As Zhou predicted, Nie Sen's short paper to Science caused an uproar in the global materials science community as soon as it was published.

In 1985, before the advent of graphene, the scientific community had discovered a spherical molecule composed of 60 carbon atoms, resulting in fullerenes known as zero-dimensional crystal structures; By 1991, a one-dimensional tubular structure made of graphite layers rolled into sheets, called carbon nanotubes, was discovered. Since then, many scientists have been speculating and trying to discover materials with two-dimensional structures, and the advent of graphene has filled this gap.

Although 2D materials have only been theoretical, materials scientists have conjectured countless solutions for the application of 2D materials, waiting to be tested by empirical methods. Nie Sen's paper was written very simply, in addition to introducing the preparation method of graphene and some of its basic properties, he also inadvertently mentioned that the small-scale industrial preparation technology of graphene has made a breakthrough, and the Anhe Institute of Materials can provide a small number of graphene samples to global counterparts for further research.

This last sentence is the most critical, in less than 24 hours after the publication of this article, the entire telephone line in An Ho Province was completely blown up, so that the provincial public security department thought that it had been attacked by some kind of hacker.

"Mr. Qin, you have made me miserable." With a smile on his face, Nie Sen complained to Qin Hai, who was staying in his room to watch the excitement. In one day, he personally answered hundreds of phone calls, some of which were scholars he knew in the past, and some of them were trying to find his contact method and thus make the call to the real room. All of these calls are basically a routine, starting with congratulating him and then offering to cooperate. To put it bluntly, I hope to get a sample of graphene so that I can complete various studies in front of my peers.

Graphene has many properties that traditional materials do not have, so it can revolutionize many traditional products. For example, graphene is a transparent material with good electrical conductivity, which breaks the dilemma of traditional materials that are opaque if they are conductive and transparent but not conductive, so that they can be used in solar cells, displays, sensors, antistatic coatings and other fields. A mobile phone screen made of graphene can be curled into a paper tube. It doesn't affect its display in the slightest. For another example, scientists have found that graphene has a special band structure, weak spin-orbit coupling, low ultra-fine interaction, etc., which can be used in the manufacture of quantum effect devices, which is of great value for the development of quantum computers in the future.

From Qin Hai's ideals, he hopes that all these applications can be included in his own pocket, but he also knows that with China's current level of scientific research and equipment. It is unrealistic to do all this research. If you choose the method of making a car behind closed doors, you may be able to seize some opportunities, but as long as the concept of graphene spreads, it is a matter of time before the foreign materials science community finds its preparation method.

Realizing this, Qin Hai changed his original intention and decided to adopt an open-door policy. Materials scientists and materials companies from all over the world are welcome to collaborate with the Anhe Institute of Materials to maximize the potential of graphene, a new material. Of course. Since it is a cooperation, there are always some conditions, such as the need for the other party to recruit researchers from the Anhe Institute of Materials to work together, to teach a part of the research methods, and finally to share the development results, etc.

At present, the patent for the industrial preparation of graphene is in the hands of Daqin Group. Unless foreign manufacturers can find other preparation methods, all users can only buy graphene from Daqin Group. The wider the application range of graphene, the greater the market demand, and the more revenue Daqin Group will have. After a few years, new preparation methods were introduced. The price of graphene in the market will inevitably plummet, and it will be interesting to sell it at that time.

With this in mind, Qin Hai asked Nie Sen to explain in the published paper that he could provide samples of graphene, with the aim of attracting experts from all over the world to seek cooperation, and the results showed that the effect of this signal was very significant.

Although Nie Sen was the nominal discoverer of graphene, he also knew that he would not have been able to complete this discovery without the direction that Qin Hai pointed out to him, and the subsequent investment regardless of the cost. Qin Hai has promised that Daqin Group will give Nie Sen a generous reward for the application of graphene, the amount of which is enough to make Nie Sen not worry about money in his life, and in exchange, Nie Sen must also fully cooperate with the group's operation of graphene.

It doesn't have any promises from Qin Hai, and Nie Sen won't be arrogant enough to treat graphene as his own private technology. According to Qin Hai's instructions, he welcomed every scientist who proposed to cooperate, and repeated the conditions of the Great Qin Group. He was reassured that all the scientists had no objection to these conditions, because they knew that if they were unwilling to accept them, the Anhe Institute of Materials Science could naturally find other scholars to do it.

