International students returning to 90

"Successful! Successful! We made it!" Simpson Laboratory New Energy Center suddenly burst into deafening laughter.

Lin Yi never knew that Professor Green's thin body contained such a powerful force that the ceiling was almost blown off.

"Let's go, let's go outside and experiment." Professor Green carefully picked up the not-so-small conductive substrate, and walked towards the door of the laboratory with big strides.

The roles of the three experimental groups are clearly defined. Green and Ken are responsible for repeating Professor Gratzel's experiments, identifying and extracting the points that can be optimized. Professor Leo and Researcher Harris are responsible for the screening of model sensitizers. Adolf and Alva, including Lin Yi, are all in charge. Look for the possibility of preparing solid electrolytes.

After Lin Yi proposed to take a step back and use colloids instead of solids, the experimental research was on the fast track all of a sudden, and now what everyone has produced is a very rough model.

A dense TiO2 layer and a mesoporous nanocrystalline TiO2 layer are sequentially deposited on a conductive substrate as a photoanode. After absorbing dye molecules, the colloidal electrolyte is filled, and a layer of noble metal counter electrode is deposited on the colloidal electrolyte by thermal evaporation to form a photoanode. A structure in which the anode and counter electrode are integrated on a single conductive substrate.

In fact, this is an improved product based on Professor Gratzel's liquid electrolyte solar cell. In Lin Yi's view, except for changing the liquid state to a solid state, this is not an innovation at all.

However, the birth of this colloidal electrolyte solar cell has greatly encouraged the confidence of the laboratory.

Everyone in the laboratory filed out, but when they walked to the square in front of the building, talking and laughing, a huge dark cloud suddenly floated in the sunny sky just now.

Professor Green is almost swearing, what kind of grudge does this ghost have against them!

"professor……"

"Wait! The clouds will pass!"

"Professor, I..."

"I told you to wait, didn't you hear me?"

"No, I want to say, let me get it for you."

Professor Green looked at the substrate in his hand, was silent for a minute, and silently handed it to Matthew.

"The cloud will soon pass," he reiterated.

"Yes, I believe you, professor!" Matthew said that he firmly believed in his teacher's judgment!

Boom... A sound of thunder exploded in everyone's ears.

A group of top materials scholars in the United States could not help but fell into a strange silence.

Seeing this, Lin Yi coughed dryly, "He Qun has already adjusted the machine for simulating sunlight, and it is ready to use at any time."

Matthew carefully looked at his teacher.

Professor Green raised his head and stared viciously at the cloud covering the sky, wishing he could just launch a missile to disperse it!

Boom, the thunder sounded again, and there was a damp smell in the air.

Researcher Alva sighed, "It's going to rain..."

Immediately, bean-sized raindrops fell from the sky crackling.

"Protect the battery!" Green's first reaction was to look at the battery in Matthew's hand.

Matthew bent his whole body, trying to cover the battery with his body, but the semi-finished solar battery is neither big nor small, even though researcher Matthew is 1.9 meters tall, it seems a bit difficult.

Lin Yi took off his coat, covered the battery, and said loudly, "Run!"

Matthew was stunned.

Professor Green slapped Researcher Matthew's butt hard, "I told you to run away, you are deaf!"

Hearing this, Matthew immediately rushed into the building like a flexible big fat rabbit.

"Summer is like God's aunt's period, and the weather changes as soon as it is like a woman's temper." A research assistant muttered in a low voice.

"Why, our women have offended you, so I have the ability to tell your wife in front of you!" Emma, ​​the only woman among the assistants, immediately retorted.

The crowd burst into laughter.

Although the clothes were wet, the fire in my heart was burning brightly!

The solar simulator is in the temporary shed at the back of the building. Next to the shed is the new new energy center that is being built. The foundation has been laid at the beginning of the construction of the Simpson laboratory, so it is only a project on the ground now, and the speed is still high. Calculate fast.

It is a confined space of less than 20 square meters. When you enter the door, you can see a black shading panel. The top and right wall of the room are filled with emitters that simulate sunlight. He Qun has already plugged all the sockets.

Lin Yi took a deep breath, "Then shall we start?"

Although it is only a first-step model machine that is not even a semi-finished product, it represents the research direction. As long as it can pass the simulated sunlight test, even if the photoelectric conversion efficiency is less than 1%, this can at least explain their research ideas. feasible.

"Matthew, adjust the angle of the sun, and we simulate all possibilities from morning to sundown!"

"Okay, Lin." Matthew has fully adapted to his work as an assistant researcher, and even enjoys it a bit. In Professor Green's words, he looks like a fool with no brains. I really don't know what kind of researcher he is. How did you get him!

"4% in the ultraviolet light band and 43% in the visible light band!"

"three"

"two"

"One"

"Have you put on your eyes?" Lin Yi had already put on the shading glasses for the experiment, and he looked up at the crowd a second before he pressed the switch.

