From a university student to a chief academician

Chapter 215 A sensation in the material world, C72 structure carbon nanotubes
Three months passed in a 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 institute and showed them the research results of the institute.

The higher authorities attach great importance to the research of 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 their research have made a little progress, copying the structure in C72 fullerene.

Carbon nanotubes are tubular nano-scale graphite crystals. The structure is a seamless nano-scale tube formed by curling single-layer or multi-layer graphite sheets around the central axis at a certain helical angle. The C of each layer is SP2 hybridized to form a hexagonal A flat cylindrical surface.

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

Therefore, Ye Fei and the others have now copied the structure of C72 fullerene and transplanted it into the central axis of carbon nanotubes.

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 and led a group of materials experts.

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

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, which is a snowflake-like structure.

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

Academician Wang and others were very surprised. They did not expect the structure of C72 fullerene to be so beautiful.

Academician Wang said: "This is the structure of C72 fullerene?"

Ye Fei nodded and said, "Yes!"

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

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

Ye Feidao: "After copying the structure from C72 fullerene, then according to the structure of C72 fullerene as the core, find the best ratio to surround the C72 structure with single-layer or multi-layer graphene sheets to see if it can produced carbon nanotubes."

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

"Followed by research on mass production of C60-structured carbon nanotubes."

Academician Wang said: "You want to break the traditional carbon nanotubes and create a carbon nanotube with a new structure?"

"Yes!" Ye Fei said.

Academician Wang nodded without saying anything.

He didn't ask Ye Fei if he could succeed, and there is no such thing as scientific research.

Research is to advance in groping, whether it will be successful or not, no one can decide.

Afterwards, Ye Fei led them to look at the research on the structure of C72 and the ratio of graphene.

The ratio of C72 structure and graphene, Ye Fei and the others have already made tens of thousands of combinations, but they failed every time.

With different ratios, some can produce carbon nanotubes, while others cannot.

Some produced carbon nanotubes are of poor quality, and some are close to C60-structured carbon nanotubes.

What Ye Fei wanted was carbon nanotubes with a quality beyond the C60 structure.

After a long time, they left the institute.

Another two months have passed, and it's August!
Ye Fei is sitting in front of the computer, which is a full touch screen computer, laid flat like a desktop.

Ye Feizheng manipulated it with his hands, designing the ratio between the C72 structure and graphene.

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

Ye Fei looked up at the researcher in doubt, and asked, "What is it?"

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

Ye Fei said, "I'll go and have a look."

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

The fabrication area of ​​the Carbon Nanotube Institute is where materials are manufactured.

"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 many data written on it.

Ye Fei first put the test tube in front of his eyes and looked carefully. It was just black powder with the naked eye, and he couldn't see anything else.

Then Ye Fei looked at the data again.

【Colour: Black
Odor: None
Appearance: powder

Melting point: 5200-5500°C

Density: 1.7g/cm】

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

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

The density is 2.1 g/cm.

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

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

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

"A new substance?" Ye Fei frowned and asked in doubt, "Show me the structure diagram."

"Ok!"

Soon, the researcher gave Ye Fei the structure diagram.

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

These three new structures are like two triangles crossed together to form a hexagonal corner.

Ye Fei looked at it for a long time, and recalled all the material structures he had seen before in his mind, but he couldn't figure out what it was.

Ye Fei said: "Come on, let's go back and find out what this is."

"Okay!" The researcher nodded.

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

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

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

Ye Fei made a note of this matter in his heart, and he will study the materials found later.

Now the main task is to research out carbon nanotubes.

The researcher said: "Okay."

One month later!
Ye Fei took a long breath, looked at the newly designed structure diagram, and said, "This structure diagram should be fine!"

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

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

After that, 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 manufacture of carbon nanotubes starts with the addition of raw materials, followed by the preparation of nanocatalysts, the growth of carbon nanotubes, the addition of hydrocarbons, the purification of carbon nanotubes, the recovery of catalysts, and the detection of finished products.

