Material Empire

Kaan's paranoia actually just came from his arrogance. Once he found out that his skills were inferior to others, he returned to his original rational and wise appearance. He understands that he has made too much noise in the academic and political circles in Brazil, and now he wants to go back and start a new life. I am afraid that others will not accept him so easily. It is better to change the environment and start from scratch. You will have the capital to bargain with the government and the school.

Ka'an doesn't know much about Qin Hai's situation, but he does understand iron-based superconductivity and graphene. Qin Hai can master the core technologies of these two aspects, so he is naturally someone he can rely on. Ming Lord. Judging from the information provided by Qin Hai, graphene is indeed an ideal material for making supercapacitors, and Qin Hai currently owns the patent for graphene production. The name of the sea is the most favorable.

Regarding his treatment, Qin Hai also made it very clear. He claimed that Ka'an can get a piece of the supercapacitor commercial cake, no matter whether the proportion is 5% or 10%, it is unparalleled Kaan has no doubts about this.

After thinking about this, Ka'an naturally has nothing to hesitate. If he misses this village, he will lose this store. He has to know what is good and what is bad.

Ka'an wants to go to China to work, and there are still some procedures to go through. At the same time, he needs to sign an agreement with Qin Hai to clarify the relationship between the responsibilities and rights of the two parties. Qin Hai didn't have time to accompany Ka'an to handle these matters. He left Ka'an the phone number of Anhe Material Institute, and then made a long-distance overseas call to explain to Wang Xiaochen. He needs to take care of it, and there will be a special person from the School of Materials to contact Ka'an.

In the following time, Qin Hai continued to travel around South America with tranquility, enjoying the rare leisure time. Of course, wherever he goes, he still inevitably visits local scholars and well-known enterprises to discuss some cooperation matters, which need not be elaborated one by one.

Turn your attention back to Japan. Gen Yoshida, the technical director of Shinzuka Chemical, lied that he was a lecturer at a certain university in Osaka, and went to the Anhe School of Materials to get a sample of graphene. It is said that it is the experimental report in Nie Sen's laboratory, which is like a treasure. He stayed in Hongze for a few days, and after completing some routine tests, he returned to Japan with graphene samples and materials, and began to lead his staff to develop new graphene preparation processes day and night.

Graphene, like steel, is just a general term for a class of materials. Steel can be divided into carbon steel and alloy steel, and alloy steel includes manganese steel, chromium steel, nickel steel, etc., changing the content of one element, or even adjusting the smelting process, can produce different types of steel . Steel patents are for specific models, and it is impossible for someone to monopolize all steel products in one patent.

The same is true for graphene. Through oxidation, hydrogenation, adding fluorine-containing functional groups, doping boron, nitrogen and other elements, different types of graphene can be produced. Each type has its own unique physical and chemical characteristics, so it belongs to different products. Although Daqin Group was the first enterprise to produce graphene, it can only own the patent rights of a few products and cannot monopolize all products. What Yoshida Gen has to do is to compete with Daqin Group for more product patents, especially the patents on the preparation process.

Before officially releasing the news of the discovery of graphene to the international materials community, Qin Hai had asked Nie Sen to complete the research on two preparation processes, namely the vapor phase deposition method and the redox method. When Gen Yoshida saw this news, he secretly complained, because based on the experience of Xinzuka Chemical in the field of carbon materials, he knew that these two preparation processes are the most efficient and the lowest cost. If you want to bypass these two patents to develop Other patents are not only difficult, but also have disadvantages in efficiency in newly developed processes.

But the matter has come to this point, Yoshida Gen knows that there are difficulties, but he still has to face them. Otherwise, Xinzuka Chemical will either not enter the graphene field at all, or it can only purchase patents from Daqin Group for production. The latter method is unacceptable to Xinzuka Chemicals. Regardless of the consideration of face or the cost of patent licensing, Xinzuka Chemicals cannot do this, but must develop a new process with independent intellectual property rights.

According to the information that Yu Yong took out from Nie Sen's laboratory, Nie Sen's team had tried some other preparation methods, including organic synthesis and solvothermal method. Judging from the data, the reason why Nie Sen's team did not continue is that they lacked suitable polymer materials and solvents. In this regard, Shinzuka Chemical has some advantages, so Yoshida Gen focused his research on organic synthesis.

