Although hydrogen is not the Monkey King who can make trouble in the Heavenly Palace, it still makes Chen Muwu a little upset.

The long evaporation process finally came to an end, and nearly six liters of liquid hydrogen were evaporated to just a few milliliters of liquid at a low temperature of 20 Kelvin.

According to his assumptions, after a large amount of hydrogen with the lowest boiling point has been evaporated, a lot of liquid deuterium gas and liquid deuterated hydrogen with a higher boiling point should accumulate in these liquids.

The next thing to do is to put the remaining few milliliters of liquid into a vacuum glass tube and vaporize it, and then connect the electrodes in the glass tube to the power supply, and excite the hydrogen, deuterium and deuterated hydrogen mixed in it to produce emission spectrum.

Chen Muwu did exactly that, and after he had done it all step by step, he handed Oppenheimer a glowing glass tube.

This is really already feeding the rice into his mouth, and his student, who is relatively poor in hands-on ability, now only needs to find the position and intensity of the special spectral line under the spectrometer to find out what exactly is in this mixed gas sample.

After doing these things, Chen Muwu, who had been busy for a long time and was a little tired, could finally relax.

He walked slowly out of the lab door and to Old Prague's office, wanting to chat with him and kill the boring waiting time.

"Rare guest, rare guest! I haven't left the lab door much when I see you these days, why do you have so much time today? Could it be that your superconductivity research has achieved phased results, Dr. Chen? ”

Although he thought that Chen Muwu had been cheated of money by the Dutch, Old Prague reprimanded him.

But today, when I saw the God of Wealth, who had brought a lot of funds to David Faraday's laboratory with just a small piece of glass, the face of the laboratory director was still filled with a sincere smile.

"Sort of," Chen Muwu said kindly, he did not inform the old Prague that he was not studying superconductivity as originally planned, but was spending money on the high-priced liquid hydrogen he bought from Leiden University, "Robert is making observations for me in the laboratory, and it is estimated that it will not be long before he can get the results of this observation." ”

After sitting in his chair, Chen Muwu placed a large glass beaker on the desk in old Prague.

It was full of strawberries, each covered in a layer of hoarfrost, and the mouth of the beaker was bubbling white.

Although he didn't buy bananas from the tropics, he just caught up with the fact that there were already strawberries on the market in the UK, so he made some liquid nitrogen frozen strawberries as a snack to relieve the heat.

"Sir Prague, try this."

The temperature transmitted from the fingertips when he touched the strawberry had already stunned old Prague for a moment.

When he put the strawberry in his mouth and felt its hardness with his teeth, he immediately understood how it came from.

After holding it in his mouth for a long time, he chewed and swallowed the strawberry, and then said with a smile: "Dr. Chen, you young people will enjoy it." After this superconductivity experiment, what are you going to do next? Go back to Cambridge, or simply stay in London, I can get you a professorship at University College London. ”

Looking at the brightest young talent in physics today, and maybe a fortune tree that keeps making money, how could old Prague not be able to love talent.

He planned to cut off his old friend Rutherford and let Chen Muwu stay under his men.

Hearing the word professor, Chen Muwu remembered that his teacher Rutherford was afraid that he would never return after arriving in Denmark, so he fooled himself like this.

He said that when he returned from Denmark, he would make him the new Lucas Professor of Mathematics, and even if the operation was unsuccessful, he would create a separate position of professor of theory in the Cavendish laboratory.

It's been half a year since I returned to the UK, but where is the professorship?

Old Pragg's words reminded Chen Muwu that he decided to wait until he had completed this series of experiments in London and then returned to Cambridge University, and he must go to the teacher to ask for an explanation.

I have been a Dr. for a few years. Chen, it's time for him to change his title, it's long overdue to become Prof. Chen!

"Sir, I still plan to go back to Cambridge University, the standard of living in the big city of London is too high for me to afford."

Chen Muwu's excuse was very clumsy, but old Prague didn't expose him.

He just envied Rutherford in his heart, not only managed such a large laboratory in an orderly manner, but also cultivated so many capable and talented students, and made many excellent physics achievements.

