Chapter 145 Single-walled carbon nanotubes vs. multi-walled carbon nanotubes
"Professor Lu, I think we can lower our requirements."
"1000Gpa, this tensile strength is too difficult to achieve."
"If you think that a small space elevator cannot meet the transportation needs, we can build a few more, right?"
Wei Rong persuaded him "earnestly".
Lv Yongchang stared at the carbon nanotubes in front of him.
After a long silence, he suddenly said: "That makes sense."
Before Wei Rong's face showed joy, Lu Yongchang continued: "You're right, single-walled carbon nanotubes won't work!"
Wei Rong: "???"
He looked at Lu Yongchang with a puzzled look.
Is this what he just said?
As for Lv Yongchang, he seemed to have misunderstood the puzzled look on Wei Rong's face: "Don't you understand?"
"It's very simple. Even if a single-walled carbon nanotube has the most ideal structure, its tensile strength can only reach 800GPa under the most ideal conditions. This is definitely not enough!"
"We have to start with multi-walls!"
"Considering the preparation process, purity and the decrease in tensile strength caused by the spinning method..."
"To be on the safe side, we need to increase the tensile strength of a single carbon nanotube to more than 1500GPa!!"
Carbon Nanotubes
Wei Rong stared at Lv Yongchang blankly, and slapped his smooth forehead with his hand.
Professor Lu didn't listen to a word of what he said just now, right? !
He showed a bit of anxiety in his eyes: "But, Professor, the theoretical calculation of multi-walled carbon nanotubes is too complicated. We don't know how many GPa its upper limit is!"
Lv Yongchang chuckled.
"Doesn't this just show that multi-walled carbon nanotubes are extremely plastic?"
Wei Rong: "..."
Can you still understand it this way? !
After some rebuttal, Lv Yongchang unilaterally declared Wei Rong's rebuttal invalid.
So, Wei Rong "joyfully" helped Lv Yongchang.
...
"Wei Rong, help me take a look at sample No. 56?"
Lv Yongchang said without raising his head: "I remember that they were all arranged in a zigzag shape."
At the microscopic level, the atoms of single-walled carbon nanotubes have different arrangements.
Zigzag, hand-shaped and armchair-shaped.
The carbon nanotubes produced by these three arrangements also have different tensile strengths.
As for multi-walled carbon nanotubes...
There are so many arrangements.
After all, two-walled carbon nanotubes are multi-layered, and two hundred-walled carbon nanotubes are also multi-layered.
And what Lv Yongchang and his team are doing now... is also the simplest and most basic method.
Exhaustive method.
To put it simply, just try them one by one.
Use the method of permutation and combination to continuously experiment, and then let Zero analyze and calculate these data to find out the rules, and then accurately locate the most suitable multi-wall arrangement.
It's easier said than done.
Even with the help of Zero and the researchers of the entire laboratory, the progress of the experiment is still slow.
"Here we go!"
Wei Rong's voice came from far away, accompanied by a burst of hurried footsteps.
A few minutes later.
"Oh, what a pity."
"The tensile strength is only 50Gpa, which is unqualified."
Lv Yongchang nodded calmly, and then said softly: "Remember to help me enter the data, Zero needs a lot of samples for analysis."
Wei Rong nodded silently, standing beside Lv Yongchang, hesitant to speak.
"What's wrong?"
Lv Yongchang asked in a low voice when he saw Wei Rong from the corner of his eye, but his hand did not stop at all.
Hearing Lv Yongchang's question, Wei Rong sighed softly, with a bit of bitterness in his eyes.
"Professor Lu, we have made more than 80 samples now, but..."
"So far, we have not found a carbon nanotube with a tensile strength of more than 100Gpa. I wonder if we have chosen the wrong direction?"
Without any pause in his movements, Lu Yongchang shook his head gently and said firmly: "No, my intuition tells me that the direction is definitely not wrong!"
"Believe me!"
While speaking, Lu Yongchang, who was facing away from Wei Rong, had an imperceptible green flash in his eyes.
Of course the direction is not wrong.
Long before the experiment officially began, Lu Yongchang verified the research direction he chose through the "prompt" of the technology tree system.
The result is obvious, multi-walled carbon nanotubes are definitely the right direction.
At least, as a cable material for a space elevator, its potential is enormous!
Lu Yongchang's confident words alleviated some of Wei Rong's worries.
As an academician of the former Xia Academy of Sciences, Wei Rong had long heard of the "legend" that some scientific research experts relied on scientific research intuition to complete scientific research tasks.
Originally, he didn't believe this "story" very much.
But he never expected that this scene would actually happen in front of him.
Although Wei Rong still didn't believe in this so-called scientific research intuition, thinking of Lu Yongchang's previous achievements, he could only smile bitterly and swallow the words that were on his lips.
"Fuck!"
A shout full of surprise came from a distance.
Wei Rong frowned slightly and shouted in a deep voice: "Xiao Wang, what's going on?!"
"In the laboratory, remember to pay attention to order!"
The face of the researcher known as Xiao Wang was full of shock. He pointed to the experimental table in front of him and stammered: "Wei, Academician Wei, you, come here and take a look, take a look at this sample. !β
Wei Rong's heart moved, and a guess emerged in his heart.
No way...
The slap in the face won't come so quickly, right? !
His expression tightened, he stepped forward, and quickly rushed in the direction of the researcher!
Lu Yongchang on the side naturally stopped what he was doing, stood up unhurriedly, and walked slowly behind Wei Rong.
β¦
"incredibleβ¦β¦"
Unlike Lu Yongchang, Wei Rong, who was jogging all the way, had already arrived in front of the experimental table.
After some observation, Wei Rong's face turned slightly red and he shouted in disbelief: "The tensile strength actually reached 200Gpa!"
At this time, the experimental platform was already surrounded by researchers.
Every scientific researcher wants to see these miraculous carbon nanotubes with their own eyes!
"oh?"
Lu Yongchang also slowly walked to the outside of the crowd at this time. Listening to Wei Rong's shouts in the crowd, the corners of his mouth raised, and a faint smile appeared on both sides of his cheeks.
"Let me see the data."
Lu Yongchang's voice fell, and the crowded crowd in front of him seemed to have pressed the pause button.
"Hurry, hurry up, Professor Lu is here!"
"Don't squeeze me..."
After a brief commotion, the crowd moved out of the way.
With a faint smile on his face, Lu Yongchang nodded to the researchers on both sides and walked towards the experimental table.
"Not bad!" The moment he saw the data, Lu Yongchang raised his eyebrows sharply.
"Keep the current number of layers, try changing the arrangement, and continue experimenting!"
