After traveling across North America, the samples from Sarrot's laboratory in Silicon Valley finally arrived at the Frick Chemistry Laboratory.
After signing the package, Lu Zhou brought the samples to the rented laboratory.
Recently, he learned that, in addition to applying for the university's research fund, the Frick Chemistry Laboratory not only provided third-party testing services, but they could also rent the laboratory and purchase the equipment.
Third-party testing services were usually quite expensive, often in the tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. However, renting the equipment for experiments was within an acceptable range.
After completing the equipment rental procedure, Lu Zhou called Professor Chirik and borrowed a PhD student to be his assistant.
Just like last time, it was Connie who came.
This PhD student was as big as a football player, but he was much more muscular than last year.
Lu Zhou looked at Connie and had a strange expression on his face.
"Did you change your field to biology?"
"No," said Connie. He paused for a second and asked, "Why do you ask?"
"Nothing …" said Lu Zhou as he shook his head. He then said, "Forget it, pretend I didn't say anything."
Lu Zhou felt like if his body continued to grow, he would have the potential to become the Hulk.
However, it was too hurtful to say it out loud.
"… Actually, I know what you want to say." Connie sighed and scratched his head. He then said, "Because I'm too big, Professor Chirik doesn't let me touch the equipment. He's worried that I'll break them."
"That's too …" Lu Zhou looked at Connie and didn't know how to comfort him. He then said, "Anyway, I won't do that to you."
In terms of size, Professor Creech wasn't small either. He was at least a small forward on the basketball court.
Connie rubbed his nose and said, "Really? What do you need me to do? "
Lu Zhou glanced at the scanning electron microscope in the laboratory and said, "Anyway … You want to help me process the samples. You should know how to do it, right?"
Connie grinned. "Leave it to me!"
Lu Zhou took out more than thirty samples sealed in small glass jars. After instructing Connie on some things that he had to pay attention to, he carefully took out a small amount of black powder from the glass jar labeled Sample No. 1. He mixed it with the ionized water and shook it.
Before sending it over, Sarrot had already processed the samples. Other than a small amount of impurities that could not be filtered, the powder had already reached the laboratory's purity. There was no need for further filtering.
However, it was impossible to just put the sample into the hollow carbon sphere for observation. The aggregation of the hollow carbon sphere itself would make the observation less effective.
With Connie's help, Lu Zhou patiently dispersed each sample with ultrasonic waves. Then, he carefully collected the sample with a rubber dropper and dripped all the sample solution onto the copper plate.
"Done!"
Finally, after processing all the samples, Lu Zhou let out a sigh of relief and put down the last piece of copper. He stretched and moved his stiff neck.
Since the carbon material itself was a conductive material, it was relatively easy to process. This step was considered complete. If it was an insulator, the sample would have to be evaporated.
Doesn't that sound expensive?
Actually, it's not that expensive.
At least compared to other precious metals and organic reagents consumed in the laboratory, gold was relatively cheap. For the samples sent by Sarrot, the average cost per milligram was more than a hundred dollars.
Therefore, there was a reason why Lu Zhou was being so careful. After all, he was spending his own money on the experiments.
Fortunately, Connie, who was acting as an assistant, did not let Lu Zhou down and did not mess up a single sample. Connie put down the last piece of copper and looked at Lu Zhou.
"I'm also done, what do we do next?"
Lu Zhou thought for a second and said, "Let's scan it with the scanning electron microscope first."
The rest of the work was simple. Lu Zhou operated the instrument step by step. He glued the copper plate containing the sample onto the conductive tape and sent it into the sample room.
Lu Zhou made sure that the vacuum pressure in the sample room was stable. He began to speak to himself as he entered various parameters.
"The emission current is set at 10μA, the working distance is 8mm, and the scanning mode is SEI …"
Lu Zhou used the two joysticks on the sample controller to carefully move the position of the sample table. Connie, who was standing in front of the computer, adjusted the aperture and acceleration voltage according to Lu Zhou's instructions.
After completing this step, all of the work was ready.
Finally, it was time to harvest the fruits of his labor.
Compared to the tedious and complicated operation before, this process was much easier and more enjoyable.
By adjusting the computer resolution, the acceleration voltage, and the working distance, Lu Zhou could easily collect any data he wanted.
Connie looked at the instrument and could not help but feel emotional.
"This thing is so much better than a normal electron microscope."
"Of course." Lu Zhou smiled and said, "If the experiment goes well, I can give you the rest of the machine time."
Connie said excitedly, "Really? Thank you so much! "
Even though his boss also had a scanning electron microscope, it was obvious that Professor Chirik wouldn't waste machine time on his own student's doctoral thesis. After all, he had too many students, so many that he couldn't manage them all.
Standing in front of him, Lu Zhou was like an angel, no, a god.
Lu Zhou smiled and said nonchalantly, "Of course it's true. As long as you do what I say, I won't let you work for free."
After hearing Lu Zhou's promise, Connie became more motivated.
The resolution gradually increased, and the microstructure of the hollow carbon spheres was presented to the two without reservation.
As Lu Zhou looked at the scanned images, he suddenly had an idea.
He thought of something and immediately said.
"Connie, help me screen out hollow carbon nanospheres with a specific surface area in the range of [2326m2g- 1,3762 m2g-1] and a diameter in the range of [60nm-70nm]!"
"Okay." Without any hesitation, Connie immediately began to operate the computer. After comparing the data, he quickly reported, "Professor, samples 11, 14, 15, and 23 all meet your requirements. Do you have any other instructions?"
Lu Zhou took the corresponding glass jar from the sample and stared at the black powder in the glass jar as he spoke with his back facing Connie.
He then turned his back to Connie and said, "I need you to do something right now."
Connie said in a serious manner, "Go ahead."
"Help me borrow a battery tester and a set of button battery molds." Lu Zhou looked around the laboratory and said, "And some elemental sulfur samples."
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