Chapter 360: Another breakthrough in superconducting materials
After handling matters at the Planck Institute of Plasma Physics, Xu Chuan returned to the Sichuan-Hai Institute of Materials and joined the work of Academician Zhang Pingxiang. Together, the two discussed in-depth understanding and research on optimizing high-temperature copper-carbon-silver composite superconductors.
Material methods and routes.
Coupled with the assistance of other scientific researchers in the institute, basically every time a new idea or route appears, someone will immediately conduct experiments to verify and obtain the results.
Around him and Zhang Pingxiang, the entire Sichuan-Hai Materials Research Institute was working hard to study the optimization route of superconducting materials.
The days passed like this day by day.
Time flies and it is the end of the year, and in about ten days it will be the Lunar New Year again.
However, this more than a month of hard work is not without results.
On the road to toughening graphene whiskers (fibers), he and Zhang Pingxiang finally achieved some staged results after discussions and repeated experiments.
........
In the laboratory, Xu Chuan was wearing a white lab coat, holding a glass vessel in his broad palm with a small film inside.
This is a product that he and Academician Zhang Pingxiang have optimized in recent days by using whisker (fiber) toughening technology.
First, he carefully observed it with the naked eye. The silver-gray color of the film in the vessel did not seem to be much different from the high-temperature copper-carbon-silver composite superconducting material he had originally studied.
However, the transparency of graphene itself is quite high, and the light transmittance can reach over 97.7%. If the number of layers is small, it is basically invisible when attached to the material.
"Is this the latest finished product? How is its performance after optimization? Has it been tested?"
Holding the film, Xu Chuan looked at it carefully for a while and then raised his head and asked.
On the side, Academician Zhang Pingxiang said: "It's not ideal, but it's much better than doping zirconia."
"The product you have in your hand is currently the best product. At the same thickness level, its toughness can reach the level of a mobile phone film composed of polyester substrate and tempered glass. It can withstand an impact energy of about 2.5J/m3 and its elastic modulus can reach 128.78
GPa…”
"At the same time, its superconducting properties have decreased a bit, which may be related to unstable laboratory processing. Statistics show that the Tc critical temperature and critical magnetic field have both decreased by about 10 to 15 percent.
The current and critical current density don't change very much."
"The thermal conductivity has improved a lot. The piece you have has been tested. The thermal conductivity of the core raw material was around 570W/m·k before, but after toughening, the thermal conductivity increased to about 987W/m·k.
It has nearly doubled.”
"This may have something to do with the toughened graphene film material. As you know, graphene itself has an extremely high thermal conductivity."
Zhang Pingxiang briefly introduced the newly developed product. Xu Chuan thought for a while and said: "The Tc critical temperature and critical magnetic field have been reduced by 15%, which is still acceptable. The unexpected increase in thermal conductivity really surprised me.
Some surprises.”
"Superconducting magnets are the key to magnetically confinement controllable nuclear fusion technology. Whether it is a tokamak or a stellarator, a powerful magnetic field is required to confine the plasma at hundreds of millions of degrees.
"The increase in thermal conductivity helps the cooling speed of liquid nitrogen and can better maintain stability."
"Compared to before the whisker toughening, it's already pretty good. Do you have other test products for this?"
Zhang Pingxiang nodded and said, "Yes, yes."
Hearing this, Xu Chuan reached out and took out the film from the glass vessel, pinched the two sharp corners, and slowly applied pressure.
The film in his finger is not very thick, it is similar to the tempered glass protective film of a mobile phone, maybe a little thinner. When his finger exerts pressure, the film begins to deform slightly.
As the intensity increased, the arc of deformation also became larger and larger. Finally, with a slight "snap" sound, the film pinched in the fingers broke into two halves.
However, the broken film did not fly out like glass. Although it was indeed broken, there was another layer of extremely transparent material adhering to it at the break, just like a lotus root being broken.
This is a graphene material that uses whisker (fiber) toughening and composite technology to optimize high-temperature copper-carbon-silver composite superconducting materials.
Generally speaking, there are two types of graphene toughened on superconducting materials. One is through whisker (fiber) toughening technology, which allows graphene and superconducting materials to be organically combined through the interface to improve the interface and matrix. The bonding strength.
The other layer is a graphene film layer adhered to one side, which can also have some toughening effects and provide a layer of protection.
Xu Chuan held a corner of the fragment and looked at it. Although graphene is extremely transparent, it can still be vaguely seen when it is adhered to superconducting materials.
"The folding arc can reach about 20 degrees, which is a huge improvement compared to before optimization. At least it will not break if it is dropped or bumped or encounters severe vibration."
Looking at the superconducting film in front of him, Xu Chuan thought briefly and then said.
Although he hasn't seen the specific detailed test data, for him, visual inspection and simple stress testing are enough to understand some basic things.
