My house collapsed since I became the top scorer in the college entrance examination

Chapter 147 Teacher, when did I say I would give up this project?

Time flies by like a flash, and it’s the first day of school.

Xiao Ran's laboratory.

"Senior Brother Kong, you are here to synthesize compound No. 1." Xiao Ran stood in front of the experimental table and said to Senior Brother Kong who was preparing experimental materials.

Brother Kong nodded, and Xiao Ran handed over the test tube on his hand and ordered: "First, dissolve 5g of 3-chlorothiophene in dry tetrahydrofuran. The dosage of tetrahydrofuran is 30 ml. Stir thoroughly, and then cool the mixture. to -78°C, dropwise add 5.56 ml of n-BuLi reagent"

"Xiao Xi, you will synthesize the No. 2 compound, is that okay?"

"No problem!"

"Okay, you need to add 1.14 grams of diethyl and 70 grams of triphenylphosphorus palladium to 20 ml of toluene and 4 ml of DMF mixed solvent, and then heat the mixture to reflux and continue stirring."

"Qian Wenbin, you are responsible for the synthesis of compound No. 19. First, add ml of sodium hydroxide solution to the test tube."

"Lin Xiaoxiao, you are responsible for recording the experimental data. Remember to record every step in detail, including the type of reagent used, where it was taken from the laboratory, and which company it was purchased from. Do you understand?"

"Understood, Director Xiao!"

After working together last semester, everyone’s tacit understanding has improved significantly this semester.

Finally, we have the prototype of a scientific research team, but there is still a long way to go before we can become qualified scientific research dogs. Fortunately, Xiao Ran does not expect them to play a big role in this project research, so they should just accumulate experience.

At present, the research progress of the entire project has reached about 90%, of which Xiao Ran has completed more than 80% of the work by himself.

Of course, only Xiao Ran, who has mastered the entire organic solar cell technology, knows exactly how far this research has progressed.

As for other people in the laboratory, they have no idea where their research is at, and they don't even know if the direction is wrong.

Of course, this is no wonder for them. In fact, this is the daily life of scientific research dogs.

Take this organic solar cell as an example. If you want to develop a new organic solar cell with an energy conversion rate of about 20.26% to 21%, the most critical point is the ternary copolymer in this technology.

To obtain this terpolymer, you need to design and synthesize two new Cl-regioisomeric units, TTO and TTI, and then incorporate them as the third unit into the PM6 main chain through random copolymerization to form a ternary copolymer. things.

The main principle is that the introduction of TTO and TTI will reduce the HOMO level of the terpolymer and increase the open circuit voltage. (HOMO: the abbreviation of Highest Occupied Molecular Orbital, which means the highest occupied molecular orbital. It is the highest energy orbit of the occupied electrons in the molecule and represents the electronic state in the molecule that is most likely to participate in reactions)

Simultaneously having multiple non-covalently interacting TTO units, a more positive electrostatic potential, and fewer isomeric structures results in the resulting terpolymer having better molecular coplanarity, stronger crystallinity, and more obvious aggregation. Behavior.

These properties facilitate exciton dissociation, charge transfer, and charge collection.

Because of this, the difficulty of this project is how to obtain this terpolymer.

Take the isomeric unit TTO as an example. If you want to synthesize this new type of Cl-regioisomeric unit, you need compound No. 1, which is the experiment that Kong Jiyuan is currently doing.

Compound No. 50 was stirred at -2°C for 78 hours, and then cooled to -14.53°C again. Under this condition, 3 ml of Me1SnCl was added at one time, and stirred for another hour. The solution was then recovered to room temperature and stirred overnight.

Finally, the obtained mixture was poured into water and extracted with DCM to obtain a light yellow oily substance extract, which was named compound No. 4.

Then compound No. 4 was added to other chemicals to synthesize and extract compound No. 6. Finally, after four interlocking experiments, the new Cl-regioisomer unit TTO was obtained step by step. In the same way, compound No. 2 and compound No. 3 are synthesized into compound No. 5, and then after repeated extraction, adding catalysts, etc., TTI is finally obtained.

This is a very complex and cumbersome experiment.

If you don't know the answer, you can only use the trial and error method, that is, experiment one by one.

How to obtain Compound No. 3? How many grams of -chlorothiophene should be used, four grams? Five grams? Or six grams?

How many milliliters of tetrahydrofuran is appropriate? To what degree should the solution be cooled after stirring? How many milliliters of n-BuLi reagent should be added?

Of course, these can all be derived from data and formulas can be used to calculate the optimal ratio, but where does this data come from?

