Chapter 356, Degenerate Materials

In the back garden of the Xinghuang Palace in the capital of the empire, Li Fu leisurely drank tea and read books, thinking about the most core and difficult point of the warp engine in his mind - materials.

As the most basic subject, materials 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 subjects that the empire has been vigorously developing in recent years.

However, it is not an easy task to produce materials that can meet the needs of the warp engine, because the powerful performance of the warp engine, in theory, only degenerate state materials can meet the warp engine, but degenerate materials are different from ordinary materials.

Degenerate materials are materials built from the perspective of atoms. In theory, there are also materials built from the perspective of neutrons and quark-level materials. When it comes to atoms, you may not be able to understand the power of this material. If you talk about neutron stars and black holes, you may know the power of this material.

With the development of microscopic science and technology, it is possible for people 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 dimensions, reduced symmetry, and significant geometric features.

But it is only possible. When it comes to actual operation, it is difficult to truly create the materials you need from the perspective of atoms. The unit of atoms is too small. The current science and technology can only reach the nanometer level at most, and atoms are much smaller than nanometers.

First of all, we need to understand their size. Nanometer is a unit of length. 1 nanometer is one billionth of 1 meter, recorded as nm. 1 nanometer is equal to the length of 10 hydrogen atoms lined up one by one. Because the diameter of each atom is different, 1 nanometer may be equal to the length of dozens of other element atoms.

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

What we usually call nanotechnology refers to the technology of studying the special phenomena and special functions of materials within the range of nanometer scale (100 nanometers to 0.1 nanometers) and creating new materials by directly operating and arranging atoms and molecules.

The emergence of nanotechnology is first due to the invention of the scanning tunneling microscope (STM) that can magnify tens of millions of times. The invention of the scanning tunneling microscope enables scientists to observe the microscopic world at a nanometer perspective.

Since the early 1990s, nanotechnology has developed rapidly, and new disciplines such as nanoelectronics, nanomaterials, nanomechanics, and nanobiology have emerged. Nanotechnology is one of the nine major sciences that scientists say will change human history in the future.

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

For example, in April 1990, two scientists from IBM in the United States used 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 needle tip to move the xenon atoms adsorbed on the metal nickel, and arranged 35 xenon atoms on the surface of nickel to form an "IBM" structure with a height of 5 atoms!

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

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

From this we can know that what scientists can currently achieve is to slightly move some atoms and form various patterns on the surface of objects, which cannot really create and construct atomic structures in a three-dimensional sense, and there is no way to create new materials from an atomic perspective on a large scale and quickly.

But even so, they can only move some atoms very simply and make some atomic arrangements on the surface. Scientists have also created various complex nanomaterials today. Artificially arranging the structure of copper atoms on the surface of copper can also increase the strength of copper by 5 times.

We all know that diamond, that is, diamond, graphite, and coke, are actually made of the same atoms, 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 another four carbon atoms in the sp3 hybrid orbital, forming a regular tetrahedron. Since the C-C bond in diamond is very strong, diamond has high hardness and extremely high melting point; and because all valence electrons are confined to the covalent bond area and there are no free electrons, diamond does not conduct electricity.

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

The bond length of the C-C bond here is 142pm, which is exactly within the bond length range of atomic crystals. Therefore, for the same layer, it is an atomic crystal. The carbon atoms on the same plane each have one p orbital left, and they overlap each other. The electrons are relatively free, equivalent to the free electrons in metals, so graphite can conduct heat and electricity, which is exactly the characteristic of metal crystals.

To put it simply and easily, the carbon atom structure of diamond is three-dimensional, and all carbon atoms directly form regular tetrahedrons 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 the carbon atoms between layers are not connected, which is a planar structure.

A three-dimensional regular tetrahedron structure and a planar regular hexagonal structure cause the material properties of diamond and graphite to be very different, and their value is also very different. The price of diamond is calculated by carat, and the price of graphite is calculated by ton. The value difference is more than a billion times!

The Empire wants to research materials for warp engines, which means building materials from the perspective of atomic solids, turning decay into magic. For example, if the atomic angle of iron is changed to a regular tetrahedron structure like diamond, what kind of material will be obtained?

"Difficult!"

Li Fu couldn't help but frowned when he thought of this. Degenerate materials are not ordinary materials. They must be made from a very small microscopic perspective. Traditional material synthesis and forging technology cannot be high temperature, high pressure, low temperature, hammering, synthesis and other methods. However, these methods have been studied to the extreme by the scientists of the Empire. It is impossible to create degenerate materials.

"Do we have to use the methods in the civilization seeds?"

Li Fu, who obtained the civilization seeds of the Han Dynasty Science and Technology Empire, naturally knew from the civilization seeds that there are many ways to obtain degenerate materials. Super civilizations like the Han Dynasty Science and Technology Empire have very simple methods to obtain degenerate materials and quark materials, mining neutron stars and black holes.

With the current technology of the Empire, just thinking about it feels a bit far-fetched. The mass of neutron stars and the power of black holes are simply not something that can be conquered by current technology.

Of course, even super civilizations develop step by step. In the early days of the Han Dynasty, the method of obtaining degenerate materials 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 that the imperial technology can adopt at present. Methods such as space compression, space folding, space collapse, etc. are simply impossible for the empire now."

Li Fu thought 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 engines. Of course, accumulation and accumulation will naturally not show anything in the accumulation stage. 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 will not see how much effort and sweat you have put in behind the success; just like pregnancy, others will only see your belly getting bigger, but don't know how many bullets you have been shot with for pregnancy.

Li Fu was lost in thought, but he did not notice the arrival of Chen Bin, Yu Liang, Cao Haitao, Tu Xueli and others. They all had smiles on their faces, and it was obvious that they were in a very good mood.

"Brother Fu, what are you thinking about?"

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

"I'm thinking about degenerate materials. The existing methods are difficult to shape materials from an atomic perspective. It seems that we have to innovate."

Li Fu smiled and motioned everyone to sit down casually, and not to be too polite.

"Xue Li, the Japanese have left?"

Seeing Tu Xueli coming over, Li Fu asked with a smile.

"Well, they all left. They wanted to meet you, but I stopped them. They came here to establish diplomatic relations with our empire and brought the original copy of Wang Xizhi's "Lanting Preface", but I refused. I just dug a trap for them."

"Let them continue to expand outward. Judging from the current position of the Beichuan Galaxy, it is estimated that they will soon reach a powerful alien civilization. Then there will be a good show to watch."

Tu Xueli said respectfully. Everyone present was the elders of the empire. Even if he was the prime minister of the empire, he had to be respectful, especially when facing Li Fu.

However, when he talked about digging a trap 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.