Start with a blacksmith shop.

Chapter 181 The trouble caused by showing off...

Hearing this not-so-unfamiliar term, which has been quite popular in the past two years,

He looked at Li Zhenhua, signaling him to continue.

"Hehe, that's right, it's graphene. These things I have now are batteries, superchargers, and motors..."

This is the foundation of everything; everything is developed based on graphene.

As he spoke, Wang Yuesheng on the other side kept nodding.

"I do know a little about graphene, this fundamental material."

This concept has been hyped up a lot in the last two years. Could you explain it to me in detail?

He did not answer the question immediately.

"Sir, come with me. I'll show you the actual artifact, and then I'll explain it to you in detail."

As he spoke, he led Wang Yuesheng and Liu Qian, who had regained his senses, to the shelf against the wall in the laboratory.

The black, rolled-up material on the shelf is the graphene he produced.

Pointing to the items on the shelf, he spoke again at this point.

"Sir, look at this roll of material, it's graphene. This is multi-layered graphene that I prepared."

Graphene has a wide range of applications, and my current research direction is just one of those applications.

As far as I know, there are many directions, and I will explain them to you in detail.

Firstly, this material can be used to make chemical sensors, especially in medicine, making it an ideal form of electrochemical biosensor.

Secondly, I believe this material is one that can enable us to achieve a leapfrog development in semiconductors. It can completely replace silicon, the traditional material for manufacturing transistors.

Relatively speaking, the raw materials for graphene are also readily available substances; it is simply an upgraded material prepared from graphite.

In essence, graphene is just a form of carbon.

Moreover, transistors made from it perform better than those made from silicon; however, transistors made from silicon...

In my research, stability is lost when the nanometers reach 10 nanometers, unlike graphene.

Moreover, one of the most important characteristics of graphene is that its electrons react to external fields extremely quickly.

Therefore, this allows graphene-based transistors to achieve extremely high operating frequencies, exceeding those of transistors of the same size.

After explaining these two applications, he paused, knowing that the other party would likely have questions for him.

"You mean graphene-based transistors could allow us to achieve a leapfrog development in the semiconductor field?"

Just as he expected, Wang Yuesheng immediately grasped the key point of what he had just said.

He nodded smugly at Wang Yuesheng, then explained in detail.

"Yes, although our current lithography machines aren't that precise, we can approach it from another angle."

Since we can't make transistors smaller, we can simply increase the operating frequency of a single transistor to the highest possible level.

This way we can get the same result, which is to improve the calculation speed—different paths, same goal!

After his explanation, Wang Yuesheng also learned about the crucial role of this material in semiconductors.

After finishing his speech, Li Zhenhua continued speaking.

"Actually, it's not just in these application areas; there's also significant development in the manufacturing of flexible screens."

While this flexible screen may not be of much use in enhancing national strength, the application of this concept screen...

It can squeeze the market share of foreign screens and play a significant role in the economy.

I've already developed a new energy battery, as I just mentioned. It can also be used in bio-batteries, which will be of great help to the medical field.

Graphene can also efficiently desalinate seawater. If this technology makes significant progress, it could, in terms of overall strategy, bring us closer to our relations with coastal desert countries.

It can also be used in image sensors, which is an important part of cameras.

It can also play a significant role in the aerospace field and in the manufacture of composite materials.

He explained to Wang Yuesheng everything he knew about the applications of graphene, and this was only what he knew.

Wang Yuesheng had only a vague idea of ​​this material before, but now, the impact it could have on him was simply enormous.

Previously, because graphene was not easy to prepare, there were not many actual products in this field.

I am now able to mass-produce high-quality graphene materials, whether single-layer or double-layer, few-layer or multi-layer.

Superior quality, large quantity, and plenty to eat!

After saying all this, he couldn't help but drift into memories of his previous work on preparing graphene equipment.

Many methods for preparing graphene have been developed, including mechanical exfoliation, redox methods, and silicon carbide epitaxy...

Many methods have their own advantages and disadvantages, but the method he chose was the orientation-based epiphytic method.

Mechanical exfoliation still uses physical methods; it's a method that utilizes highly advanced differential centrifugation technology to ultimately obtain graphene.

However, this method was too inefficient for mass production, so it was abandoned.

While the oxidation-reduction method can yield high-quality graphene, its cost remains prohibitively high.

Various electrode solutions are used, and during the oxidation-reduction process, a large amount of nitric acid and sulfuric acid are generated, posing a huge safety hazard and easily causing pollution.

After eliminating various methods, the final choice was still the directional epiphytic method.

This is a method of growing graphene using the atomic structure of a growth substrate. This method can produce graphene in large quantities.

However, the graphene prepared in this way is in the form of thin sheets, but often varies in thickness, and it will adhere to the matrix, thus losing the characteristics of a rigid carbon layer.

So after he solved these problems, he also managed to develop the equipment.

