Another world conquest manual

As everyone knows.

Whether it is three-dimensional reconstruction of cryo-electron microscopy or XRD - that is, X-ray crystal diffraction technology, problems are discussed in Angstrom (Angstrom) units.

That is, 10 to the power of 10 meters, or 0.1 nanometers, has reached the atomic scale, and you can see the covalent bonding between atoms.

Although the above two technologies are physical and chemical technologies, they have been widely used in biological detection in modern life sciences.

In modern life sciences, no one can do without the other.

The above two technologies are standard crystal detection technologies, especially crystal X-ray diffraction, which has matured to the point where even a paper cannot be written.

It is still well known.

The crystal has a lattice structure, and the period of the lattice structure is of the same order of magnitude as the wavelength of X-rays. Therefore, the X-ray diffraction phenomenon is an interference phenomenon based on the principle of wave superposition.

After X-rays pass through the crystal, the intensity of X-rays in the diffraction direction increases, while the intensity of X-rays in other directions weakens or even disappears.

If you place a photosensitive film behind the crystal, you will get an X-ray diffraction pattern.

Crystal X-ray diffraction is currently a highly relied upon characterization method.

It can be said that in the eyes of professionals engaged in synthesis, getting a crystal is like knowing the serial number of a veteran. You can find short movies at any time. Ahem, you can determine the structure of the crystal at any time.

But according to Wang Qiang, crystal X-ray diffraction cannot analyze the structure of the monster crystal.

Then this is a big problem.

Students who have studied chemistry seriously should know this.

Solids are divided into two concepts: crystalline and amorphous.

The scientific method to distinguish crystals and amorphous materials is X-ray diffraction.

But the monster crystal placed in front of Lin Li and others is very special:

It has a lattice structure - because the array cells are detected, and the lattice structure is obtained by infinite translation of the array cells.

In other words, the Monster Crystal is a crystal, there is no doubt about it.

But at the same time, it cannot use X-ray diffraction to analyze its structure, which means that the covalent bonds existing inside it cannot be found at all!

This is like a mobile phone suddenly appearing under the current level of technology. It has all the standard mobile phone functions such as surfing the Internet, taking pictures and making calls.

But when you are about to take it apart, you find that it has no batteries, chips and a series of internal electronic components.

Of course.

Although this situation is currently only one example and is a typical unknown case, it has not reached the level of a dark cloud.

Therefore, Lin Li quickly adjusted his mentality.

He took a deep breath, seemed to have made some determination, and said to Wang Qiang:

"Get on the SIMS instrument and blast it with Ar+ ions!"

As soon as these words came out, the entire laboratory suddenly fell into silence.

SIMS instrument

Ahem, the scientific name is secondary ion mass spectrometer.

It can bombard the sample surface with a high-energy primary ion beam, causing the atoms or atomic groups on the sample surface to absorb energy, and sputter from the surface to produce secondary particles.

After these charged particles pass through the mass analyzer, a map of the sample surface information can be obtained.

It is currently the device with the best penetration effect into the interior of objects and the highest accuracy.

For example, our Zhurong Mars rover in the previous paragraph is equipped with this set of instruments. There is a panoramic view of the Zhurong rover on the Internet. About 30° in the lower right corner is the external port of the SIMS instrument.

However, SIMS technology has two flaws:

First, its cost is very high, so high that even a certain person would have to work hard for several years.

Generally speaking, Ar+ ions can blast away about one micron of crystal surface in one night. If it were used on an object like monster crystal, the cost of a complete set of experiments could reach eight or even nine figures.

After all, ppb is probably not enough for this thing. It needs to reach the level of 10 ppt at least to complete the task.

The second is

It has the potential to damage the Monster Crystal or even render it completely useless.

Because according to the current situation, the lattice in the monster crystal should be in some very complex form.

Do not even rule out the possibility of a chaotic state - no matter how low the possibility is, theoretically it must be admitted that it does exist.

Therefore, even if it is only shattered to a depth of 1 micron, it is likely to cause irreversible damage to the monster crystal at the microscopic level.

