Chapter 1184 The King of Materials

"Cough cough--" When William heated the graphite for the third time, Hunter finally couldn't help coughing.

William turned around and found that he and Vincent were standing behind him.

"Uh…when did you guys arrive?"

Vincent glanced at the time displayed on the A-type golf bracelet, "About 15 minutes ago."

William nodded. "I'm sorry, I was so focused on the experiment that I didn't notice—"

He realized it belatedly and asked in surprise, "Um...how did you get in?"

Vincent showed his ID and pointed at the tiny crystals under the microscope. "William, is this your new discovery?"

William shook his head rather shyly. "That's not it. Its structure is damaged and it has almost completely lost its conductive properties."

Vincent lightly tapped his fingertips and used magic to lift up a tiny crystal that was still emitting heat.

"Mr. Wayne, that..."

"what happened?"

William nervously opened the drawer under the lab bench, took out two pairs of gloves and handed them to him and Hunter respectively.

Laboratories have their own rules, and the most basic protective measures must still be taken.

Even though the amount of heat was nothing, Vincent still put on his gloves obediently.

He injected his magic power into the crystal and found that it was just as William said, it had almost lost its conductive properties.

After William's explanation, he roughly understood what graphene, which had been discovered in advance, was.

Graphene already exists in nature, but it is difficult to peel off its single-layer structure. When they are stacked layer by layer, they form graphite.

A 1 mm thick piece of graphite contains about 300 million layers of graphene. When a pencil is lightly drawn across paper, it will leave scratches formed by multiple layers of graphene.

Peeling graphene from graphite is not like cutting a layer like cutting vegetables, but a layer of atomic thickness, a complete planar structure, a two-dimensional crystal composed of a single layer of carbon atoms, a true two-dimensional material.

Speaking of carbon atoms, Hunter immediately thought of diamonds, which was the only special term he could understand.

In fact, Vincent is not much better than him. He has no idea about crystal plane spacing, mechanical characteristics, and micro-nano processing.

But he understood that graphene is a two-dimensional crystal composed of a single layer of carbon atoms. Since thermal decomposition will destroy the grain structure, he simply and crudely used magic to continuously peel it off until a flat two-dimensional material was peeled off.

A 1mm thick graphite sheet was peeled off in two, and then a 0.5mm thick graphite sheet was peeled off in two again...

Hunter quickly glanced at the experimenters around him and found that they were all concentrating on their own research.

When he looked at the lab bench again, the color of the newly stripped graphite had noticeably faded.

He quickly glanced around again and saw that the graphite was almost transparent.

After a total of 22 times, a two-dimensional crystal composed of a single layer of carbon atoms was peeled off.

William was caught off guard and hugged Vincent tightly, and shouted excitedly: "Mr. Wayne, you succeeded!"

All eyes in the lab turned to look over, and Hunter quickly took a few steps back, trying to pretend he was just passing by.

He was right to do so, because the researchers all crowded over.

"Little William, what did you say was successful?"

"You discovered the two-dimensional material? You actually separated it out?"

Before the discovery of graphene, the scientific community generally believed that two-dimensional materials were impossible to exist.

The crazy researchers crowded over, leaving Vincent a little overwhelmed.

William then released his hand and carefully used tweezers to place the nearly transparent single-layer carbon atom two-dimensional crystal under the microscope.

Under the researchers' expectant gaze, a perfect hexagonal honeycomb lattice structure appeared on the electronic screen.

William shouted excitedly again, "This might overturn the entire scientific community's understanding of two-dimensional materials!"

The researchers were as excited as he was, and after a moment, they began to conduct various tests.

Vincent quietly stepped back and left the laboratory in tacit understanding with Hunter.

Science requires rigor. When conducting experiments, measuring data, and writing reports, we must seek truth from facts and not tolerate any falsehood.

Two-dimensional materials in the true sense have been born, but a lot of research is still needed on their practical applications.

In the evening, after many experiments, William finally determined that the two-dimensional crystal of a single layer of carbon atoms peeled off from graphite successfully overturned the so-called "thermodynamic fluctuations do not allow any two-dimensional crystal to exist at a finite temperature" theory.

It is 1000 times lighter than paper, 200 times stronger than steel, has an electron mobility 100 times that of silicon, and a thermal conductivity 10 times that of copper.

What’s even more amazing is that this two-dimensional material can also release a unique infrared spectrum. This feature means that it also has extremely high application value in the medical field and can be called the "king of materials."

The researchers congratulated William.

By breaking the traditional scientific understanding that a single layer of atoms cannot maintain a two-dimensional structure, he will definitely become a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, and the Nobel Prize in Physics is only a matter of time.

However, William shyly stated that he was only the discoverer and it was not him who separated this two-dimensional material from graphite.

"Uh... could it be the officer who came in during the day?"

"It can't be that young man who looks younger than you."

Vincent and Hunter were sitting in the MI6 headquarters cafeteria enjoying dinner.

As one of the four major intelligence organizations in the world, the food here is quite good.

When William hurried to the cafeteria, the two were enjoying dessert happily.

One is a wizard and the other is a soldier, and neither of them really cares much about scientific matters.

William excitedly announced the test results. Vincent had expected this, but Hunter didn't understand it at all. Neither of them reacted much.

"Mr. Wayne, we might win the Nobel Prize in Physics."

"We?" Vincent was puzzled.

"Yes, we." William turned serious. "Without your help, I don't know how many years it would take to successfully peel off a layer of atomic-level two-dimensional material from a 1mm layer of graphite."

Vincent smiled and declined his offer. "William, this is a new material you discovered on your own. Besides, I used unscientific methods, so how can I be qualified for the Nobel Prize in Physics?"

"But--"

Hunter patted William's shoulder heavily and said, "Don't say that. You know Vincent's identity."

A wizard winning the Nobel Prize, considered one of the highest honors in Muggle science? It's truly ironic.

"Okay." William was a little depressed. "But, Mr. Wayne, I hope you can name this two-dimensional material."

If it was just the naming rights, Vincent could accept it with peace of mind.

“Graphene.”

William repeated it silently several times, and then his eyes lit up.

The root word "Graph-" of graphite is extracted, and the suffix is ​​changed to "-ene" of olefin compounds to emphasize that graphene is a two-dimensional planar structure formed by a single layer of carbon atoms, which intuitively reflects its nature as a single layer of graphite exfoliation.

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