If it can be mass-produced and maintained, this level of superconducting materials can already be used in some electrical equipment.
Zhang Pingxiang nodded in approval and said: "From this aspect, the toughness of the optimized material is indeed good, and there is no big problem even when used in electromagnetic weapons and particle weapons."
"However, the disadvantage is that it is difficult to process. At present, it is very troublesome to replicate it in the laboratory, let alone industrial production."
Hearing this, Xu Chuan smiled and said: "It doesn't matter. For academic research, we don't need to consider costs."
"How to cut manufacturing costs and how to reduce the problems of productization are all things that the industry needs to consider."
"As for how expensive it is, there is no need to consider it."
"This is a product that can be used for military purposes. I'm afraid it can only be supplied to a small number of domestic manufacturers for the time being."
"Currently, products of this level should not be exported. Even if they are nominally sold to the Controlled Nuclear Fusion Research Institute or other manufacturers, they may be cut off directly by other countries."
"Of course, there will definitely be no shortage of orders, and it will bring us huge profits."
"Academician Zhang, you have worked hard during this period. In return, the profit from the sale of the optimized high-temperature copper-carbon-silver composite superconducting material will be distributed to you according to the standard of 10%. I have already asked someone to draw up the relevant contract.
, Mr. Zhang, just go and sign it later."
Although Academician Zhang took the initiative to apply to stay and help the Sichuan-Hai Institute of Materials Science and Technology, it was impossible for him not to express his feelings.
Money is just a number to him, but the exchanges with Academician Zhang during this period have benefited him a lot in the field of materials.
One of the world's top materials academicians has done countless experiments over the past few decades. The empirical data and some ideas and theories he has accumulated in his mind cannot be compared even if he is reborn as a human being in two lifetimes.
This period of communication brought him a lot of knowledge, ideas and theories, making him feel like he was back on campus to learn knowledge.
Just for this alone, Xu Chuan felt it was worth it.
Hearing this, Zhang Pingxiang was stunned for a moment. He really didn't expect that Xu Chuan would give him the dividends from this material.
After he realized what he was doing, he quickly refused and said, "This won't work. I can't have it."
"The idea of graphene whisker (fiber) toughening was proposed by you, and the laboratory is yours. I just did some experiments according to your ideas and requirements, but I am not qualified to receive this dividend."
Ten percent, which doesn't sound like much, but for high-temperature copper-carbon-silver composite superconducting materials, just to meet domestic demand, there are at least tens of billions or even tens of billions of superconducting orders.
Civilian and commercial applications are definitely not yet available. The first applications of this material should be military and top-level scientific and technological applications.
As for military and top-level technology applications, the demand and profits are actually quite large.
Discounting production costs and so on, the net profit for a year is at least several billion. If he takes one-tenth of it, it will be several hundred million, which is too exaggerated.
What's more, he really didn't feel that he played a key role in this optimization process.
The ideas and theories he proposed before, such as zirconium oxide doping, all failed. Graphene whisker (fiber) toughening was this idea and theory, not his.
What's more, he also learned about the principles of material calculation mathematical models and the superconducting mechanism paper of high-temperature superconducting materials in the laboratory. These things are secrets among the secrets outside. Normally, it is basically impossible for outsiders to see them.
If the person in front of me is not made public.
For these two points alone, Zhang Pingxiang felt that his two months of research and experimental work at the Chuanhai Materials Research Institute was worthwhile.
As for the 10% dividend, he can't even take it.
But in the end, he still failed to speak to Xu Chuan and accepted some dividends.
.......
After optimization, high-temperature copper-carbon-silver composite materials cannot be widely used in all walks of life, but some areas that were previously unavailable can now be tried.
For example, the most anticipated short-distance particle acceleration and electromagnetic acceleration above.
As for the effectiveness, we still need to wait until these products are manufactured and tested in detail before they can be determined.
Xu Chuan didn't care about this. From beginning to end, he always positioned himself as a scholar and researcher.
Studying science and technology is his goal, but how to use these things after they are manufactured, although he is also concerned about them, is no longer the focus.
Just like now, his goal has always been to develop around the controllable nuclear fusion route.
Whether it is high-temperature copper-carbon-silver composite superconducting materials, or purchasing the ASDEX device from the Planck Institute of Plasma Physics, or even cutting off orders there, it is all for the purpose of controllable nuclear fusion.
Compared with most scholars at home and abroad, he is actually purer after being reborn once; or, in other words, his ideals are farther away.
He hopes to get out of the earth and visit other planets, hoping to explore and understand the mysteries of the universe.
If possible, he even hopes to use gravitons in his lifetime, and then try to open a wormhole or channel for time and space travel.
Perhaps he would already be in his seventies or eighty by then. By then, it wouldn't matter if he took a spaceship to explore alien planets, even if he was buried in alien planets.
If it could really be done, this would be the best ending for someone like him.
.......
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