The top student must be diligent.

Chapter 230 Twisted Carbon

Science Island Laboratory, Xiao Yi's office.

Looking at a new carbon structure simulated on the computer, Xiao Yi stroked his chin and a slight smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

This new carbon structure mainly consists of a three-layer structure, with carbon atoms neatly distributed on these three layers.

Of course, this is not the most important thing. The most important thing is the chemical bonds formed between these carbon atoms, which are quite complicated. Overall, the three layers of carbon atoms look like a pigtail.

It is precisely because of this structure that Xiao Yi now simply names it twisted carbon.

Well... maybe there's a bit of his bad taste in it.

If this material is finally produced and becomes the most important material for nuclear fusion.

He also wanted to know how people would understand this name when the time comes.

However, having said that, although it looks like a pigtail-like structure, in fact, from an overall perspective, it can be found that the lattice structure it finally forms is very regular and face-symmetrical.

This lattice structure gives twisted carbon a property that other ordinary structures do not have: ultra-high lattice vibration transmission.

In solid materials, temperature at the microscopic level is mainly reflected in the vibration of the crystal lattice.

The atoms in solid materials are arranged in an orderly lattice structure. When the temperature rises or is affected by external factors, these atoms begin to vibrate. These vibrations can be quantized into phonons, which are the main carriers of heat and sound propagation in solids.

The higher the lattice vibration transmissibility, the stronger its thermal conductivity.

With the new structure of twisted carbon, its thermal conductivity is even several times higher than that of diamond, the material with the strongest thermal conductivity in the world.

Of course, diamond is diamond, which is also carbon. The new structure that Xiao Yi has researched is also composed of carbon. Therefore, its super high thermal conductivity is not entirely a coincidence.

However, high thermal conductivity alone is not enough. As he had made it clear before, if you want to become the first-wall material, it is not enough to have thermal conductivity alone.

How can we withstand the impact of high-energy particles?

This is another characteristic of the twisted carbon structure.

It is important to know that another form of carbon, graphite, can itself be used as a neutron moderator in nuclear reactors. Carbon atoms collide with fast neutrons, converting the kinetic energy of the neutrons into heat energy, slowing down the neutrons.

In the structure of twisted carbon, because of its own density and intricate structure, when carbon atoms collide with high-energy neutrons, the absorbed kinetic energy can be quickly transferred to other surrounding carbon atoms, until finally, the energy of those high-energy neutrons will be evenly distributed throughout the structure, and then the peripheral coolant will come into play to absorb all the heat energy.

In this way, it becomes impossible for high-energy neutrons to easily knock through the entire first wall material.

“Like an egg.”

Xiao Yi smiled slightly.

“When you squeeze an egg, you can’t easily break it.”

"The main reason is that the eggshell can evenly distribute the force it is subjected to throughout the eggshell."

However, the eggshell can withstand the force of being pinched, but it cannot withstand the force of being knocked, because when the egg is knocked, the force point becomes smaller, and the force ultimately cannot be evenly transmitted to the entire eggshell.

However, the structure of twisted carbon can completely transfer the force applied at one point to the entire structure.

Of course, even if you squeeze an egg, if the force exceeds its tolerance limit, the eggshell will eventually break.

However, there is no need to worry about it when it comes to Mahua Carbon.

Anyway, the neutron energy generated by the deuterium-tritium fusion reaction can be calculated, and then it can be calculated how long it will take for the energy to be completely absorbed by the twisted carbon, and how large the volume of twisted carbon can stably absorb the energy of these high-energy neutrons. In this way, they can create modular twisted carbon walls to stably and long-term resist high-energy neutrons.

In this case, the only situation that can destroy the twisted carbon structure is that a single carbon atom is continuously hit by multiple high-energy neutrons in a short period of time, which will cause it to be unable to quickly transfer the absorbed kinetic energy, thus causing the neutrons to be destroyed.

However, this probability is quite small. After all, we must know that an atom is not a sphere, and its interior is quite empty. Therefore, in most cases, neutrons will directly pass through the surface layer of the material and collide with the atomic nuclei inside. There is even a certain probability that neutrons will directly pass through the entire first wall material.