Various high-temperature and high-pressure equipment form a complete set of manufacturing equipment.

After hearing what he said, Wang Yuesheng became somewhat excited. This material could be mass-produced, just as Li Zhenhua had just explained, and its impact on certain industries was truly enormous.

After he finished speaking, everyone present fell silent, especially Wang Yuesheng, for whom this trip was indeed worthwhile.

The guy across from me has amazing R&D skills; it seems like some problems are no challenge for him at all.

Moreover, this kid knows how to report to his superiors. If we rashly push it to the market, who knows what kind of mess it will cause!

Looking at him standing to the side after he had finished speaking, Wang Yuesheng looked at him with an indescribable expression.

"Very good, Comrade Li Zhenhua, well done. I understand everything you've said, and I will report it immediately upon my return."

As for what to do next, let's wait until the higher-ups make a decision before making a final decision!

Li Zhenhua's goal was simple: to find someone with direct access to the highest levels of government to report what he had come up with.

It was impossible to get a reply or promise on the spot, so everything was as he expected.

After finishing discussing all the important matters, Wang Yuesheng began to look around the car laboratory.

Everything seemed normal until, as he was looking around, a corner of the laboratory caught his attention.

It's actually hard to avoid attracting attention, but I didn't pay much attention before because I had important business to discuss.

But in the fairly tidy workshop, a mound of dirt suddenly appeared in the corner, which no one would pay attention to.

Filled with curiosity, Wang Yuesheng walked toward the mound of earth, while Li Zhenhua felt inexplicably uneasy when he saw that the half-dug tunnel in the corner had been discovered.

When he got closer to the mound, he discovered that it was not just a mound, but a circular pit with a diameter of two meters in the middle.

The surrounding soil formed a crater-like shape around the pit, but due to the lighting, he couldn't see the bottom of the pit.

Looking at the deep pit and then at Li Zhenhua standing beside it, Wang Yuesheng was somewhat puzzled.

After inspecting the deep pit, Liu Qian, who had followed along, turned to Li Zhenhua and said something in a joking tone.

"What are you doing? Are you planning to dig to the center of the Earth to see if there is an inner world inside?"

Have you been reading too many Jules Verne novels?

After Liu Qian finished speaking, Wang Yuesheng asked him a question with a puzzled expression.

"Um, what's wrong with you...?"

Li Zhenhua glanced at the two people who were asking him questions at the same time, scratched his head awkwardly, and smiled sheepishly.

"Hehehe, this one, um~."

Okay, I'll tell you, but don't laugh at me when I say it.

Actually, this isn't a research project, and I didn't intend to dig to the Earth's core.

This is because after experiencing the bandit incident last time, I developed a sense of self-protection.

This is an underground tunnel I dug; the other end leads directly to my house.

My idea is, since walking up here will make me a target, why don't I go underground?

So after I had the idea, I started digging the tunnel.

After hearing his words, both of them fell into self-doubt. Was the world abnormal? Or was this kid abnormal?

Who in their right mind would be so bizarre as to dig a tunnel to get to work? Isn't that something only someone with nothing better to do would do?

For a moment, neither of them knew what to say. In silence, Wang Yuesheng looked at the pit and then at Li Zhenhua without saying a word.

Just then, he looked at Wang Yuesheng with great curiosity about the large pit he had dug, and even thought that the other party wanted to go down and take a look.

"Commander, are you admiring my ingenious ideas?"

Are you curious about the tunnel I dug down below? Wait a minute, I'll take you down to take a look.

Before Wang Yuesheng could react, the power switch by the wall of the runway was switched on.

Then the equipment that was supplying air to the tunnel started operating, and the deep pit, which had just been pitch black and where nothing could be seen, became lit.

It was at this moment that Wang Yuesheng discovered that the walls of the pit were not made of original soil, but rather a treated wall surface.

At that moment, Li Zhenhua walked over with a remote control in his hand, pressed a button on it, and soon a round plate descended from above, suspended by four steel cables.

Once the plate is lowered into the circular pit, it perfectly covers the two-meter-diameter pit, except for the vertical ladder on one side of the pit.

He stepped forward, not forgetting to invite the two old men to come up with him.

These two old men were both skilled and daring, and they stepped onto the makeshift elevator.

The elevator then carried the three of them down. The height of twenty meters is equivalent to six or seven floors, and it reached the bottom in just over twenty seconds.

A horizontal tunnel appeared before them, but Wang Yuesheng did not enter the tunnel; instead, he was very interested in the tunnel walls.

With a hint of curiosity, I reached out my hand towards the wall and touched the hardened surface, which still looked like mud.

"What's wrong with this wall? It looks like mud to me, but it feels almost like stone!"

Wang Yuesheng asked him with a curious look, but Li Zhenhua didn't take it seriously and casually replied.

"Oh, the wall you're talking about, that's one application of graphene, I guess."