The two of them tacitly did not continue on this topic, but talked about something else.

Before a third of the beaker had eaten a third of the frozen strawberries, there was another knock on the door outside the office.

"Teacher Chen, Teacher Chen, are you in there?"

Listen to this title, you know that it is Oppenheimer.

There was a clear excitement in his voice, had he found the spectral line of the deuterium atom?

It seems that Oppenheimer's hands-on ability is not bad, and the time he spent is much shorter than Chen Muwu imagined.

"It should be the final results from the lab, Sir Bragg, then I'll take my leave."

Chen Muwu got up as he said goodbye.

As he walked out of the office, he noticed that the excitement on Oppenheimer's face was more pronounced than in his voice.

Oppenheimer had been in England for a year since he arrived from the United States, and although he was a member of the Cavendish laboratory, it was only today that he saw the results of his experiments for the first time in the Davy Faraday laboratory.

"Found the line?"

"Found that line! Mr. Chen, we have found an isotope of hydrogen! ”

That's of course.

After hearing the results, Chen Muwu deliberately behaved lightly.

If he hadn't known about deuterium for a long time, why would he spend a lot of money to buy liquid hydrogen in the Netherlands, and why would he waste time in love in the environment of twenty Kelvin staring at a stove that "boils water"?

Chen Muwu thought in his heart that after returning to the laboratory, checking the spectral line in the spectrometer eyepiece, and confirming that the spectrum of the deuterium atom was correct, it was time to prepare for the paper.

It seems that I haven't written a thesis in a long time?

The spectrometer remained in the same position as Oppenheimer had left, so that Chen Muwu could see the line in the center of the eyepiece at first glance.

It's just that the light of this spectral line is too dim, and if it weren't for Oppenheimer's prompting, the spectral line would be in the center of the eyepiece.

Chen Mu felt that if he had observed it alone, he would definitely ignore this spectrum.

The only reason for the dimness of the spectral lines is that previous experiments to enrich deuterium by evaporation at low temperatures have failed, or have not been successful enough.

Now, new problems have arisen.

Chen Muwu knew that deuterium existed in this world, and Oppenheimer also preconceived that Chen Muwu said that there was an isotope of hydrogen in this world that was heavier than hydrogen.

So this line is considered by the two of them to be the spectrum of deuterium, which is perfectly fine.

It's just that for others, the strength of this spectral line does not indicate the existence of deuterium at all, maybe it is just some impurities present in liquid hydrogen.

In order for a paper to be valid, it must provide stronger evidence.

For example, a brighter line.

After so long of hard work, I had no choice but to start all over again.

Chen Muwu felt that his blood pressure was a little high, and he had to find a way to lower his blood pressure.

That's right, buck!

I should have thought of this a long time ago!

In an environment of standard atmospheric pressure, the evaporation of liquid hydrogen fails, so switch to the triple point of hydrogen to try!

The so-called three-phase point is a temperature and pressure that can make the gas, liquid and solid phases of a substance exist at the same time.

For water, at a pressure of 611.73 Pascal, water will undergo solid-liquid-gas three-phase coexistence at 0.01 degrees Celsius.

This is a demonstration experiment that can often be seen in science museums, and at this pressure and temperature, the water sealed in the baked cake will magically boil and freeze at the same time.

And Sir Dewar, the predecessor of British low-temperature physics, left Chen Muwu a valuable legacy when he liquefied hydrogen in this David Faraday laboratory, that is, he measured the three phases of hydrogen: a pressure of 7,100 Pascals and a temperature of 14 Kelvin.

Chen Muwu took out the Debye theory again and made a new calculation near the three-phase point of liquid hydrogen.

The results of this calculation show that the vapor pressure ratio of hydrogen and deuterium is less than 0.5 near the triple point.

This means that distilling hydrogen at a three-phase point ensures that the concentration of deuterium is as high as it is required!

Ever since Chen Muwu began to say nothing and took his eyes off the eyepieces, Oppenheimer had been staring at him worriedly.

His mood also became more and more bottomless from happiness to happiness with the teacher's performance.