In a small room of 20 square meters, there are twelve people standing densely, which is a bit crowded, especially this group of people stretched their necks high like geese, trying to get together in one place.

"It's all good."

Click, the sound of turning on the light, countless beams of light shot out from one direction, and the room suddenly became astonishingly bright.

"Any reaction?"

"No."

"Increase the light!"

The curve on the monitoring screen is like a fish brought ashore, with occasional fluctuations, struggling to show his presence.

Alva personally excerpted the calculated figures, "1.44, 5.21,..."

A series of formulas quickly filled the entire blank paper, and the assistant next to him immediately handed him a new one, and all the researchers except Lin Yi held their breath.

Watching a series of formulas calculated to the end.

2.81%

The photoelectric conversion rate of [-]% is far lower than that of all known solar cells.

But everyone didn't look disappointed at all, "2.81%, 2.81%, 2.81 is good! It's more than [-]%! What about monochromatic light! Adjust the beam!"

"it is good."

He Qun quickly pressed a few buttons on the controller.

Monochromatic light has a unique color, if you don't wear a shading mirror, it will be a bit dazzling.

"Oh my god, 20.00% seven!"

"The monochromatic light conversion efficiency is 20.00%!" Someone exclaimed excitedly!

Although the monochromatic light conversion efficiency can't explain anything, the data is beautiful! The data of 2.81% may not look good, but 27% is much better.

You say, experts can see it at a glance... That's right, but why should you show it to experts? For those in the Ministry of Energy who eat official meals, 20.00% seven is very good-looking.

And this also shows to a certain extent that Lin Yi's research direction is not wrong, this road is feasible!

"Adolf, have you calculated the cost of scale?"

"The laboratory cost is 17.00% lower than that of the existing solar cells of the same level on the market. If the cost is further reduced by large-scale production, I estimate that it can be controlled at 70.00% of the existing solar cells of the same level. This is only the production cost."

The old-fashioned liquid electrolyte solar cells are highly corrosive, and the service life of the product is not long. If this factor is calculated, then for customers, the saving is definitely not only 20.00% of the cost.

Everyone's breathing began to become quicker. Don't think that researchers don't know money. People who say that American researchers don't care about money must not know how much patent money a top scientific researcher can get in a year in Western countries.

Taking a typical case in the field of new materials as an example, computer screens are updated from generation to generation. Many computer manufacturers in later generations have established their own product research rooms to study product parts including screens.

But now in the 90s, advanced computer screen technology is generally produced in cooperation with external laboratories. American computers are sold all over the world, and each computer has to pay a screen patent fee of 2 dollars to the patentee.Don't underestimate the two dollars. In the heyday of American computers, 80.00% of the world's computer manufacturers were American.

You can imagine the weight of a screen patent, not to mention electronic chip materials and so on.

So do people need to care about your salary?

In recent years, the solar energy industry has developed very rapidly, but due to technical limitations, the solar energy products on the market are almost monopolized. Isn't technology monopoly cool?Sure, but again, it's extremely risky.

When your product is the best, you can have the wind and the wind, completely a seller’s market, but once a better product comes out, the customers who were careful to please you will immediately turn around and find someone else, cruel and ruthless.

And through this experiment, they saw the possibility of "better products"!

Thinking of the news circulating among the senior researchers in the laboratory, everyone looked at Lin Yi more cautiously and convincedly, the real world's top laboratory!As a member of Simpson Lab, who wouldn't want to make the lab better tomorrow?

"Since it is feasible, our next step is to turn the gel into a solid state, and at the same time work hard on sensitizers and transmission materials to improve the photoelectric conversion efficiency. In the letter of commitment I gave to Simpson, it was said that the photoelectric conversion efficiency should be increased by 20.00%. .”

At present, the general photoelectric conversion efficiency of liquid electrolyte solar cells is 7.1%, an increase of 20.00%, which is at least 8.5%, four times that of the existing model.

Everyone sighed, but their eyes were full of fighting spirit, their own industrial chain...

"Actually, this product already has its practical significance just because of the cost savings."

"However, this kind of colloidal dye-sensitized solar cell is much less difficult to produce, and the requirements for sealing are far less than that of liquid electrolyte. If it can be rolled out on a large scale, the benefits will definitely not be bad." Harris said to himself. said eloquently.

Everyone agreed. Of course they knew that this was far from the goal of the experiment, but this did not prevent them from taking tonics for themselves. For a scientific researcher, self-confidence and self-satisfaction are sometimes even more important than professional knowledge.

"Okay, let's think about the solid-state transport materials and sensitizers, and dye molecules. We are using the most traditional coumarin derivatives. Dye molecules are called photonic motors in batteries. It is its response to photons that drives the operation of the device, Professor Green, and that is up to you."

"no problem!"

"Lin...Researcher Lin." He Qun turned off the solar simulator and walked slowly behind Lin Yi.

"Ok?"

"Professor Zhuang is here, at the door..."