Starting from a top student and marching towards the sea of ​​stars

Chapter 75 You are really a materials genius
"This is... a new form of porous silicon nanoparticles!"

Ning Chen keenly discovered that the pore-like structure shown in this TEM image is different from the pore-like structure of the previous product.

And this is exactly another form of porous silicon nanoparticles hypothesized by Ning Chen a few days ago!
Excited, Ning Chen looked up the experimental data of this batch of products.

"It turns out that when the amount of boric acid added is greatly increased, this new pore structure will be generated. It seems that the idea of ​​using boron as a pure additive from the beginning is an undesirable mindset."

In this experiment, the amount of boric acid added was even higher than that of nano-silicon. Ning Chen never dared to think of such an addition ratio before.

After completing the TEM measurement of all the samples in hand, Ning Chen carefully analyzed the rules.

After analysis, Ning Chen found that near a certain larger boric acid addition ratio, the generated products all had similar new pore structures.

This further confirmed Ning Chen's hypothesis, and the occurrence of this phenomenon was probably not accidental.

Returning to the laboratory with excitement, Ning Chen immediately started preparing for a new round of experiments without taking a break.

This time, Ning Chen re-adjusted the addition ratio of boric acid and nano-silicon, controlling the quality of the two between 7:5 and 9:5, and divided the mass ratio more accurately.

In a new round of measurements, Ning Chen discovered that the formation of this new type of porous silicon nanoparticle product was not an accidental phenomenon.

"When the mass ratio of boric acid and nano-silicon is around 8:5, the resulting product has a larger pore structure. And for products with this structure, the output rate of standard samples is significantly improved."

After just one stage of improvement, the generation rate of standard samples has increased from 30.00% to 50.00%. Ning Chen is very satisfied with such an increase.

……

On this day, Xu Zhou came to Ning Chen's laboratory to learn about the latest progress of Ning Chen's experiment.

"How is it, Ning Chen, is there any progress in the recent experiment?"

Ning Chen found some recent TME images and various other experimental data, and told Xu Zhou about them.

"Mr. Xu, the recent experiment has indeed made a big breakthrough. After I changed the addition ratio of boric acid and nano-silicon, a new porous silicon nanoparticle structure was generated..."

Listening to Ning Chen's explanation, Xu Zhou was also very surprised.

"The amount of boric acid added is controlled to such a high level... and the formation of this new type of product is really incredible!"

For a while, Xu Zhou didn't think clearly about the theoretical basis of the whole experiment, but these experimental phenomena undoubtedly showed that Ning Chen's idea was completely correct.

"Ning Chen, can you tell me, how did you come up with the idea of ​​synthesizing this new type of product in this way?"

This time, Ning Chen did not use random excuses to explain the situation, but explained the reasons theoretically.

"Teacher Xu, we have discussed before that one of the important core steps in this experiment is to convert intrinsic silicon nanoparticles into p-type nanoparticles."

"That's right, we also talked about this problem at the time. Therefore, only when the addition ratio of boron is appropriate, can this special pore-like structure be generated."

"Teacher Xu, later I re-established a new one-dimensional diffusion model. This is the formula of this model——"

Ning Chen wrote down a partial differential equation on paper, and explained the principle to Xu Zhou.

"Through this one-dimensional diffusion model, we can find the relationship between the total concentration of boron, the surface concentration of boron atoms, and the diffusion coefficient. After calculations, I found that when the total concentration of boron is at a higher level , the entire model is still possible to be established..."

Because it involved some high-level mathematical knowledge, Xu Zhou didn't understand the specific principles for a while.

But Xu Zhou knew some mathematics after all. After discussing with Ning Chen carefully, he finally understood what Ning Chen was thinking.

"It turns out that if you construct a one-dimensional diffusion model in this way, you can indeed construct a new porous silicon nanoparticle structure. I didn't expect the most important part of it to be a mathematical formula."

At this time, Xu Zhou suddenly understood why Ning Chen continued to study materials science when he had such outstanding mathematical ability.

