cosmic hegemony

Chapter 356, Degenerate Materials

In the back garden of the Star Palace, the capital of the empire, Li Fu was drinking tea leisurely, reading a book, and thinking about the core and most difficult point of the warp drive - the material.

As the most basic discipline, material science has always been an important thing that determines the technological level of the entire country and civilization, and it is also one of the basic disciplines that the empire has been vigorously developing over the years.

However, it is not easy to manufacture materials that can meet the needs of warp speed engines, because of the powerful performance of warp speed engines, theoretically only degenerate materials can meet the needs of warp speed engines, but degenerate State materials can be different from general materials.

Degenerate materials are materials created from the perspective of atoms. In theory, there are also materials created from the perspective of neutrons and quark-level materials. When it comes to atoms, everyone may not be able to understand the power of this material. If we say Neutron stars, black holes, everyone may know the strength of this material.

With the development of microscopic science and technology, it is possible to artificially synthesize materials at the atomic scale, such as atomic clusters, cluster materials, linear chains, multi-layer heterostructures, ultra-thin films, etc. These materials are characterized by low dimensionality , the symmetry is reduced, and the geometric features are significant.

But it is only possible. When it is actually operated, it is difficult to truly say from the perspective of atoms to create the materials you need. The unit of atoms is too small. The current science and technology can only It can be achieved at the nanometer level, and atoms are much smaller than nanometers.

First of all, we need to understand their size. Nanometer is a kind of unit of length. 1 nanometer is one billionth of 1 meter, which is recorded as nm. 1 nanometer is equal to the length of 10 hydrogen atoms arranged next to each other, because the diameter of each atom is different, so 1 nanometer may be equal to the length of the arrangement of dozens of other element atoms.

20 nanometers is almost equivalent to one-thousandth of a hair!

What we usually call nanotechnology refers to the technology of studying the special phenomena and special functions of substances in the range of nanoscale (100 nanometers to 0.1 nanometers), and creating new materials and materials by directly manipulating and arranging atoms and molecules. .

The emergence of nanotechnology first benefited from the invention of the scanning tunneling microscope (STM), which can magnify tens of millions of times. The invention of the scanning tunneling microscope enables scientists to observe the microscopic world from a nanometer perspective.

Since the early 20s, nanotechnology has developed rapidly, and new disciplines such as nanoelectronics, nanomaterials, nanomechanics, and nanobiology have emerged continuously. Nanotechnology is the future of scientists' language and changes human beings. One of the 90 great sciences of history.

In fact, although today's scientists can observe information at the atomic level through STM technology, and have a certain impact on the atomic arrangement structure.

For example, in April 1990, when two scientists from IBM in the United States were using STM to observe xenon atoms on the surface of metal nickel, inspired by the movement of the probe and xenon atoms, they tried to use the STM tip to move the xenon atoms adsorbed on the metal nickel. Arrange 4 xenon atoms on the surface of nickel to form an "IBM" structure with a height of 35 atoms!

Scientists from the Huaxia Academy of Sciences also used nanotechnology to draw the world's smallest map of China by relocating carbon atoms on the surface of graphite, which is less than 10 nanometers in size.

Since then, scientists have enjoyed moving various atoms to form various patterns, such as silicon atoms, sulfur atoms, iron atoms, carbon monoxide molecules, iron-based molecules...

From here we can know that what scientists can achieve at present is to move some atoms a little bit and arrange various patterns on the surface of objects, which cannot really create and construct the atomic structure in a three-dimensional sense, and at the same time, there is no other way Large-scale, fast to create new materials at the atomic level.

But even in this case, only some atoms can be moved very simply, and some atomic arrangements can be constructed on the surface. Scientists have also produced various complicated nanomaterials, artificially modifying the structure of copper atoms on the surface of copper. Arrangement can also increase the strength of copper by 5 times.

We all know that diamond is diamond, graphite, and coke. The atoms they make up are actually the same, that is, carbon atoms, but the properties of these materials are very different. In terms of hardness alone, diamond is the hardest material in nature. , while the hardness of graphite and coke is very low.

The reason for this difference is the structure of carbon atoms. In the atomic structure of diamond, each carbon atom forms a covalent bond with the other 3 carbon atoms through the SP4 hybrid orbital, forming a regular tetrahedron.Because the CC bond in diamond is very strong, diamond has high hardness and extremely high melting point; and because all valence electrons are confined in the covalent bond area, there are no free electrons, so diamond does not conduct electricity.

