responsible."

When Ye Fei calculated the result, he was also a little surprised.

After all, the range is so small.

But Ye Fei is very confident in his math ability.

Now that it is calculated, it must be correct.

Professor Gao said: "Okay, since Dean Ye said it is correct, then let's look for it!"

The interval range is very small, and it can be found within three months.

Anyway, there was nothing to do, so Professor Gao did it with the mentality of giving it a try.

It's good to find it, and it doesn't matter if you can't find it.

"Okay!" Everyone nodded.

In the following time, everyone became busy. According to the interval given by Ye Fei, everyone began to look for fullerenes that were more stable than C60.

Of course, except for Ye Fei, no one thought that a more stable fullerene than C60 could really be found.

In the discovery of materials, sometimes I believe in ability, and sometimes I also believe in luck.

Some people are lucky, maybe they can discover a new material.

It often happens in the field of materials that a blind cat meets a dead mouse.

Ye Fei also joined in the search.

Ye Fei sat in front of the electron microscope and said: "According to the results I calculated, in fact, the range between C80 and C81 should be more accurate. In this range, fullerenes that are more stable than C60 can be found."

One month later!
Looking at the fullerenes under the electron microscope, Ye Fei sighed in his heart: "It's really beautiful, there are such beautiful fullerenes, nature is really a miracle."

A snowflake-shaped fullerene appeared under Ye Fei's eyes, as beautiful as a dream.

Black lines, snowflake-like shapes.

After a long time, Ye Fei left the eyepiece, looked up at the rest of the people and said, "Everyone, take a look, the internal structure of this fullerene is really beautiful."

Among the other people who were doing research, some looked at Ye Fei, and some continued to do research.

Professor Gao asked with a smile, "What kind of internal structure and shape can make you say so beautifully?"

Ye Fei said: "You will find out after taking a look."

Professor Gao walked to Ye Fei, and Ye Fei stood up and gave up his seat to Professor Gao.

Professor Gao sat down and looked into the eyepiece. Soon, Professor Gao said in surprise: "It's really beautiful. It's amazing that fullerenes can have the shape of snowflakes."

"Yeah!" Ye Fei smiled and said, "I also find it amazing, isn't it that fullerenes are carbon structures, and there shouldn't be snowflake-shaped fullerenes."

"It's also possible." Professor Gao continued to observe the fullerenes under the electron microscope without taking his eyes off the eyepiece, and said, "Snowflakes are also hexagonal!"

Ye Feidao: "But the structure of snowflakes is quite different from that of general fullerenes. Strictly speaking, it should be hexagonal."

"En!" Professor Gao nodded.

"Is this structure highly stable?"

Professor Gao said: "I don't know about it, it needs to be tested."

"Everyone!" Professor Gao looked up at the others.

The rest of the people looked at Professor Gao when they heard Professor Gao's voice.

Professor Gao said: "Let's take a look at the new fullerene discovered by Dean Ye. The internal structure is very beautiful."

Everyone was puzzled, yelling what kind of internal structure could be so beautiful.

Professor Gao said: "You will know it after reading it."

Everyone sat down to watch with doubts, and soon, they were surprised: "It's so beautiful, it's amazing, there are snowflake-shaped fullerenes."

After everyone finished watching, Professor Gao smiled and said, "It's beautiful!"

"En!" Everyone nodded.

Professor Gao said: "Let's test the stability of snowflake-like fullerenes!"

Everyone no longer continued their work, and all helped to test the stability of snowflake fullerene.

After more than an hour, everyone looked at the test results.

The density of C60 fullerene is 5.568, the melting point is 280 degrees Celsius, the boiling point is between 500 and 600 degrees Celsius, the flash point is 94 degrees Celsius, and the refractive index is 1.813.

Snowflake fullerene has a density of 6.666, a melting point of 330 degrees Celsius, a boiling point of 600 to 700 degrees Celsius, a flash point of 100 degrees Celsius, and a refractive index of 2.0.