Could it be that I made a mistake in my observation, that spectral line was not emitted by deuterium?

It wasn't until Chen Muwu left the lab, returned with Dewar's research data, and then put down the pen he calculated on the paper, that Oppenheimer cautiously asked, "Teacher Chen, is there something wrong?" But there's that line! ”

"Robert, I did have some trouble just now......"

Chen Muwu explained to him the problem of that spectrum line.

“…… But I've found a solution to the problem, hurry up and do this experiment again, and we'll succeed this time!

"Oh, and don't be idle, take a picture of the spectrum at this time, see if you can record it clearly on the negative, and keep it for comparison."

Chen Muwu was busy cooling and lowering blood pressure in the experimental equipment, and Oppenheimer was here to think about what he had learned at Harvard University about how to record spectra with negatives.

After experiencing doubt, depression, and panic, the two people in the laboratory began to "function" in an orderly manner again.

Fortunately, after a few days, the experiment had to succeed and finally succeeded.

If he fails this time, Chen Muwu will doubt his life.

Could it be that the people at Leiden University sell themselves pure hydrogen without a little impurity?

How could it be!

Oppenheimer saw a clear line dozens of times brighter than the last one in the eyepiece of the spectrometer this time, in the same position where he had found the spectral line before.

Although pure deuterium gas has not been produced, this new spectral line, which appears outside the spectrum of hydrogen atoms, is like the fingerprint of criminals.

It shows that an isotope heavier than hydrogen does exist in this world.

Oppenheimer just wanted to jump up and celebrate with his teacher with an American hug.

As a result, a hand immediately put on his shoulder, and Oppenheimer pressed him to the seat: "Don't get excited, if you accidentally touch the spectrometer, you will have to adjust it for another half a day." It's only a serious thing to use a negative to record the spectrum first, after all, it will be used when writing papers. ”

Only then did the Americans react, and this discovery, for themselves, was enough to be called "great".

But for Mr. Chen, this discovery can only be ranked very low in his scientific research career, and it can be regarded as an insignificant small achievement.

That's why he's so calm.

Oppenheimer took the photo, while Chen Muwu changed the table to write the letter.

H-1, H-2 and H-3, the three isotopes of hydrogen, have a very vivid translation in Chinese, 氕, deuterium, tritium.

The number of 丨 or 丿 under the prefix of gas represents the number of nucleons contained in the nucleus of the isotope.

In the original space-time, it took Yuri less than half a year to discover deuterium.

However, the United States and the United Kingdom have been arguing for more than two years about the naming of heavy hydrogen H-2.

Lawrence, an American, the one who invented the cyclotron, wanted to use the Greek word for "second" deuteros as the root word, and named the heavy hydrogen deuterium and the heavy hydrogen nucleus deuteron.

However, when Rutherford gave a report at the Royal Society, he pointed out that the British academic community wanted to use the Greek word for "double" diploos as the root word, and called heavy hydrogen diplogen and heavy hydrogen nuclei diplon.

The two Ernest (coincidentally, both Rutherford and Lawrence are called by this name), representing the academic community of both countries, are chattering across the Atlantic about which Greek word should be used for heavy hydrogen.

In the end, the Americans, who discovered heavy hydrogen, won, and the British's proposal was not accepted.

But now, the heavy hydrogen has been replaced by the Chinese.

In Chen Muwu's heart, heavy hydrogen is deuterium, a concise and beautiful Chinese character.

It doesn't matter to him whether it's called deuterium or diplogen in English.

Then it's better to send a favor and hand over the naming rights of heavy hydrogen to your teacher.

Even if the Americans quarrel with Rutherford because of the name issue, they are not afraid, after all, Chen Muwu is the discoverer of heavy hydrogen, and he can unscrupulously help the teacher to pull the bias this time.

There was another reason why he gave away the naming rights, and that was that the weather was getting hotter by the day, and Rutherford's birthday was coming again.

Last year, Zhu Zhaoxin gave him many valuable gifts, but Chen Muwu, who became more and more picky because of building a school, didn't want to spend so much money this time.

(End of chapter)