Chen Muwu is going to do two experiments on the particle accelerator this time, namely, Eddington, who was waiting outside the preparation room, and wanted to see the results of the experiment of bombarding the deuterium nucleus with deuterium nuclei; And the experiment that I really want to do to make the deuterium nucleus collide with the hydrogen nucleus.

So this time, he chose to fill the deuterium gas produced by the vaporization of liquid deuterium into a particle generator that had been emptied of hydrogen, and prepared to draw a scoop from the gourd to turn the deuterium gas into plasma, and then through voltage screening, the nucleus with positrons was photographed as the source of particles in the two experiments.

Filling the particle source with deuterium gas is the easiest step in the whole experiment.

After doing this work, Chen Muwu began to stay in front of the particle accelerator in a daze, while Eddington stayed in the experimental preparation room, observing Chen Muwu in a daze through the glass.

After a long while, Eddington, who was waiting outside, was faintly impatient, and Chen Muwu, who was wearing an electrostatic isolation suit inside, finally had the next move.

Instead of choosing to manipulate the particle accelerator in front of him, he closed the valve of the particle source and walked out.

Eddington was puzzled and asked, "What's the situation, Chen?" ”

Chen Muwu had a wry smile on his face: "I think today's experiment, if nothing else, should not be possible." ”

"Why? Is something wrong? The machine is broken? ”

Eddington, who was still very puzzled just now, immediately became very shocked when he heard the answer.

"It's not a big deal, it's me who has a problem here. I was not well prepared for the experiment, and I thought it was too simple to operate a particle accelerator. ”

"Aren't you the designer of a particle accelerator? Why can't even this machine be used! Then find someone who can operate this machine, the meaning behind this experiment we are going to do is great, and we can't delay a minute or a second! ”

"Professor Eddington, the two people in the entire Cavendish laboratory who are the most proficient in operating this machine, now one of them is in the United States, and the other is not known whether it is in Germany or Sulian, and they will not be able to return for a while."

Seeing that the two eyebrows on Eddington's eyes were tightening tighter and tighter, and his expression was becoming more and more eager, Chen Muwu finally stopped selling this pass:

"But even if they don't come back, I can fix it. Because the problem that arises is not that I won't use this accelerator,—— of course I will——, real reason is that we don't have enough experimental materials. ”

Eddington was more and more confused by what he said: "You said you wanted deuterium, and British Air sent the liquefied liquid deuterium overnight. And there are ready-made particle accelerators here, what experimental materials are missing? What experimental materials are missing? ”

"Deuterium ...... Deficiency"

"Deuterium shortage?"

Hearing the reason given by Chen Muwu, Eddington finally couldn't help but break out.

Even if Chen Muwu didn't want to do an experiment today, if he could choose a slightly more reasonable excuse, he could fool himself as a layman.

As a result, he actually said that there was a lack of deuterium, and the liquefied gas tank sent by British Air was now placed in the corner of the preparation room!

Also, if there was no deuterium, what was the thing he had just filled into the particle source?

It turned out that he liked Chen Muwu a lot, who would have thought that he would become like this now?

"Professor Eddington, wait until I'm done!"

Before Eddington broke out, Chen Muwu hurriedly interrupted his spell-casting chanting.

Because he knows that Eddington has two sides, he is not only an elegant and easy-going English gentleman, but also a reckless man who beats people up mercilessly.

If the other party can't control it, and smashes a fist in his face like he did last time he hit the editor of the editorial department of the "Philosophy Journal", then Chen Muwu won't be able to eat and walk away.

"When I say deuterium, I don't mean liquid deuterium or deuterium gas, but a lack of a way to hold deuterium atoms to the target."

Han Changli said, "Industry is good at diligence, and absurdity is frolic; Actions are made in thought, and destroyed in follow".

Chen Muwu was unlucky this time, and he was unlucky in "being ridiculous".

He did build the world's first particle accelerator with Zhao Zhongyao and Cockcroft, and also guided them to complete the first nuclear transmutation experiment in human history by using the accelerated hydrogen nuclei to bombard a metal target.

But after that, Chen Muwu began to be the shopkeeper, and basically he handed over all the big and small affairs on the particle accelerator side to the two of them.

