Chapter 584 Impossible Material

Jinling Institute for Advanced Study.

Institute for Computational Materials.

Bringing Lu Zhou to the laboratory, Yang Xu, who sat in front of the computer and called up the test data, said with emotion.

"It's really incredible..."

Lu Zhou didn't ask where the incredible is for the time being, but went straight to the point: "What material is that thing?"

"Silver," Yang Xu took a deep breath, "To be precise, it's silver and graphene!"

"Silver and graphene?" Looking at Yang Xu, Lu Zhou was a little surprised and said, "That's it?"

In his impression, he seemed to have read similar papers.

It's just that because there are not many studies on metal materials, I can't remember where I saw it for a while.

To be honest, when he heard that there were only these two materials, he was somewhat disappointed. Although he also knew that even advanced civilizations probably wouldn't pile up costs on a wire, he didn't expect it to be so common.

However, Yang Xu looked at him speechlessly.

"It's just these two, it's already awesome, okay?"

As he spoke, as if to prove his point, he pressed a few buttons on the keyboard.

Soon, a transmission electron microscope image appeared on the screen.

On the image, black and gray patches are interlaced, interweaving a neat and delicate texture in the two-dimensional space, completely revealing the nanoscale secrets in the silver wire. come out.

Pointing to a few key areas on the image, Yang Xu didn't explain much, and continued to say, "Look at these places and you'll know."

Leaning over to get closer to the computer screen, Lu Zhou looked in the direction his index finger was pointing.

It can be seen that the approximately spherical silver atomic clusters with a particle size between 1-5nm are bonded together with a single-layer graphene with similar lateral dimensions.

Soon, Lu Zhou frowned slightly.

Even though he doesn't have much research on metal materials, he can see something unusual in it.

It's not a question of whether it's a good thing to do.

It's a question of whether we can do it or not...

To make graphene alloys based on metal materials, it is necessary to make bonds between metal nanoparticles and graphene.

At present, only the unpopular powder metallurgy technology can do this. However, even the powder metallurgy technology cannot bond graphene and silver nanoparticles to such a perfect degree.

It is no exaggeration to say that the silver thread as thin as a hair is simply a work of art.

Seeing that Lu Zhou didn't speak, Yang Xu continued in an emotional tone.

"Powder metallurgy is relatively cutting-edge and relatively unpopular. I don't know much about it. But taking 3D printing technology as an example, the best metal powder is about 10,000 mesh, which is about 13 microns in conversion. Some nanometer The powder used for ceramic materials may be a little finer, but also at the micron level."

"Although some laboratories can also achieve ultrafine powder grinding of 20nm and below...but this kind of powder can hardly be preserved in a normal environment, let alone used to bond with graphene debris."

It is not only difficult to prepare, but also difficult to screen and even more difficult to preserve.

The higher the mesh number and the smaller the particle size of the metal powder, the easier it is to oxidize, and it is extremely easy to agglomerate.

The only two solutions to the problem that seem feasible are either to disperse it in a special way while smelting it, or to mix it with graphene debris and spray it directly on the on the base.

Leaning back on the chair, Yang Xu sighed.

"As you can see, the difficulty of this thing is not in the technology itself, but in the realization of the production process. In fact, papers on composite materials such as Ag/GF, Ag/GO, AgFe/rGO, because electronic The rapid development of the industry can be said to be endless a few years ago."

"For example, the indium tin oxide used to make mobile phone screens is brittle. Many scholars have proposed combining silver nanowires with graphene to develop a new generation of bendable flexible screens. According to limited experimental data, this The mechanical properties of this material are quite excellent, and the resistivity is much lower than that of ordinary metals... When I was a postdoctoral student at MIT, there was a laboratory there that was doing this research.”

Averting his gaze from the screen, Lu Zhou asked, "What happened next?"

Yang Xu shrugged: "I don't know, but I guess the project probably won't go ahead. Indium tin oxide is not cheap, but silver is even better. Even if this technology is made, most likely no one will use it."

Thinking of this, Lu Zhou's expression was a little weird.

If it is considered a luxury to use silver as a mobile phone screen, then what is it to use silver as a wire?

However, Lu Zhou felt relieved when he thought that space mining would not be a difficult task if even space travel could be done.

For a civilization with this technology, silver might be worth only a little more than copper.

Looking at the data on the computer screen, Yang Xu's eyes were full of curiosity.

After hesitating for a while, he finally couldn't help but ask, "Where did you get this thing?"

It's the same feeling as Lu Zhou.

In his opinion, that thumb-length silver thread is like a work of art!

It is no exaggeration to say that its existence has completely subverted the industry's perception of metallurgical technology.

However, Lu Zhou did not answer his confusion, but simply replied: "State secrets, you just need to help me with the reverse engineering, and knowing too much about other things is not good for you."

Lu Zhou didn't explain this question too much, because there is no need for it.

Even before the Lingyun Medal, he didn't need to explain anything to anyone.

Or to take a step back, even if he needs to explain something, he only needs to explain it to one person.

And this kind of thing only happens in one situation.

That was his behavior, which seriously endangered national security.

In addition, it is no exaggeration to say that even those responsible for his security work, those responsible for keeping him secret, have no right to investigate the "secret" itself.

However, when he saw Yang Xu's surprised look, Lu Zhou was also secretly glad.

Fortunately, he only cut a short sample.

If I let this guy know that he still has a bunch of these things, I don't know if he will be so shocked that he doubts his life.

"All right……"

Shrugging helplessly, Yang Xu reluctantly accepted this perfunctory statement.

If it comes to secrets, it really doesn't do him any good to know too much.

After a pause, Yang Xu continued.

"However, it may not be easy to reverse engineer this thing. At least for the time being, I can't figure out how to make this thing."

Lu Zhou: "What if the silver nanoparticles are expanded to the micron level?"

Yang Xu hesitated, and said, "The difficulty still exists, but if you are interested, we can give it a try. But..."

Lu Zhou: "But?"

"But is it meaningful to do so?" Yang Xu asked, "Although I admit that this Ag/GF material has excellent resistivity properties, considering the price of silver, its industrial application prospects are almost zero."

It took a lot of effort to understand the mysteries, but at most it could only produce a "beautiful" paper.

This kind of thing may arouse the interest of ordinary researchers, but for Lu Zhou and Yang Xu, it is actually of little significance.

After all, unlike mathematical physics, materials science itself is a subject based on application...

Lu Zhou also thought about Yang Xu's question for a long time.

To be honest, he also hesitated in his heart, whether there is any value in recycling this technology.

However, in the end Lu Zhou made up his mind and said.

"I can't answer your question, at least not right now."

"But my gut tells me it's worth it."