In the graphite structure, carbon atoms in the same layer are sp2 hybridized to form covalent bonds, and each carbon atom is connected to three other atoms by three covalent bonds.Six carbon atoms form a regular six-connected ring on the same plane, stretching into a sheet structure.

Here, the bond length of the CC bond is 142pm, which just belongs to the bond length range of the atomic crystal, so for the same layer, it is an atomic crystal.The carbon atoms in the same plane still have a p orbital left, and they overlap each other.Electrons are relatively free, which is equivalent to free electrons in metals, so graphite can conduct heat and electricity, which is exactly the characteristic of metal crystals.

Simple and easy to understand is that the carbon atom structure of diamond is three-dimensional, and all carbon atoms directly form a regular tetrahedron with each other, which is a three-dimensional structure.

The structure of graphite is that carbon atoms form regular hexagonal rings on the same plane, forming a sheet structure, that is, layers of carbon atoms, but there is no connection between the carbon atoms between the layers. It is a planar structure.

A three-dimensional regular tetrahedron structure and a planar regular hexagonal structure cause a huge difference in the material properties between diamond and graphite, and their value is also different. The price of diamond is calculated by carat, and the price of graphite is Calculated in tons, the difference in value is billions of times!
The empire wants to research the materials used in the warp drive, which is to construct materials from the three-dimensional perspective of atoms, turning decay into magic, for example, turning the atomic angle of iron into a regular tetrahedral structure like that of diamond, So what kind of material will come out?
"Difficult!"

Li Fu couldn't help frowning when he thought of this. Degenerate materials are not ordinary materials. They need to be created from a very small microscopic point of view. Traditional material synthesis and forging techniques cannot be achieved by high temperature, high pressure, low temperature, beating, Synthesis and other methods, but these methods, the scientists of the empire have already researched to the extreme, and it is impossible to create degenerate materials.

"Is it necessary to use the method in the seeds of civilization?"

Li Fu, who obtained the civilization seeds of the Great Han Technological Empire, naturally knew from the civilization seeds that there are many ways to obtain degenerate materials. For super civilizations like the Great Han Technological Empire, the methods for them to obtain degenerate materials and quark materials are very simple. Mine neutron stars and black holes.

With the current technology of the empire, just thinking about it feels a bit fanciful. The mass of a neutron star and the power of a black hole are simply not what the current technology can conquer.

Of course, even a super civilization is slowly developing step by step. The method of obtaining degenerate materials in the early days of the Dahan Technology Empire was to use the powerful magnetic field binding ability to create degenerate materials.

"It seems that this method can only be used, and it is also the only method currently available to the Empire's technology. Methods such as space compression, space folding, and space collapse are simply impossible for the Empire now."

Li Fu pondered for a long time. It is now the 22nd century, and the empire's century-old science and technology plan has been implemented for more than 20 years, but the empire has not made any substantial progress in the research of warp speed engines. Naturally, nothing can be seen. Only after the results are produced will you know that the efforts of these years will not be in vain.

Just like success, others will only see your success, but they will not see how much hard work and sweat you have put in behind it; just like pregnancy, others will only see your belly getting bigger and bigger, but they will not see it. I don't know how many bullets were shot trying to get pregnant.

Li Fu was lost in thought, but he didn't notice the arrival of Chen Bin, Yu Liang, Cao Haitao, Tu Xueli and others. They all had smiles on their faces, obviously in a good mood.

"Brother Fu, what are you thinking?"

Yu Liang grinned, looked at Li Fu's pensive look, and asked with a smile.

"I'm thinking about degenerate materials. Existing methods are difficult to shape materials from the perspective of atoms. It seems that we need to innovate."

Li Fu smiled and motioned for everyone to sit down freely without being too polite.

"Xue Li, the Japanese are gone?"

Seeing that Tu Xueli was also coming, Li Fu asked with a smile.

"Well, they're all gone. They originally wanted to meet you, but I stopped them. They came this time to establish diplomatic relations with our empire, and they also brought over Wang Xizhi's original 'Lanting Preface', but they were rejected. I refused and just dug a hole for them."

"Let them continue to expand outward. Judging from the current position of the Beichuan galaxy, it is estimated that it will not take long before they will soon reach a powerful alien civilization, and there will be a good show at that time."

Tu Xueli said respectfully, everyone present is the elders and elders of the empire, even if he is the prime minister of the empire, he must be respectful, especially when facing Li Fu.

But when he said that he dug a hole for the Japanese, he also showed a smug smile on his face, as if he saw the miserable end of the Japanese in the future.

(End of this chapter)