Yoshida-kun, do you think that the cost of graphene can be reduced to the same level as the Chinese by using organic synthesis? Chairman Saburo Hanatani asked Gen. Yoshida this question more than once.

Theoretically speaking, the efficiency of the organic synthesis process is lower than that of the vapor deposition method, so at the same level of technology, the cost of the vapor deposition process owned by the Chinese should be lower... probably more than 30% lower than ours. Gen Yoshida replied honestly.

30%... Saburo Hanagu frowned, With such a big difference, how can we ensure that our products are competitive?

Yoshida Gendao: Production cost and production scale are related. What I just said was a comparison under the same scale and technical equipment conditions. From what I learned in my last visit to China, Daqin Group has no plans to mass-produce For graphene, they only have a production capacity of 5 kilograms per day, and the cost is very considerable under such small batch production conditions, so they expect the price of graphene provided in batches to reach $20 per gram.”

What about us? If the organic synthesis process is successfully developed, at what level can you control the cost? Saburo Hanatani asked.

Within US$5 per gram. Yoshida Gen said, This is based on the scale of daily production of more than 200 kilograms.

Yoxi... Hanaya Saburo nodded in satisfaction, If this is the case, then we can form an absolute advantage over the Chinese, whether it is production capacity or price, we can make them unable to fight back. Yoshida-kun, please Work fast with your team to completely crowd out the Chinese before they take over this market.

Understood! Yoshida Gen promised with pride.

It is no wonder that Saburo Hanagu is in a hurry. Daqin Group has adopted an open approach and provided graphene samples to scientists and companies around the world. In just a few months, scientists and engineers have proposed hundreds of product application designs. , Some are used to make solar cells, some are used to make LED light-emitting devices, and some are made of chemically doped and modified graphene to make high-strength thin film materials. All these applications have already been verified in the laboratory, and they can be put into production only when there is a sufficient supply of graphene raw materials. Once these new products come out, they will inevitably cause a sensation in the market, thus setting off a climax of graphene applications.

When such a climax comes, if Xinzuka Chemical fails to form the ability to mass-produce graphene, it means that this market will be handed over to Daqin Group. Losing a large amount of profits is a secondary issue. What Saburo Hanagu does not want to see the most is that Daqin Group, a rival, has achieved considerable development because of this. This will be a long-term threat to Xinzuka Chemical.

Fortunately, according to Gen. Yoshida, Daqin Group is extremely short-sighted in the application of graphene. It clearly holds the patent for mass production, but is unwilling to undertake high investment in equipment. Initially, it only plans to produce 5 kg per day. production capacity. This kind of production capacity is certainly enough to meet the current market demand, but after a few months, the market demand for graphene will rapidly increase to hundreds of kilograms or even several tons per day, and Daqin Group will regret it later .

How can the Chinese understand the potential of the Western market? Sales Minister Yoshiki Morioka said to Saburo Hanatani, According to what I have learned from the side, several executives of the Daqin Group have said that the price of graphene products It is too high and ordinary people cannot bear it, so the market prospect of this kind of products is not optimistic.

Saburo Hanagu said with a smile: It's also understandable. LED displays and home solar panels are luxury goods in China. They don't know how big the market for these products will be in the Western world.

Morioka Yoshiki said: Yes, some manufacturers in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany are contacting us to find out when we can provide graphene raw materials in batches. The quantities they need are calculated on the basis of tens of kilograms per day. People are completely unable to meet their needs.

Morioka-kun, you must keep in touch with these companies and tell them that we will be able to provide graphene in three months at the latest, and the price will be more than 30% cheaper than the Chinese. It would be even better if we can sign contracts with them Alright. Saburo Hanaya said.

Three months? Yoshiki Morioka hesitated, After three months, can we really provide mass-produced graphene? Do Yoshida-kun and the others have such confidence?

We have to say this, otherwise they will turn to the Chinese for supply, and this will send a signal to the Chinese that they start to pay attention to the production of graphene. Saburo Hanaya said, Although the Chinese are in graphene They took the lead in the invention, but they made a mistake in judging the prospects of the graphene market. Now they are asleep, what we have to do is not to wake them up, so as to give them a head-on blow at the critical moment.