With a good foundation in mathematics, Ning Chen has a higher upper limit in various other science and engineering subjects.

In many cases, what hinders the upward development of materials science may not be the knowledge of pure materials science, but the basic knowledge of other sciences.

"Well, Mr. Xu, you can indeed say that. Otherwise, I might not have considered adding so much boric acid at all."

After understanding the core theory, Xu Zhou immediately understood the remaining principles on his own.

"According to this theory, adding a higher concentration of boric acid to p-type nanosilicon can obtain a lower Fermi level and reduce the energy barrier for electrons to transfer from silicon to silver, which is beneficial to the etching process. Create larger pore-like structures..." As he spoke, Xu Zhou felt more and more that Ning Chen was really a genius in materials science.

It is indeed a very wise choice for Ning Chen not to give up material science.

"Mr. Xu, next I want to continue to accurately add the proportion of boric acid and strive to maximize the production rate of standard products. In addition, I also plan to start research on the application of this material in lithium battery anodes."

"Well, now our experimental direction is very clear. Judging from the various data measured on this material so far, it does have the potential to be applied to lithium battery anode materials."

Xu Zhou feels more and more that Ning Chen's current research has high academic value.

If the follow-up research goes well, maybe Ning Chen will actually write an article in "Nature".

……

Every day that followed, Ning Chen continued to live in the laboratory.

Ning Chen didn't feel that this kind of life was monotonous, instead he was enjoying himself, enjoying the fun of experiments and research.

Although in the process of research, failures will occupy the vast majority of them, but these failures are helping Ning Chen to finally reach the other side of success.

After continuous experiments and improvements, Ning Chen has successfully increased the output rate of standard products to 90.00%. There has also been some progress in research on this material as an anode material for lithium batteries.

At noon that day, Ning Chen received a call from his mother, Wang Yanping.

"Chenchen, how are you doing recently?"

"It's fine, I've been in the lab lately. How are you and Dad?"

"We're fine too, don't worry. We both want to visit your school this weekend, so we won't delay your experiment?"

After hearing Wang Yanping's words, Ning Chen also realized that he hadn't been home for a long time.

Ning Chen's home is not too far from Shengzhou. In his previous life, Ning Chen would probably go home once a month, no matter how low the frequency was, it would not exceed three months.

But now, because he was busy doing experiments at school, Ning Chen didn't go home for the whole summer vacation.

Ning Chen knew that his parents didn't want to come to see the school, but wanted to come and see him.

"No delay, my time is more flexible now, you and Dad can rest assured."

"Okay, then I'll go to the train station to look at the tickets in the evening. If there's a suitable one, I'll buy it directly. If there's no suitable ticket, you can just take a bus there."

Ning Chen was about to buy a ticket directly for Wang Yanping, but suddenly realized that it was 2010.

At this time, 12306 has just opened and is in the stage of trial operation. You can only check the ticket information online, and you cannot buy tickets directly on the Internet.

"Okay, let me know after buying the tickets, and I will pick you up at the station then."

After hanging up the phone, Ning Chen was also looking forward to her parents' arrival.

"When my parents come over, I'll just let them live in the house I bought." Ning Chen thought.

On Saturday, Ning Chen arrived at the train station in advance and waited for the arrival of Ning Qiang and Wang Yanping at the exit.

Lie arrived at Shengzhou Station on time. A few minutes later, Ning Chen saw Ning Qiang and Wang Yanping walking down the stairs of the platform.

Both of them were carrying things, and it seemed that they were all for Ning Chen.

Ning Chen waved to them, and the two of them saw Ning Chen outside the station exit.

"Dad, Mom, why do you bring so many things?"

"Chenchen, these are the sauerkraut stuffed dumplings that your mother made for you. They were just steamed this morning. These are freshly harvested Nanguo pears. They are big and sweet, especially delicious."

When Wang Yanping saw this, she also said:

"You usually don't eat any good food at school, so this brings you some, to improve the food."

(End of this chapter)