After a material is discovered, its application is nothing more than a layer of window paper, anyone can pierce it, the key is only who has this opportunity. Excellent scientists have IQs higher than 180, how can they not understand this truth?

"Mr. Nie, you should hurry up and sort out these contacts, classify them, list their abilities and expected research directions, and then let's discuss them in a unified manner to see who you should cooperate with and what cooperation methods you should adopt. I guess we'll be in the Ann River as soon as this week, and we don't know what to say by then. Qin Hai explained to Nie Sen with a smile.

"Mr. Qin, don't worry, I'll sort out all this information tonight." Nie Sen said excitedly. People are in good spirits on happy occasions, Nie Sen never thought that he would have such a glorious day, and a little fatigue is nothing.

"Also, your research team needs to be split up and have the most effective assistant to work with the other teams. The most important invention is to be left to our own academy, and now the professors of the whole academy are staring at your real room, thinking of digging up a little gold in this gold mine. Qin Hai said jokingly for a long time.

"Can I still not care about the affairs of this academy?" Nie Sen said, "I'm the assistant in the real room, whoever Mr. Qin fancies, I will hand it over to you immediately, and there is absolutely no concept of standard." Without the School of Materials, which round got me Nie Sen was the first to discover graphene, to be honest, with this achievement, my life is worth it. ”

"Haha, that's not going to work." Qin Hai said with a smile, "There are still many things to do in the future, and the industrial preparation of graphene needs to be further studied, and the cost must be reduced to the price of cabbage." In addition, the research on the modification of graphene, oxidation, hydrogenation and other chemical doping problems are waiting for you to solve. ”

"Speaking of these studies, I would like to report something to you, Mr. Qin." Nie Sen changed his expression and said to Mr. Qin.

"Teacher Nie, please speak." Qin Hai nodded, he wasn't afraid that Nie Sen would make any excessive demands.

Nie Sen said: "My own major is in nanostructures, and my chemistry skills are not very good. To engage in graphene modification research, you need one or two chemical experts to cooperate, so ......"

"Recruit three postdoctoral fellows, two are engaged in chemistry and one is engaged in material preparation, what do you think?" Qin Hai didn't wait for Nie Sen to finish speaking, so he added it for him.

"Really!" Nie Sen was overjoyed, "Mr. Qin, how do you know that I mean this?" ”

"Haha, I've thought of this a long time ago." Qin Hai said with a smile, "Half a year ago, we submitted an application to the postdoctoral management committee to establish a postdoctoral mobile station, and it has been approved. There are a few PhDs who graduated this year from the Department of Chemical Engineering of Huaqing University, and there are also a few from the Academy of Sciences and the General Institute of Iron and Steel, and I have arranged for people to contact them, and they all expressed their interest in doing research here. ”

Nie Sen looked at Qin Hai and said for a long time: "Mr. Qin, although some things have already been said by others, I have to say it again, without your Mr. Qin's care, we people would not have achieved such an achievement today." ”

"That's it, Teacher Nie, don't say that." Qin Hai waved his hand again and again, "All the results are made by your painstaking efforts, I don't dare to be greedy for heaven's work." The college has created a good scientific research environment for you, which is what should be done, and I don't think it's enough. ”

"Such good conditions, if anyone still can't say enough, it's really a dog whose conscience has been eaten." Niesen said.

While the leaders and scholars of the Anhe Institute of Materials were busy arranging follow-up research on graphene, a group of people in a Japanese company thousands of miles away were discussing this topic with a solemn expression.

This is a large chemical company called Shinzuka, which ranks among the top three in Japan's chemical industry in terms of scale, and is also the world's main producer of carbon materials such as fullerenes and carbon nanotubes. Long before Nie Sen began to work on graphene, Niezuka Chemical had already invested a lot of money in this field, trying to develop this two-dimensional carbon material that theoretically stored in zài. Just when they just saw a glimmer of light, a paper made their hearts half cold: the Chinese preemptively completed the discovery of graphene, and mastered two industrial methods of preparing graphene.

Technical director Gen Yoshida found the chairman of the board of directors, Saburo Hanaya, as soon as he saw this paper, and reported the terrible news to him. (To be continued......)