Hexagonal Silicon Oxide

After giving them a warning, Huang Xiuyuan began talking about the new material. First, he wrote a molecular formula on a small blackboard nearby with a permanent marker, then roughly sketched its structure.

He Wen, Lu Xuedong, and the others watched in confusion, struggling to make sense of the formula.

The molecular formula was Si6O12.

"Six silicon dioxides?" Lu Xuedong said, scratching his head.

"Does a compound like that exist?" He Wen asked, racking his brains.

In Huang Xiuyuan's sketch, the six silicon dioxide units formed a planar ring, arranged into a regular hexagon.

Six silicon atoms sat inside the hexagon, with twelve oxygen atoms attached around the outside.

Pointing at the structural diagram, Huang Xiuyuan explained, "This is a two-dimensional material, but unlike Dirac materials such as graphene, silicene, and black phosphorus, it's a completely new kind of nanomaterial."

He didn't explain what it was used for. Instead, he assigned tasks, broke down the synthesis process, and started up the laboratory equipment for their first official experiment.

With the specific synthesis steps he provided, they used the lab equipment to synthesize their first "product" in less than two hours.

Wearing a full-body protective suit, He Wen carefully dabbed a piece of tape against the black powder, then sealed the tape.

He took it to the transmission electron microscope and began searching carefully. Five or six minutes later, He Wen and his assistant found the first "hexagonal silicon oxide."

But he didn't report it right away. He kept searching and soon found more than a dozen hexagonal silicon oxide molecules, proving that the compound wasn't a fluke and had genuinely been synthesized.

He Wen left the transmission electron microscope room and reported to Huang Xiuyuan. "Mr. Huang, the hexagonal silicon oxide you described is definitely there. We've found more than a dozen molecules under the microscope."

"Good." Huang Xiuyuan looked excited. Then he immediately gave the next order: "Prepare for vapor deposition."

The synthesized black powder was taken to another area of the laboratory, where Lu Xuedong and his team had prepared for vapor deposition.

Huang Xiuyuan took a tiny amount of the black powder and gently scattered it into the vapor deposition chamber.

He gave Lu Xuedong an OK sign.

Seeing the gesture, Lu Xuedong operated the equipment and began the vapor deposition.

Before they knew it, it was lunchtime. They took turns eating at the cafeteria, then returned to the lab.

The vapor deposition was complete. They removed the deposited graphene film from the chamber, revealing a translucent sheet with a radius of fifty centimeters.

But it wasn't a finished product yet, only a semi-finished one that required further processing.

After cutting it, then mechanically grinding and cleaning it multiple times, they obtained dozens of single-layer graphene films with a radius of five centimeters.

Back in the transmission electron microscope room, He Wen carefully examined each film. The work took time. After three days of continuous effort, they had identified only seven films.

"Mr. Huang, these seven films are the ones embedded with hexagonal silicon oxide. One of them contains six hexagonal silicon oxide molecules..."

Looking over the detailed test reports, Huang Xiuyuan smiled. "My theory was right after all. Now everyone will see what this material can do."

"I'm looking forward to it," Lu Xuedong said. He was also curious about the material's use, but Huang Xiuyuan still hadn't explained it.

It wasn't that Huang Xiuyuan didn't want to tell them. Without a real sample, no matter how much he said, it wouldn't be convincing.

Nearby, the third factory building, which the clothing factory had left unfinished, had been converted into a steel-frame workshop. Renovations had been completed a few days earlier.

The group brought the seven films to the workshop. Six or seven engineers from the engineering team had already calibrated several pieces of equipment.

These were among the specialized devices Huang Xiuyuan had previously ordered them to design.

Du Jinhua, the engineering team's leader, came over to greet him. "Mr. Huang, you're here. We've calibrated all the equipment."

"Where's the sealed room I asked you to prepare?"

"Right this way, Mr. Huang."

They entered a Class 100,000 cleanroom, where one of the devices had been set up. Huang Xiuyuan handed Du Jinhua a film. "Install it in the device's filter layer."

Du Jinhua took the film, opened the device's slot, and secured it in place. He switched on the vacuum pump. There were no leaks, and a power test also showed no problems.

"Mr. Huang, it meets the design requirements."

Unable to wait any longer, Huang Xiuyuan said, "Start the test."

"Understood."

Everyone watched from outside the workshop through the window.

At Du Jinhua's direction, the device slowly started up.

The upper section of the device was a conical vessel, wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, connected at the top to a gas pipeline.

The film was installed in the middle section.

The lower section was another conical vessel, narrow at the top and wide at the bottom, connected to a vacuum system.

A large amount of nitrogen was fed into the upper vessel, while the lower vessel was rapidly evacuated, creating a pressure difference between the two sides.

But the graphene film blocked the nitrogen, preventing it from entering the lower vessel.

Soon, Du Jinhua pressed a button to switch on the power. An electric current at a preset voltage passed through the graphene film.

The graphene itself barely changed, but the hexagonal silicon oxide embedded in the film changed when the current passed through it.

Nitrogen molecules passed through the central hexagons of the hexagonal silicon oxide. The reaction didn't stop there: the nitrogen molecules that had passed through the hexagon centers began undergoing a new kind of transformation.

In another tank connected to the vacuum system, large quantities of white powder gradually collected at the bottom. After about an hour, the tank's weight sensor showed that the reaction product inside weighed more than a kilogram.

Huang Xiuyuan decided they had enough of the product to work with and said, "Stop the test."

The device shut down. The roughly one kilogram of white powder was carefully removed, and everyone was extremely tense.

Everyone present worked in materials chemistry. Nitrogen had turned into a solid powder without any other reactants being added, and the substance didn't appear to be nitrogen fixed through low-temperature condensation.

All-nitrogen compounds were, to some extent, equivalent to explosives—and powerful ones at that.

He Wen swallowed and asked quietly, "Mr. Huang, this thing isn't going to explode, is it?"

"Don't worry. It should be fine, as long as it's kept away from ultraviolet light," Huang Xiuyuan said, completely calm.

The white powder, sealed and stored away from light, was carefully transferred to the Materials Laboratory. In the microscope room, He Wen, still tense, finally saw the molecular structure of the white powder.

It was an allotrope of nitrogen made up of sixteen nitrogen atoms. Its three-dimensional structure consisted of four layers of rhombuses stacked together, each layer being a plane formed by four nitrogen atoms.

Outside the microscope room, Lu Xuedong asked curiously, "Xiuyuan, what's this all-nitrogen compound used for? By the way, when you synthesized it at Harvard, no one else was involved, right?"

"Of course not. This wasn't my advisor's research project. I destroyed all the related records and traces," Huang Xiuyuan replied with a smile. In fact, that was just an excuse. He'd never researched this material at Harvard.