Because of this, a layer of neutron shielding material is installed on the outer layer of the tokamak device to absorb the neutrons that can pass through the heavy materials and leak out, thereby avoiding radiation hazards to the workers.

Radiation can easily cause cancer in people because subatomic particles like neutrons can pass directly through human cells and directly destroy the atoms inside the cell's DNA, causing the DNA to mutate. If the cells are not repaired in time by the DNA damage mechanism, they will continue to divide and proliferate, and the risk of cancer will increase.

Of course, it is precisely because the volume of neutrons is very small and the volume of atomic nuclei is also very small, so when neutrons enter the first wall material, it is difficult for multiple high-energy neutrons to collide with the nucleus of a single atom at the same time.

Therefore, according to Xiao Yi's calculations, only 10 cm thick twisted carbon is needed to last for at least 20 years in a tokamak device such as EAST.

Of course, this is mainly limited by the size of EAST. The larger the device, the more high-energy neutrons can be generated per unit time at a fixed temperature of 1.5 million degrees and the new Greenwald limit. The lifespan of the first wall material is mainly determined by the rate at which high-energy neutrons are generated.

As for the current size of EAST...it is actually relatively small. After all, this thing is just an experimental equipment used for technical verification.

Its main radius is only 1.7 meters, and its small radius is only 0.4 meters.

The planned ITER has a main radius of 6.2 meters and a small radius of 2 meters. Its plasma volume is about 280 times that of EAST.

ITER can only be said to be an experimental equipment used for technology verification. Therefore, if controlled nuclear fusion is truly achieved, the device to be built at that time will not be a small-scale project like this.

In short, whether in terms of thermal conductivity or the ability to resist radiation damage, twisted carbon has reached the limit of what Xiao Yi can design now.

In addition to these two major properties, twisted carbon is also excellent in other properties required by first wall materials.

It can be said that for a long time to come, no matter how much design is done, it will be impossible to break through such a structure.

If we want to make another breakthrough, I'm afraid we must have a new theory.

However, even Xiao Yi couldn't come up with this theory now.

"Okay, now the first step has been completed."

After letting out a long sigh, Xiao Yi leaned back in his office chair and took a sip of the tea beside him.

The next step is how to synthesize this material.

And this will be an extremely difficult step.

Putting down the teacup in his hand, Xiao Yi shook his head helplessly again. What method could be used to synthesize such a complex structure?

This is also the main difficulty in material research. Even if he has the help of material mastery, he cannot avoid the following difficulties.

The greatest benefit of material control is probably cost savings.

"Okay, we've come this far in our research. It would be bad if we give up now."

He shook his head, then said no more and prepared to go to the laboratory to conduct experiments.

……

What follows is destined to be a long process.

Xiao Yi devoted all his time and energy to the research on the synthesis method of twisted carbon.

At the same time, due to the importance of this material, he did not ask anyone to help him. At most, when he was busy, he would ask others to help do some simple experiments.

By continuously improving some existing processes or some innovative synthesis technologies, although the ultimate goal of twisted carbon is still far from being achieved, Xiao Yi unexpectedly produced a lot of by-products.

Although most of the by-products are useless, there are still a few materials that surprised Xiao Yi.

It feels like the lottery was crooked.

Although it was not what he wanted, it could still be considered an SSR.

For example, an amorphous carbon material.

Amorphous carbon is a free activated carbon that has no crystal structure. Its structure is somewhat similar to carbon black, but it is somewhat different in some microscopic details.

However, the most important thing is that it inherits an important property of carbon black, the ability to absorb waves!

This material has good conductivity, so when electromagnetic waves shine on its surface, the conductive network formed between the coatings will generate an induced current. During the conduction process, the current generates heat due to resistance, thereby dissipating the electromagnetic energy and absorbing the electromagnetic waves.

In addition, its particles are small and its specific surface area is large. There are a large number of interfaces between it and the matrix in the composite material. Due to the relaxation effect caused by the interface polarization, it also has excellent absorption capacity for electromagnetic waves.

