Just like Lu Zhou mentioned at the Institute of Computational Materials conference, if they wanted to solve the problem of controllable nuclear fusion, superconducting materials were an unavoidable obstacle.
Also, technical breakthroughs alone weren't enough. If they couldn't be realized in engineering, then no matter how great a miracle was, it could only stay in the laboratory.
Take the SG-1 material as an example. As a major breakthrough in the field of superconducting materials, it had shown considerable prospects in the field of application.
However, whether it was in China or abroad, there was no experience in the production of carbon-based superconducting materials, let alone applying them to engineering.
Therefore, for Lu Zhou, the problems he had to solve weren't only in his field of expertise, but there were also problems outside of the academic field that he had to solve.
Fortunately, this part of the work could be assigned to someone else …
Laboratory at the Institute of Computational Materials.
Standing in front of Lu Zhou was the chief engineer of Baosheng Group, Gao Ganwei.
As a subsidiary of the Aviation Industry Corporation of China and a leading company in the field of superconducting materials, Baosheng Group had cooperated with research institutes such as the Chinese Academy of Sciences many times and participated in major scientific research projects. As the chief engineer of the group, he was also involved in most of these projects.
The most prominent example was probably the Beijing Positron Collider (BESlll) project.
It was hard to say what the future held, but right now, the BESlll superconducting magnet still held the record for the largest single superconducting magnet in China.
In addition, most of the tokamak superconducting magnets, including EAST, were also involved in the construction of tokamak superconducting magnets.
After consulting with Academician Pan, Lu Zhou immediately contacted this company and sent out an invitation for cooperative research and development.
After Baosheng Group learned that the cooperative research and development unit was the Jinling Institute of Computational Materials, they immediately sent their chief engineer and gave this project the highest priority.
Even without the halo of the Nobel Prize and Lu Zhou's status in the materials science community, a US $1 billion national large-scale scientific research project was definitely considered a high-quality project.
However, after Engineer Cao heard Lu Zhou's request, he quickly realized that things weren't that simple.
"I'm afraid it won't be easy to use a 50T superconducting magnet in a stellarator."
In order to obtain a stronger electromagnetic field, middle school students probably knew how to do it. All they needed to do was to increase the number of turns of the coil.
That being said, when the magnetic field exceeded the magnitude of 10T, it was practically impossible to achieve in engineering.
Lu Zhou: "Traditional materials are hard to achieve. What if we use new materials?"
Engineer Cao raised his eyebrows. "You mean SG-1?"
Even though he wasn't an academic, since he was in the field of superconducting magnets, he still kept up with the latest research progress in the field of materials science.
Especially since the SG-1 was presented at the MRS Autumn Conference. Even though he hadn't read the relevant thesis or been to the conference, he had heard about its amazing performance.
Lu Zhou nodded and said, "That's right. In fact, I participated in the research on SG-1."
When Engineer Cao heard Lu Zhou's words, he had a look of surprise on his face. However, he quickly regained his composure.
He had heard that this research came from the Frick Chemistry Laboratory in Princeton. Since Lu Zhou was a professor at Princeton, it wasn't strange that he was involved in this research.
After thinking for a bit, Engineer Cao cautiously asked, "Is there a sample of the SG-1 material here?"
Lu Zhou: "Not just the sample, you can see all kinds of experimental data here. Come with me."
After that, Lu Zhou took Cao Ganwei to another laboratory. He gestured to Qian Zhongming, who was waiting in front of the computer, to retrieve various experimental data on the SG-1 material.
Engineer Cao struggled to look at the data and graphs on the computer screen. He frowned and thought for a long time before he finally spoke.
"Honestly, this is the first time I've heard of using carbon-based materials to build superconducting magnetic rails."
Lu Zhou smiled and said, "Isn't science all about experimentation?"
"That's right, but we're a company. Even though what you're saying sounds interesting, we have to consider the actual situation." Engineer Cao rubbed his chin and stared at the curve of the material's resistivity, electrification time, and electric current for a long time. Finally, a look of interest appeared in his eyes as he said, "… It seems feasible in theory, but with the price of graphene, if you want to build a magnet that's about the same size as the BESlll project, it'll probably cost a lot."
Lu Zhou: "You don't have to worry about the cost. Even if you spend billions of dollars, it'll be worth it as long as you can build a DEMO demonstration reactor."
A billion USD was only the first round of investment. As long as he could produce good in-progress results, he believed that many people would be willing to pay for his research.
"Since you don't have to worry about the cost, I think we can give it a try." Engineer Cao paused for a second and cautiously asked, "Can I bring a few grams of samples back for research?"
Lu Zhou smiled and said, "Of course you can, but the experimental data on the computer can't be used. It involves some undisclosed information, so I'll have to trouble you to look at it here."
Engineer Cao nodded and said, "I understand."
After the company left, Lu Zhou looked for Yang Xu, the director of the Institute of Computational Materials.
"After Chinese New Year, I plan on going to Germany."
Yang Xu: "Germany?"
"It's mainly because of the stellarator." Lu Zhou nodded and said, "It's on the way. I plan on purchasing a batch of new instruments, and the budget is around US $100 million. I need you to make a list of all the equipment I need."
He was going to expand the research institute after Chinese New Year, so he had to keep up with the related hardware.
When Yang Xu heard that Lu Zhou wanted to purchase equipment, he smiled and said, "That's easy. We're going to be doing research on superconducting materials, so let's get two transmission electron microscopes first."
Even though the research institute already had one, getting two more meant that the same experiment could produce two sets of data at the same time.
Especially since the transmission electron microscope was a godly material science tool, as long as the budget was enough, no one would complain about having too many.
Lu Zhou didn't even blink as he said, "Write it down on the list and give it to me."
He paused for a second and spoke.
"Also, I plan on recruiting a group of researchers, around two hundred. I'll tell Star Sky Technology to contact the relevant headhunting companies. I'll leave the talent selection to you. "
Yang Xu nodded and said, "Don't worry about this, I'll be strict. Oh yeah, are there any requirements? "
Lu Zhou thought for a bit and spoke.
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