It still requires a large amount of experimental data to support, and when these parameters reach a certain number, the trial and error method will definitely make the scientific research dogs in the laboratory miserable. Hundreds of experiments are guaranteed to be carried out, thousands of times are the norm, and the upper limit is unknown. .

Just thinking about it makes my head tingle.

But this is obviously for other people. For Xiao Ran, his advantage lies in knowing all the experimental procedures and data by heart. He knows how much dosage of tetrahydrofuran should be used and how much it needs to be cooled to to finally obtain the No. 1 compound. etc.

This is why he dared to tackle the new organic solar cell project with only five people in his laboratory.

Even if he wanted to, he could develop a new type of organic solar cell in one go without any mistakes. Of course, this would be a bit shocking.

Others have experimented thousands of times but still can't find the right ratio to achieve the best performance. You can succeed in one try, and anyone who sees it will think there is something wrong at first reaction.

So if you don’t want to be suspected, you should honestly do a few more sets of controlled experiments. With enough error tolerance and comparative data, your final answer will be convincing.

After the experiments in the first two months, Xiao Ran felt that the time was almost ripe, so he simply stopped pretending, opened the low-temperature refrigerator where the reagents were stored, and took out Compound No. 8 and Compound No. 10 from it.

This is a batch of No. 20 and No. 8 compound reagents that he made three days ago. There are 21 reagents in total. Two of them are correct ratio reagents. The numbers Xiao Ran marked on them are 10-12 and - .

He took out five bottles of No. 8 and No. 21 compounds each, mixed 10-12 and - into them, and then walked to his experimental table and lowered his head to start the experiment.

With the experience of Carl Barry Sharpless, Xiao Ran's experiments were simply pleasing to the eye, especially compared to Kong Jiyuan and others next to him, it was simply a dimensionality reduction blow.

It didn’t take long for Xiao Ran to synthesize five new Cl-regioisomeric units, TTO and TTI.

After marking them with numbers as usual, Xiao Ran handed the ten samples to Lin Xiaoxiao and ordered: "Xiaoxiao, help me take these ten samples for Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis."

"Okay!" Lin Xiaoxiao took the sample with a sweet smile and walked quickly to the only Fourier transform infrared spectrometer in the laboratory. Then he operated the instrument and put each sample into the spectrometer one by one for testing.

While Lin Xiaoxiao was busy operating the Fourier transform infrared spectrometer, there was a gentle knock on the door of the laboratory, and then a familiar voice came: "Xiao Ran, are you in there?"

Xiao Ran looked up and saw Director Tian standing at the door with a smile and an envelope in his hand, looking mysterious.

"Teacher Tian, ​​why are you here?" Xiao Ran came up to him unexpectedly, "Are there any new instructions?" Director Tian waved his hand, indicating to Xiao Ran not to be so formal: "There are no instructions, but there are a lot of concerns. How's it going? Is your project going smoothly?"

Xiao Ran nodded and said: "It's going pretty well. I haven't encountered any problems in research so far."

Director Tian was amused by Xiao Ran. Because of Xiao Ran, he had been paying close attention to this organic solar cell project during this period. Naturally, he knew how popular this project was, with many top universities at home and abroad participating in the competition.

Currently the leader in this field is a team of chemical engineering professors from the University of California, America. The energy conversion rate of organic solar cells has reached 16.2%.

Scientific research competition is extremely cruel. Winners take all. Honors, resources, and attention will only belong to the first place.

For the organic solar cell project, aside from factors such as materials and costs, energy conversion rate is the only factor that measures the value of the project.

Until a new record is set, research results lower than 16.2% have no meaning. Of course, this may not be rigorous. If the research is novel and innovative enough, it can still be published in some second-level journals. As for the top journals, is that right? Think about it.

In fact, since the research results of the University of California came out, many universities have chosen to withdraw from the competition. This is a wise choice.

In the field of scientific research, success often leads to more success. Once a team or researcher achieves breakthrough results, it will be easier for them to obtain funding for subsequent projects, and thus it will be easier for them to attract high-quality resources and talents, thus further consolidating their leading position.

This Matthew effect makes scientific research competition more cruel, because those teams or researchers that have achieved success usually have a greater competitive advantage, while teams that fail to achieve significant results may fall into a vicious cycle and be difficult to turn around.

In this case, the remaining research teams that continue to compete with the University of California have either reached an energy conversion rate of 16.2% but have not yet achieved it, or they have already charged towards a higher number.

As far as Director Tian knows, the research team of Wu Maocai, deputy dean of the School of Chemistry of his school, has studied about 17%. Although the research teams of other universities have not yet heard the news, they will definitely not be lower than this number.