In addition, it also has many excellent properties, making it an excellent absorbing material.

Of course, it is impossible to completely crush other absorbing materials. After all, electromagnetic waves are of different categories, with different absorption intensity, bandwidth, etc. Different materials have their own strengths for these different categories.

However, this new absorbing material is not a coating itself, but it can be used as a conductive additive and combined with other absorbing coatings to improve the overall absorbing performance. Therefore, to some extent, it can also be regarded as the best absorbing material in comprehensive comparison.

This material is of no use to Xiao Yi's research, but it is a treasure to those who study fighter jets.

So Xiao Yi simply got out the experimental report and asked Wang Li to find senior military officials to hand over the experimental report to the military researchers responsible for researching absorbing materials.

As for what this material is called... Since it is the first material with practical uses that Xiao Yi developed in the process of researching twisted carbon, he simply named it MHT-1.

In addition to MHT-1, there is naturally also MHT-2.

MHT-2 is a carbon fiber material with high specific strength and high specific modulus. It also has the properties of twisted carbon to a certain extent and has a very strong energy absorption capacity.

This makes it very suitable as an armor material for tanks. It has excellent resistance to attacks from various conventional weapons, such as armor-piercing shells, armor-piercing shells, high-explosive shells, etc.

When Xiao Yi came up with this thing, everyone was speechless.

Although we know that some by-products will be produced during the research process, but in the end, the first two usable by-products can be used in military applications?
Well, Xiao Yi didn't know what to say about this, and finally asked Wang Li to hand the experimental report to the military again and ask the relevant researchers whether they were interested in this thing.
However, when MHT-3 came out, Xiao Yi finally felt grateful that there was finally a non-military technology.

MHT-3 is a material synthesized by Xiao Yi through various methods. It is the material that is most similar to twisted carbon in structure. It has a three-layer structure, but is not as complex as twisted carbon. However, this structure gives it an ultra-high carrier mobility.

Its electron mobility can reach 180000 cm/V·s, which is only slightly lower than graphene, and is very beneficial for electrical signal transmission and processing.

In addition, its surface has various dangling bonds and functional groups, which give it good chemical properties.

Coupled with various other excellent properties, this material has the potential to become a carbon-based material.

Currently, the development of silicon-based chips has stagnated, and the manufacturing process is gradually approaching the theoretical limit. Finding other ways out has become another focus in the chip field.

The MHT-3 undoubtedly makes the realization of carbon-based chips a hope.

However, Xiao Yi has not done much research on chips, so he has no interest in studying this thing for the time being. Even if he really comes up with something, it is still too far away from the true industrialization of carbon-based chips. So he should wait and ask other experts in this field if they are interested before making any plans.

In short, so far, Xiao Yi has produced three valuable by-products. The first two can be used directly, while the third one has very broad prospects.

Just like that, as time passed, when it was June, several uninvited guests came to the Science Island laboratory.

"Hello, Professor Xiao. I have heard a lot about you."

A group of people were standing in the office, and the leader of them, an old researcher, walked up, shook hands with Xiao Yi and said.

"We are from the 603 Institute. I am Chen Weidong, and I am currently the leader of the weapons and stealth design group of the institute."

"We received an experimental report from you, which said that you developed an absorbing material with a frequency range of 1-20 GHz, a maximum reflection loss of -55 dB, and an absorbing bandwidth of 11.6 GHz, is that right?"

The old researcher was straightforward and directly stated his purpose.

He looked at Xiao Yi with sharp eyes, seeming to be looking forward to Xiao Yi's answer.

Xiao Yi raised his eyebrows, as expected he came for MHT-1.

However, just as he was about to speak, there was another knock on the office door.

Wang Hao walked in: "Professor Xiao, people from the Army Research Institute are here too."

Then, several people in military uniforms were seen standing behind Wang Hao, looking inside.

Xiao Yi: "Uh... then let's come in together."

Obviously, these new arrivals are here for MHT-2.

He couldn't help but sigh that these two groups of people were really quick. The two experimental reports had only been sent out not long ago, but they came to his door so quickly.

(End of this chapter)