For some time, Chen Muwu only knew that the researchers in Cavendis's lab, with the help of the two of them, had done a lot of bombardment experiments with this particle accelerator.

He had a general impression of these experiments, so he was able to quickly find a photographic negative of the cloud chamber trajectory bombardment of hydrogen atoms with accelerated protons from the data storage room a few days ago, and showed Eddington that the two hydrogen nuclei collided together would not produce deuterium nuclei or helium-2 nuclei.

But if you ask further how those experiments were done, Chen Muwu began to become unaware.

He had just stood in front of the particle accelerator when he discovered such a serious problem.

In the past, whether it was a metal element or a non-metal crystal, the target made from these things was solid.

But what he wants to use as a target this time is deuterium, which has always existed in the form of gas at room temperature and pressure, so how can he fix it on the target position?

Chen Muwu stood in the laboratory for a long time, but he couldn't come up with a solution to this problem.

He had no choice but to leave the room where the particle accelerator was installed, take off his electrostatic isolation suit and return to the experimental preparation room, and explained in detail to Eddington the problems and troubles he encountered.

Even if what Chen Muwu said was reasonable, Eddington, who had a temper, was still a little unrelenting.

"Didn't you explain to me before that because there are two electrons in the hydrogen molecule, the amount of charge can still be conserved in the end. Isn't that the hydrogen used, how can it be replaced with deuterium? ”

"Professor, it may be that I didn't think about it at the time, thinking that hydrogen could be used as a target, and I didn't think about it at all."

Eddington actually thought of hydrogen, and he also thought of the cloud chamber photographic negative that Chen Muwu found for him a few days ago.

"Chen, this time, didn't you find me a picture of bombarding the nucleus of a hydrogen atom with a proton? How did they do the experiment? ”

"This ...... I can't tell. ”

Chen Muwu, who was caught, was very embarrassed.

Eddington was angry, but he couldn't vent about the situation now, after all, the experiment was important.

If Chen Muwu hadn't told the Times reporter that nuclear fusion in the sun could exist in a new form, he is still pessimistic about this idea.

And now that Dr. Chen's two assistants are not in Cambridge, he has to be the one who wants to operate this experiment on the particle accelerator.

Of course, there was still some anger in his heart, but Eddington quickly adjusted, and comforted Chen Muwu softly: "Then let's go and flip through their papers, maybe we can find a solution." ”

When he left the particle accelerator lab, Eddington was no longer as elated as he had been when he arrived.

On the way to Cavendish's lab, the two men were speechless.

Chen Muwu quickly found the recently published paper on using protons to bombard a series of elements from the reference room, and also found the part that bombarded the hydrogen nucleus in the paper.

Sure enough, just like what he realized when he stood in front of the particle accelerator and went to meditation, what they added to the particle accelerator in the experiment was not hydrogen composed of hydrogen molecules, but hydrogen atoms fixed into crystals.

After seeing this idea, Chen Muwu took it as an afterthought.

He complained to himself that he should have thought of this a long time ago.

In order to test whether the beryllium rays are gamma rays, the Curies used paraffin blocks rich in hydrogen atoms to increase the probability of collision between beryllium rays and hydrogen atoms in paraffin, making it easier to knock protons out of paraffin.

He himself used this method two days ago, why did he forget about it today?

Of course, in the paper that bombarded hydrogen atoms with protons, paraffin wax was not used, but inorganic compounds such as ammonium chloride NHCl or ammonium sulfite (NH) SO.

For Chen Muwu, this is a good option.

Because paraffin wax is rich in hydrogen atoms, but those atoms are only one proton, Chen Muwu can't find paraffin wax rich in a large number of deuterium atoms.

This is not the case with inorganic compounds, although deuterated ammonium chloride NDCl or deuterated ammonium sulfite (ND) SO, which are rich in a large number of deuterium atoms, cannot be found in natural minerals.

But now that the most critical material, liquid deuterium, is available, these inorganic compounds can be synthesized on a small scale in the laboratory.

After reading the paper, Chen Muwu told Eddington his thoughts: if you want to do the experiment of deuterium nuclei bombarding deuterium atoms, you must first find a chemical laboratory and use deuterium gas to prepare a part of deuterium chloride NDCl.