Compared with these top teams, Xiao Ran's team, which only has five or six people and whose highest academic qualification is just a graduate student who has not yet received a degree certificate, seems so shabby.

It is no less than a five-year-old child fighting in the ring with several strong men with a height of 1.9 meters. The result can be imagined.

Lao Tian only thought that he was a young man with a thin skin and was too embarrassed to tell his situation, so he could only try to hold on by pretending to be fat.

He didn't intend to expose him. In his opinion, this was also a good thing for Xiao Ran. It made him understand that scientific research was not as simple as he thought, so he had to calm down and return to the field of mathematics as soon as possible.

After retracting his thoughts, Lao Tian smiled: "You kid, you know how to say nice things. Forget it, I'm too lazy to care about you. By the way, I have one more thing to tell you this time."

As he spoke, Director Tian raised the envelope in his hand: "This is an invitation letter from Cambridge University, inviting you to give a lecture."

Xiao Ran was stunned when he heard this: "Cambridge University? Giving a lecture?"

Director Tian smiled and said, "You have forgotten that half a year ago at the International Mathematical Union, Professor Robert from the University of Cambridge invited you to give a lecture at their school, and here it is!"

Xiao Ran was a little dumbfounded: "I have almost forgotten this, how come they still remember it?"

Director Tian laughed: "This shows that your talent has been recognized. Besides, the 50 pounds can't be wasted, right?"

After joking about Xiao Ran, he paused and said seriously: "This is a rare opportunity to go out and communicate more with international colleagues. Your main job is mathematics after all!"

Kong Jiyuan's heart tightened when he heard the conversation between Director Tian and Xiao Ran. Of course he knew how glorious it was for Xiao Ran to go to Cambridge to give a lecture, but he knew better that the current research was at a critical moment.

If Xiao Ran leaves at this time, wouldn't their efforts over the past few months be in vain?

Kong Jiyuan couldn't help but interjected: "Teacher, if Junior Brother Xiao leaves at this time, what will happen to our experiment?"

Director Tian frowned when he heard this and looked at Kong Jiyuan: "What happened to your experiment? Could it be that without Xiao Ran, you can't do experiments?"

Kong Jiyuan was a little embarrassed by Director Tian's question, but he still said bravely: "Director Tian, ​​you may not know very well. The research progress of our project has always been controlled by Junior Brother Xiao. If he leaves, we really won't be able to Know what to do."

"So how is your current research progress?" Director Tian said with a hint of dissatisfaction in his tone.

Kong Jiyuan hesitated for a moment, then said truthfully: "The current maximum energy conversion rate is only 9.6%."

"9.6%?" Director Tian's voice raised an octave, "You have been studying for so long, and you have just found 9.6%? Do you know that Vice President Wu Maocai's team has already studied about 17%! And their team There are academicians, Yangtze River scholars, professors, and a large group of graduate students and doctoral students here! What about you? Just you guys, how can you compare with others?"

Kong Jiyuan was speechless by Director Tian. Of course he knew that their team was incomparable to Vice President Wu Maocai's team, but just because they couldn't compare, they didn't compare?

Back then, our country was inferior to America in all aspects, so didn’t we still dare to compete with the United States?

However, he could only hold these words in his heart and did not dare to say them out.

He could only say dullly: "Teacher, you may have some misunderstandings about our project. Our goal is not to surpass Vice President Wu's team or the research teams of other universities. We are just doing our own research."

"Your own research?" Director Tian laughed angrily, "Then what's the point of your research? Is it just to develop an energy conversion rate of 9.6%?"

Well.

Kong Jiyuan was completely speechless.

At this time, Xiao Ran suddenly asked: "Teacher, when is the lecture?"

"next week."

Next week Xiao Ran pondered for a moment: "That's enough! Don't worry, teacher, I will go to the Cambridge lecture next week."

"Junior Brother Xiao" Kong Jiyuan wanted to say something more, but when Lao Tian glared at him, he snorted a few times, and finally had to suppress his words in frustration.

"That's right!" Looking away, Lao Tian patted Xiao Ran's shoulder happily: "I have not been optimistic about your project from the beginning. It is better to give up as soon as possible and return the focus to mathematics research!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Xiao Ran said leisurely: "Teacher, when did I say I would give up this project?"

Ok?

Lao Tian was stunned, what do you mean?

还没等他回过味来，只听见林晓晓突然惊喜地大喊一声：“萧主任！TTO-21和TTI-12的特征峰在1500-1300 cm-1之间出现了明显的波动！”

(End of this chapter)