Therefore, Lin Li's order was very risky.

Once there is a problem with the monster crystal at the micro level, it means that this unique copy will be completely scrapped.

However, Lin Li finally chose to take this step. Some risks must be taken when exploring the unknown.

At this point, if I don’t continue, I will be useless as a scientific researcher.

But this step must be done by him personally, which is why he will be there - to put it harshly, if the monster crystal is really destroyed by the ion beam, as the camp leader and a famous Chinese creature Learning about authority is at most a matter of writing a report.

It is impossible to be punished administratively.

But if he didn't arrive at the scene.

Even if the order is given through long-distance communication, once an experimental accident occurs, part of the responsibility will definitely fall on Wang Qiang.

Even if this little girl can stay in the camp by then, the relevant research authority will be shortened a lot, and at least she will have no chance to come into contact with the anatomy of the third-order monster beast.

So as a teacher, Lin Li would never allow this to happen.

After everything was ready, Lin Li stood in front of the secondary ion mass spectrometer, while Wang Qiang assisted.

"Target sample C surface, minimum area diameter 80nm, bombardment deposition angle 2theta!" (Why can't I type the symbol?)

"The incident current is 10mA/c㎡, and the incident source ion concentration is greater than 10^14atoms/c㎡!"

"The high-energy Ar+ ion beam is ready, with an energy of 9659.6 electron volts!"

As several processes were completed, a decisive white light flashed in Lin Li's lenses.

He waved his hand and ordered:

"The instrument starts blasting!"

Phew——dah——

I saw a high-energy ion beam composed of Ar+ quickly bombarding the target surface of the monster crystal. The high-energy bombardment produced an extremely small amount of secondary ions.

These secondary ions are then extracted into a field-free drift tube and arrive at the ion detector along a predetermined flight path.

Under normal circumstances, the sputtering peeling speed of static SIMS is generally 0.1 nanometers per hour.

However, as the laboratory now spends regardless of costs, Lin Li adopted the dynamic SIMS mode, and the peeling speed of secondary ions on the surface of the monster crystal reached 100 microns per hour.

After all, the structure has to be destroyed anyway, so it's better to use a more powerful method.

When XRD cannot analyze it, let alone 0.1 nanometer, damage of 0.1 femtometer or even 0.1 ami is the same as being cut in half.

Just an hour later, the secondary ion mass spectrometer produced its first results.

The task of analysis was handed over to Wang Qiang and her senior sister Li Yan.

Students who know about mass spectra should all know this.

The abscissa of the secondary mass spectrum represents the mass-to-charge ratio, and the ordinate represents the intensity.

The signal intensity of the mass spectrum peak is actually an electrical signal, which represents a relative intensity.

Usually within the detection quality range, the peak intensity with the highest signal intensity is 100%, and the peak height of other peaks is displayed as a proportion of 100%.

Under normal circumstances, a spectrum can only have one base peak. If there is more, it usually means that there is an abnormality in the equipment or there is a problem with the ion beam, or there is something wrong with your eyes.

But in the secondary mass spectrum in the hands of Wang Qiang and Li Yan, 50% of the peak heights are consistent - and there is no way that the equipment and ion beam are out of compliance.

This is very interesting.

"A small number of them are fragment peaks, and the peak area is calculated using the internal standard method."

"The difference between the mass number interval 236 and the molecular weight of the cycle section is 2"

"It is expected that this substance does not exist in the database"

"Excluding the influence of matrix efficiency"

"Huh? The degree of polymerization starts from 7? Does that mean there are actually covalent bonds inside it?"

"We found it, it's a peptide chain! If the peptide bond in the peptide chain is broken, can we separate B series ions or Y series ions?!"

Suddenly, Wang Qiang raised her left hand high:

"Teacher, I analyzed it and it is Y2 ion!"

However, before Lin Li could react, Wang Qiang's voice suddenly rose to a pitch that was almost sharp:

"No, no! Teacher, the peak has a broken phase! The peak of the y ion has three more hydrogens. This is impossible. Is this true?"