"Cough cough—" Hunter finally couldn't help but cough when William heated the graphite for the third time.
William turned around and realized that he Vincent were standing behind him.
"Uh... when did you arrive?"
Vincent glanced at the time displayed on the Type-A Sphere bracelet. "About 15 minutes ago."
William nodded. "Sorry, I was so focused on the experiment that I didn't notice—"
He belatedly asked in surprise, "Um... how did you get in?"
Vincent flashed his badge, then pointed to the tiny crystals under the microscope. "William, is this your new discovery?"
William shook his head shyly. "No, it's not this one. Its structure is damaged, and it has almost completely lost its electrical conductivity."
Vincent lightly tapped his fingertip, using magic to lift a tiny crystal that was still radiating heat.
"Mr. Wayne, um..."
"What's wrong?"
William nervously pulled open the drawer under the lab bench, took out two pairs of gloves, and handed them to him and Hunter respectively.
Laboratories have their own rules, and basic protective measures must still be taken.
Although the amount of heat was negligible, Vincent still obediently put on his gloves.
He infused his magic into the crystal and found that, just as William had said, it had almost lost its electrical conductivity.
After William's explanation, he roughly understood what the prematurely discovered graphene was.
Graphene exists in nature, but it is difficult to separate into single-layer structures. They are stacked layer by layer to form graphite.
A 1-millimeter-thick piece of graphite contains approximately 3 million layers of graphene. When a pencil is lightly drawn across paper, it leaves a scratch formed by multiple layers of graphene.
Extracting graphene from graphite is not like slicing a layer off a vegetable; it's an atomically thick layer, a complete planar structure, a two-dimensional crystal composed of a single layer of carbon atoms—a truly 2D material.
When the word carbon atom is mentioned, Hunter immediately thinks of diamonds, the only proper noun he can understand.
Vincent wasn't much better than him; he couldn't understand anything about crystal plane spacing, mechanical characteristics, or micro/nano fabrication.
But he understood that graphene is a two-dimensional crystal composed of a single layer of carbon atoms. Since thermal decomposition would destroy the crystal structure, he simply and crudely kept peeling it off with magic until a flat 2D material was peeled off.
A 1-millimeter-thick layer of graphite was smoothly peeled into two parts, and then a 0.5-millimeter-thick layer of graphite was also smoothly peeled into two parts...
Hunter glanced quickly at the lab technicians around him and found that they were all focused on their own research.
When he looked back at the lab bench, the color of the newly extracted graphite had noticeably faded.
He quickly glanced around again; the graphite was almost transparent.
In a total of 22 times, the two-dimensional crystal composed of a single layer of carbon atoms was peeled off.
William suddenly hugged Vincent tightly and shouted excitedly, "Mr. Wayne, you did it!"
All eyes in the lab turned to him, and Hunter quickly took a few steps back, trying to pretend he was just passing by.
He did the right thing, because all the researchers flocked to it.
"Little William, what did you say was a success?"
"You discovered the 2D material? You actually managed to peel it off?"
Before the discovery of graphene, the scientific community generally believed that 2D material could not exist.
The crazed researchers crowded around, leaving Vincent somewhat bewildered.
William then released his grip and carefully used tweezers to place the nearly transparent single-layer carbon atom 2D crystal under the microscope.
Under the expectant gaze of the researchers, the perfect hexagonal honeycomb lattice structure appeared on the electronic screen.
William shouted excitedly again, "It will probably overturn the entire scientific community's understanding of 2D material!"
The researchers were just as excited as he was, and a moment later they began to conduct various tests.
Vincent quietly retreated, and he and Hunter left the laboratory in perfect unison.
Science demands rigor. When conducting experiments, measuring data, and writing reports, we must be truthful and cannot tolerate any falsehoods.
2D material in the true sense have been created, but a lot of research is still needed on their practical applications.
In the evening, after numerous experiments, William finally confirmed that the single-layer carbon atom 2D crystal peeled from graphite successfully overturned the theory that "thermodynamic fluctuations do not allow any two-dimensional crystal to exist at finite temperatures."
It is 1,000 times lighter than paper, 200 times harder than steel, has an electron mobility 100 times that of silicon, and a thermal conductivity 10 times that of copper.
Even more remarkably, this 2D material can also emit a unique infrared spectrum, a characteristic that means it has extremely high application value in the medical field, making it truly deserving the title of "King of Materials".
The researchers congratulated William.
Breaking the traditional scientific understanding that a single layer of atoms cannot maintain a two-dimensional structure, he is certain to become a Fellow of the Royal Society, and the Nobel Prize in Physics is only a matter of time.
However, William shyly stated that he was merely the discoverer and that he was not the one who peeled this 2D material from graphite.
"Uh... could it be an officer who came in during the day?"
"It can't be that young person who looks younger than you, can it?"
Vincent and Hunter were having dinner in the MI6 headquarters cafeteria.
As one of the world's four major intelligence organizations, the food here is quite good.
When William rushed to the cafeteria, the two were enjoying their desserts.
One was a wizard, and the other a soldier; neither of them really cared much about matters of the scientific community.
William excitedly announced the test results, Vincent had expected, but Hunter didn't understand at all, and neither of them reacted much.
"Mr. Wayne, we might win the Nobel Prize in Physics."
"Us?" Vincent, somewhat puzzled.
"Yes, we are." William became serious. "Without your help, I don't know how many years it would have taken to successfully peel off a single layer of atomic-level 2D material from a 1-millimeter layer of graphite."
Vincent smiled and politely declined his offer, saying, "William, this is a new material that you discovered on your own. Besides, I used unscientific methods, so how could I be qualified for the Nobel Prize in Physics?"
"But--"
Hunter patted William on the shoulder heavily. "No buts, you know Vincent is."
A wizard winning the Nobel Prize, one of the highest honors in Muggle science? That's incredibly ironic.
"Alright." William's mood was somewhat downcast. "However, Mr. Wayne, I hope you can name this 2D material."
If it were just the right to name the child, Vincent could accept it without any qualms.
Graphene.
William muttered it to himself a few times, then his eyes lit up.
Extracting the root "Graph-" from the word "graphite" and changing the suffix to "-ene" (from alkene compounds), emphasizes that graphene is a two-dimensional planar structure formed by a single layer of carbon atoms, intuitively reflecting its nature as a single-layer exfoliated form of graphite.