Chapter 549: Chapter 489: Two-Dimensional Materials, Superconductor Graphene!
If asked what the most solid material in the universe is, Lynn couldn’t answer, because even the previous life’s federation’s exploration of the cosmos could only be described as insignificant.
However, within the range of his knowledge, neutrons definitely counted as one among them!
As the most critical part of the atomic nucleus, even nuclear explosions couldn’t destroy them, one could imagine their level of solidity!
A body solely composed of dense neutrons has a mass that is exaggerated to the point of disbelief, such as the celestial bodies known as neutron stars in the universe, which have a mass of over 100 million tons per cubic centimeter, making them the densest known celestial bodies outside of black holes.
Their terrifying mass can distort space-time, which means they also come with an incredibly strong force field for protection, provided that oneself, located within, isn’t torn apart by their gravitational pull.
Even the power of a legendary Wizard could not touch this level, and Lynn had to settle for a more reliable plan, soon coming up with an idea after pondering for a moment.
“071, pull up the data on graphene!” Lynn silently recited in his mind.
Graphene is an extremely special single-layer material composed of carbon atoms, with excellent optical, electrical, and mechanical properties. It is used in many high-tech instruments and is often required by the federation when constructing stellar warships.
The reason for its effectiveness is that it is sufficiently thin and hard, with resilience, a theoretical Young’s modulus of 1.0 TPa, inherent tensile strength of 130 GPa, far surpassing other metal materials, over a hundred times harder than steel.
It is also one of the few substances that can be called a two-dimensional material. Its thickness is only 0.335 nanometers, which is one two-hundred-thousandth of the thickness of a human hair, equivalent to the thickness of an atom.
Of course, the “two-dimensional” here doesn’t mean that graphene is a lower-dimensional creation.
The federation’s technology hasn’t reached that level of impressiveness. The so-called two-dimensional material refers to materials in which electrons can move freely only in two dimensions on the nanoscale, similar are nanofilms, superlattices, quantum wells, etc.
Using “two-dimensional” is just a relatively vivid metaphor, while the basic atom making it up is the very common carbon!
Speaking of graphene, one must mention another carbon element material—diamond, which is actual diamond!
This item is so hard because of the special cubic crystal structure inside, where each carbon atom in the diamond is tightly bonded with four other carbon atoms, appearing like a regular tetrahedron, with strong covalent bond strength, thus high hardness. However, due to structural issues, it is also very brittle.
Therefore, the federation’s scientific researchers proposed a hypothesis as early as the 20th century: that improving material performance could be achieved by changing, adjusting atomic arrangement density, and material structure.
And graphene is the perfect creation that fits this theory!
Its internal carbon atoms are arranged in a dense and more perfect hexagonal honeycomb lattice structure, which gives it an extraordinary level of hardness as well as resilience, so much so that it can stretch like rubber.
According to the experimental data recorded in the smart brain, a graphene only 100 nanometers thick could easily support more than two tons without breaking. What if the thickness was increased to ten centimeters, which is 100 million nanometers?
Lynn didn’t know, because even the energy reaction armor of the stellar warships didn’t need graphene ‘that thick.’ It’s worth noting that this material was mass-manufactured, produced, and applied in large quantities by the end of the 21st century, and the cost per kilogram of single-layer structure graphene was still an astronomical figure.
Fortunately, they were Wizards, capable of freely manipulating the elements themselves, so the cost of extracting and manufacturing graphene was greatly reduced. This is the convenience of magic…
After carefully noting all the information, Lynn began experimenting. With magic power surging, a large amount of carbon was produced. Under the control of powerful spiritual power, they combined closely together.
In Lynn’s mind, he imagined the shape of a honeycomb. However, weaving a perfect hexagonal lattice structure atom by atom was not an easy task.
After failing dozens of times, Lynn barely managed to create a unit of graphene.
Fortunately, with the experience gained, the speed of the following process was much faster. By the time midnight arrived, Lynn had successfully created an entire circle of graphene protective shields around himself.
Creating this thing consumed a substantial amount of magic power, nearly one-fifth of his magic power reserves.
It is known that the more complex the simulated material is, the more intense the consumption, but this seemed a bit exaggerated…
It was only creations of carbon, after all.
Lynn was somewhat puzzled, but he didn’t spend much effort exploring the reason behind the increased consumption of magic power. Instead, he started to study the new type of magical protection he had developed.
Graphene has excellent light transmittance, able to reach above ninety-seven percent, paired with atomic-level thickness, making it very difficult to see directly with the naked eye.
But through perception, it was exceedingly clear, countless carbon atoms arranged neatly like a honeycomb, layer upon layer for several thousand layers, reaching a thickness of about two thousand nanometers…
“This is truly a perfect creation…” Lynn couldn’t help but marvel, also amazed at the intricate structure of graphene.
Next, it was time to test its protective capacity.