Someone said: "Professor Gao, we seem to have found a fullerene that is more stable than C60."

"And in terms of internal structure, it breaks the traditional meaning of fullerene."

"Also, look at the data after this fullerene test, this data is very special!"

"The density is 6.666, the melting point is 330 degrees Celsius, the boiling point is 600 to 700 degrees Celsius, the flash point is 100 degrees Celsius, and the refractive index is 2.0."

"This data is too special."

Everyone nodded, it was really special, it was like the earth's latitude of 30 degrees north.

Everyone thought it might be a coincidence, but it was too much of a coincidence.

Professor Gao nodded excitedly: "Forget about the data, we finally found a fullerene that is more stable than C60 fullerene. As long as the news is released, the entire graphene field will cause a sensation!"

The crowd nodded, indeed.

In the field of fullerenes, C60 fullerene is the most stable, and now C60 is no longer the most stable among fullerenes, but snowflake fullerene is the most stable.

Everyone was very excited, only Ye Fei was not very excited.

After all, Ye Fei has experienced too much success.

Of course, Ye Fei is also very happy. The discovery of a new material can often make great progress in certain fields in his country.

The manufacture of this material will also be kept highly confidential and monopolized.

Professor Gao took a deep breath, trying to suppress his excitement.

But after trying a few times, he found it failed, so he stopped trying.

He said excitedly: "The whole field of graphene materials will cause a big earthquake because of our discovery today."

Professor Gao grabbed Ye Fei's hand and said with a smile: "Ye Fei, you are really a genius in the field of materials science, stop doing mathematics, and follow me to work on materials!"

Ye Fei was stunned, am I a genius in the field of materials?
Just kidding!

I just used mathematical formulas to find the material sequence interval, and after a month of trying and searching, I suddenly found a fullerene with a beautiful internal structure.

As far as the knowledge of materials science is concerned, I haven't used it much yet.

Ye Feidao: "It's quite simple to find a fullerene with higher stability than C60!"

Everyone rolled their eyes, simple?
Fifteen people in their entire laboratory have been studying for several years, but nothing has been found.

You tell me it's easy!
Well, it is indeed quite simple for you, Ye Fei.

Half a month of mathematical calculations, a month of searching for materials, and then it was a success.

It took a total of one and a half months.

Professor Gao twitched the corner of his mouth, and then said with a smile: "It's really simple, how about it, come to us!"

Ye Fei shook his head and smiled: "Forget it, I'll go back and study my mathematics. The field of materials is not my main business, mathematics is my main business."

"You really don't want to stay?" Professor Gao asked again.

"No!" Ye Fei firmly shook his head.

"Hey..." Professor Gao sighed regretfully, "Then I won't force others to do what they want."

Professor Gao was just too excited and wanted Ye Fei to stay.

But intellectually speaking, Ye Fei is really not suitable to stay here.

After all, Ye Fei has flourished in the fields of mathematics and computers.

Now let Ye Fei give up mathematics and computers and concentrate on materials.

In anyone's opinion, it is very inappropriate.

Professor Gao said: "Now report the news and start writing the paper. The corresponding author and first author are Dean Ye and I."

Professor Gao looked at Ye Fei and asked, "Dean Ye, is there any problem?"

"No problem!" Ye Fei shook his head.

Professor Gao is the head of the laboratory, and Ye Fei is the person who discovered the snowflake-like fullerene.

The corresponding author of the paper must be Professor Gao, because the snowflake-like fullerene was discovered by Ye Fei.

Therefore, the corresponding author should also have Ye Fei.

Of course, Ye Fei is not good at writing papers on materials science.

Therefore, it was not Ye Fei who wrote the thesis, but Professor Gao and others.

But still because the snowflake-like fullerene was discovered by Ye Fei, Ye Fei still needs to be installed in the first work.

Soon, everyone was busy.

ps: Try it out, it’s really impossible to do three shifts, forget it, let’s do two shifts!

(End of this chapter)