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

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

【Colour: Black
Odor: None
Appearance: powder

Melting point: 4000-4050°C

Density: 2.1g/cm
Spontaneous ignition point: 1000°C

Flexibility: 10N]

Seeing this statistic, Ye Fei took a deep breath in his heart. The statistic is so perfect.

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

The spontaneous ignition point is 10 degrees, and the flexibility is [-] Newtons.

The carbon nanotubes produced by C72 have much higher data than C60 carbon nanotubes.

"Boss, how are you doing?"

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

Ye Fei looked up at them and said with a smile: "The data is very good, we have created a brand new carbon nanotube."

"Oh!" Everyone cheered excitedly.

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

After 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 produced with the C72 fullerene structure as the central axis are released, it should cause a big sensation!"

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

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

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

"Okay, Xiao Ming!" Ye Fei said.

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

This researcher named Xiao Ming's full name is Wang Ming.

He is an intern researcher. He is 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 Xiaoming.

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

Not only papers can be posted on arxiv, but research reports can also be posted.

The so-called research report is like a newspaper, simply explaining your own research results.

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

Dongying Country, Kyoto Electric Co., Ltd.!
"Professor Iijima, read this research report!" A researcher walked into the laboratory, where Sumio Iijima was doing experiments.

After saying that, the researcher placed the tablet beside Sumio Iijima.

Iijima Sumio reprimanded without turning his head: "Didn't you see that I was doing the experiment, take it away."

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

"Huh?" Iijima Sumio stopped his hands, 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 finger on the screen, and watched it carefully.

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

"Better performance than carbon nanotubes with C60 structure."

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

The performance improvement of carbon nanotubes is more than just performance improvement.

The improvement of performance is accompanied by a wider field of application.

"Also, the structure of carbon nanotubes with a C72 structure is really beautiful, and it is actually snowflake-shaped."

"Is the structure of C72 fullerene snowflake-like?"

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

At this moment, Sumio Iijima is very curious 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 the outside world, so he lacked interest.

But now he's more interested in C72 fullerenes.

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

"If I can study C72 fullerene, it will definitely help my research."

At this moment, the entire material world was sensational because of Ye Fei's research report on arxiv.

The study reports that Ye Fei has created a brand new carbon nanotube, which is much stronger than the carbon nanotube with C60 structure.

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

But unexpectedly, the performance of carbon nanotubes can be improved a lot.

At this moment, C72 fullerene is mentioned again by people in the material field.

They were very curious about what else had not been discovered in C72 fullerenes.

Stack Exchange, material plate, carbon nanotube plate!

[It’s amazing, Ye Fei is too awesome, since Sumio Iijima created carbon nanotubes, I thought they were already the most powerful material in the world, but 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 return the Nobel Prize, it is impossible for Xia Guo to win the Nobel Prize. 】

[People from Beili country, please be jealous, we Xia Guoye Fei created a brand new carbon nanotube. 】

[Isn't it just a brand new carbon nanotube?If he has the ability to research the mass production method of carbon nanotubes, this is the most difficult part of carbon nanotubes. 】

【You are still jealous, so be jealous, no matter how jealous you are, there will be no genius like Ye Fei in your Beili country. 】

[We have a lot of geniuses in 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 lamented Ye Fei's genius even more.

North America!
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Institute of Nanomaterials!

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

Lucas nodded: "I know about it."

Boyi said: "What should we do now? Ye Fei is really likely to develop a mass-manufacturing method for carbon nanotubes."

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

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

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

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

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

Boyi took a deep breath and said, "Okay, I'll just trust you again."

England, SUNY!

Stanley Whittingham is a Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, mainly in the field of materials science.

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

"Of course, Ye Fei is a genius, I really want to have an academic exchange with him."

"I'm sure, maybe Ye Fei can develop a mass-manufacturing method for carbon nanotubes."

"What if carbon nanotubes could be mass-produced?"

"I think Xia Guo will definitely sell it to the outside world 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.

But because carbon nanotubes cannot be mass-produced, carbon nanotubes cannot be used in large quantities.

This limits the development of many fields.

Stanley said itchyly: "No, I must communicate with Ye Fei."

(End of this chapter)