Chen Muwu ultimately chose ammonium deuterated chloride instead of ammonium deuterated sulfite, not because the former ranked higher in that paper, but because it was easier to make.

The volume of nitrogen N and deuterium D is one to three, and at a high temperature of about 500 degrees, it can be catalyzed by iron catalyst to become deuterated ammonia ND.

This method is used in the industrial synthesis of ammonia, and although it is time-consuming and laborious to reproduce in the laboratory, it can still be synthesized from deuterated ammonia after all.

With deuterated ammonia, it's time to make another material, deuterium chloride.

This is simpler to make than deuterated ammonia, only need to let the deuterium gas burn in chlorine gas, producing a pale flame until the yellow-green color in the gas collection cylinder gradually disappears, that is, deuterium chloride gas is produced.

Then the deuterated ammonia gas is mixed with deuterium chloride to produce a large amount of white smoke, that is, the solid powder of deuterated ammonium chloride.

Chen Muwu had never been exposed to chemical experiments in his life, and this simple knowledge was recalled through his only remaining high school memories.

What else hydrogen needs to be purified before combustion, collect a test tube gas nozzle down close to the lit alcohol lamp, a sharp popping sound is impure, and a faint pop sound is pure.

Knowledge has not been forgotten, but he is not sure how sure he will be in his hands.

Chen Muwu also felt that after the deuterated ammonia gas and deuterium chloride were mixed, it seemed difficult to collect the smoke-like deuterated ammonium chloride products produced.

It is better to pass these two gases into the water to become deuterated ammonia and deuterated hydrochloric acid, and then mix the two solutions together, and you should be able to get an aqueous solution of deuterated ammonium chloride.

It should be easier to crystallize ammonium deuterated chloride on the basis of an aqueous solution than to collect the solid powder formed after combustion.

However, if you make an aqueous solution, you will have to face another problem.

From the synthesis of ammonia to the combustion of hydrogen chloride, he has been ensuring that all the hydrogen atoms used in it are deuterium.

In the same way, if the water required to make an aqueous solution is used in ordinary distilled water HO, the deuterium ammonium will be hydrolyzed in the water, and ND can be ionized with deuterium ion D and deuterated ammonia ND, and the energy will be released at the same time.

The deuterium ion can be combined with the weakly ionized hydroxide OH in the water to become semi-heavy water HDO.

If deuterium atoms enter the water through hydrolysis, the same number of hydrogen atoms enter the ammonium root.

In this way, the crystals crystallized from the aqueous solution of deuterated ammonium chloride are most likely not pure NDCl, but NDHCl, which will be doped with some deuterium atoms.

If you want to keep it pure, you should not use ordinary distilled water when making an aqueous solution, but should use heavy water.

But there was no one in the heavy water Cavendish laboratory, they only had liquid deuterium sent by British Air.

If you know what liquid deuterium to buy, you should buy heavy water directly.

Whether it is electrolysis of heavy water or throwing a piece of potassium into heavy water, it is easy to produce deuterium gas.

But this is just to think about, although because Chen Muwu discovered deuterium in advance, and soon after the discovery of heavy water, the world's first heavy water plant has also begun to be built at this time, but there is no capacity to produce heavy water now

After looking ahead and thinking for a long time, Chen Muwu finally decided to choose ordinary distilled water, instead of thinking about the question of whether it is heavy or not.

Even deuterium chloride he did not intend to prepare it himself, but generously used ready-made hydrochloric acid.

Anyway, ordinary distilled water has been used, so it doesn't matter whether there is one hydrogen atom or two hydrogen atoms in the produced ammonium chloride molecule.

As long as he ensures that he can produce deuterated ammonia from nitrogen and deuterium, so that the final ammonium chloride crystal contains deuterium, and successfully fixes the gaseous deuterium gas into solid deuterium atoms, which are suitable for being placed in the particle accelerator as a target, then everything will be fine.

Not to mention the fact that he had to bombard not only the deuterium atom with deuterium atoms, but also the hydrogen atoms.

There are two isotopes of hydrogen on this target, and it may be possible to kill two birds with one stone.

(End of chapter)