I invented a gel-like adhesive based on graphene, and it was used in automated equipment on tunnel boring machines.

The excavated soil is compressed and squeezed using high-frequency vibration, and then combined with a graphene binder.

The final result is this wall. Don't underestimate this stuff; in some properties, it's no worse than high-grade cement, and it also has waterproof and moisture-proof functions.

He'd tricked him again. That was Wang Yuesheng's truest thought at the moment, and he didn't want to get entangled with this annoying guy anymore.

He finished speaking to Wang Yuesheng, but did not receive a gasp of surprise, which made him feel a sense of disappointment.

Somewhat dejected, he led the two into the horizontal tunnel. After walking for hundreds or even thousands of meters, the three finally reached the end.

This tunnel also gave the old man Wang Yuesheng a sense of powerlessness, the source of which was Li Zhenhua, the carefree man who had led him down.

Looking at the cylindrical machine at the end of the tunnel, which was two meters in diameter and of unknown length, that must be the tunnel boring machine that Li Zhenhua had just mentioned.

"Xiao Li, we've reached the end of this tunnel. Let me hear your explanation first, then I'll tell you something else. You go first!"

Wang Yuesheng's words puzzled him, and he didn't know what they meant.

But when the other party asked him to introduce himself, he still began to explain.

"Oh, okay, sir."

Look at that orange-red machine at the far end; that's the electric tunnel boring machine I built.

It used four 480kw motors as power sources, each with a diameter of 2 meters, a length of 3.5 meters, and a total weight of 4 tons.

It can generate high-frequency vibrations during tunneling, which will break down the excavated soil, along with the graphene adhesive, into a hardened wall.

The system operates fully automatically and as a single unit. During operation, in addition to ensuring there is enough adhesive, it is also important to check if the cable is long enough.

Each day, they can advance approximately 10-50 meters, depending on the soil structure encountered. So far, they have excavated a total of 1,500 meters, and the project has taken over a month.

This is my tunneling method. What do you think? Pretty advanced, right? Wherever this tunnel boring machine goes, it creates this kind of finished tunnel.

And it won't produce much useless soil; the soil on the surface is just leftover soil from the excavation of this 1500-meter tunnel.

He explained to the two of them everything he had built, including all the equipment needed to operate it, in great detail.

After listening, Wang Yuesheng had to admit that the young man in front of him was truly a genius.

But sometimes, this kid does act silly, which I think might be because he puts all his brainpower into research and development.

After Li Zhenhua finished speaking, Wang Yuesheng's smile vanished, and he became serious.

"Comrade Li Zhenhua, first of all, I admit that you are very smart, exceptionally smart."

But what I'm going to talk about isn't your clever brain. What I'm going to talk about is that you broke the law when you were digging this tunnel.

Because the tunnel you are digging now is an exploitation of underground resources, and these resources belong to the state, it constitutes illegal mining.

This is one of them, but the most important point is not this.

Do you know what kind of factory you're in right now?

Without Wang Yuesheng's suggestion, he had never even considered it. He had always thought it was a private matter and wouldn't violate any laws.

Then the other party asked him about the nature of the factory. It was obvious without even thinking about it; they were producing J-36 fighter jets, so what kind of factory could it be?

"Sir, I really didn't know that digging this tunnel was illegal. How serious is this?"

Furthermore, our factory is now a privately-owned military enterprise, capable of producing both military and civilian equipment.

He realized something was wrong after that, so he didn't say anything more.

"You still know that? Your factory produces J-36 fighter jets, and its security is usually very tight."

But after your actions, the vulnerability has been exposed. Everyone else is trying to patch the vulnerability.

And you, you created a loophole yourself. If you hadn't developed the J-36, this tunnel alone could have been enough to charge you with espionage.

Wang Yuesheng's serious expression, combined with his tone of voice, gave him an indescribable feeling.

"Sir, I really didn't know. I hadn't thought about it that much before!"

"Of course I know you haven't thought that much about it. In the future, you need to think more about things and consider them from multiple perspectives."

Don't just do whatever comes to mind; think twice before you act in the future.

Alright, let's not talk about this anymore. You should probably block up this tunnel when you have time.

At this moment, after Wang Yuesheng finished speaking, he became somewhat dejected. His plan, which had not yet taken shape, had been aborted.

But Li Zhenhua was still somewhat unwilling to simply fill it back in. His mind raced, and after thinking of something, he looked uncertainly at Wang Yuesheng.

"Commander, tell me, if I only backfill this 1500-meter horizontal tunnel, can I leave the 20-meter-deep vertical shaft? I plan to dig out an underground laboratory in the space beneath my workshop."

He looked at Wang Yuesheng with hope, and the other party did not disappoint him.

"I think it should be possible, but you'll need to register with the relevant department. I don't know much about this, so you can handle it yourself!"

Receiving such a reply, I suddenly felt that it wasn't too bad.

(End of this chapter)