Although Hydrogen was not the Sun Wukong who could cause havoc in the Heavenly Palace, it still made Chen Muwu a little upset.
The long evaporation process finally ended, and nearly six liters of liquid hydrogen were evaporated to only a few milliliters of liquid in a low temperature environment of twenty Kelvin.
According to his idea, after a large amount of hydrogen with the lowest boiling point is evaporated, there should be a lot of liquid deuterium and liquid deuterated hydrogen with higher boiling points gathered in these liquids.
What we need to do next is to put the remaining few milliliters of liquid into a vacuum glass tube and vaporize it, then connect the power supply to the electrode in the glass tube to stimulate the hydrogen, deuterium and deuterated hydrogen mixed inside. causing them to produce emission spectra.
Chen Muwu did exactly that. After completing everything step by step, he handed Oppenheimer a luminous glass tube.
This has really put food into his mouth. As a student with poor hands-on ability, he only needs to find and observe the position and intensity of that special spectral line under the spectrometer to figure out the content of this mixed gas sample. What exactly is there.
After finishing these things, Chen Muwu, who had been busy for a long time and was a little tired, could finally relax.
He slowly walked out of the laboratory door and walked into Old Bragg's office, wanting to chat with him and kill the boring waiting time.
"Rare guest, rare guest! I haven't left the laboratory door very often when I see you these days. Why do you have so much time today? Is it possible that your research on superconductivity has achieved initial results, Dr. Chen?"
Although he had previously scolded Chen Muwu because he believed that he had been defrauded of money by the Dutch.
But today, seeing the God of Wealth who brought a lot of funds to the David Faraday Laboratory with just a small piece of glass, the laboratory director still had a sincere smile on his face.
"So be it," Chen Muwu said in agreement. He did not tell Old Bragg that he was not studying superconductivity as originally planned. Instead, he was spending money evaporating the high-priced liquid hydrogen he bought from Leiden University. "Robert is experimenting. He will conduct the observation for me in the room, and it won’t take long for him to get the results of this observation.”
After sitting on the chair, Chen Muwu placed a large glass beaker on Old Prague's desk.
It was filled with strawberries, each covered with a layer of white frost, and white gas was continuously coming out of the mouth of the beaker.
Chen Muwu finally got rid of the excess liquid nitrogen in the laboratory. Although he didn't buy bananas from the tropics, strawberries were already on the market in the UK, so he bought some frozen strawberries in liquid nitrogen. Come out and think of it as a snack to relieve the heat of summer.
"Sir Bragg, please try this."
When he touched the strawberry, the warmth from his fingertips stunned Old Bragg for a moment.
After putting the strawberry in his mouth and feeling its hardness with his teeth, he immediately understood where such a strawberry came from.
After holding it in his mouth for a while, he chewed up the strawberry and swallowed it. Then he said with a smile: "Dr. Chen, you young people will enjoy it. After completing this superconducting experiment, what is your next step?" What are you going to do? Go back to Cambridge, or stay in London, where I can get you a professorship at University College London."
Looking at the brightest young talent in the world of physics today, who may also be a money-making tree that can continuously make money, how could Old Prague not stop loving talent.
He planned to cut off his old friend Rutherford and let Chen Muwu stay under his command.
Hearing the word professor, Chen Muwu remembered that his teacher Rutherford had also deceived him in the same way when he was afraid that he would never return after arriving in Denmark.
He said that after he returns from Denmark, he will be appointed as the new Lucas Chair Professor of Mathematics. Even if the operation fails, he will create a separate theoretical professor position for himself in the Cavendish Laboratory. .
Now I have been back in the UK for half a year, but where is the position of professor?
Old Bragg's words reminded Chen Muwu, and he decided to discuss the explanation with his teacher after returning to Cambridge University after completing this series of experiments in London.
After being Dr. Chen for several years, it’s time for him to change his title. He should have become Prof. Chen long ago!
"Sir, I still plan to return to Cambridge University. The standard of living in the big city of London is too high for me to afford."
The excuse Chen Muwu made was poor, but Old Bragg did not expose him.
He was just a little envious of Rutherford, who not only managed such a large laboratory in an orderly manner, but also trained so many capable and talented students and produced many outstanding physics results.
The two of them had a tacit understanding, and neither of them continued on this topic, but talked about other things.
Before one third of the beaker of frozen strawberries was eaten, there was another knock on the door outside the office.
"Teacher Chen, Teacher Chen, are you in there?"
When you hear this title, you know it is Oppenheimer.
There was obvious excitement in his voice. Has the spectrum line of deuterium atoms been found?
It seems that Oppenheimer's hands-on ability is not bad, and the time he spent was much shorter than Chen Muwu expected.
"The final results from the laboratory should be out, Sir Bragg, so I'll take my leave now."
Chen Muwu stood up while saying goodbye.
After walking out of the office, he found that the excitement on Oppenheimer's face was more obvious than in his voice just now.
It has been a year since Oppenheimer came to the UK from the United States. Although he is a member of the Cavendish Laboratory, today he witnessed the experimental results for the first time in the David Faraday Laboratory. .
"Did you find that spectrum line?"
"We found that spectral line! Teacher Chen, we found the isotope of hydrogen!"
Of course.
After hearing the results, Chen Muwu deliberately behaved calmly.
If he hadn't known about the presence of deuterium, why would he have spent a lot of money to buy liquid hydrogen in the Netherlands, and why would he have wasted his time staring at a stove that "boils water" in an environment of 20 Kelvin?
Chen Muwu was thinking in his mind that when he returned to the laboratory and checked the spectral line in the spectrometer eyepiece to confirm that it was the spectrum of deuterium atoms, he should prepare to write the paper again.
It seems that you haven’t written a paper for a long time?
The spectrometer remains at the position where Oppenheimer left it, so that Chen Muwu can see the line in the center of the eyepiece at first glance.
It's just that the light of this spectral line is too dim. If Oppenheimer hadn't reminded him, the spectral line would have been in the center of the eyepiece.
Chen Mu felt that if he were observing alone, he would definitely ignore this spectrum line.
There is only one reason for the dim spectral lines, and that is that the previous experiment that attempted to enrich deuterium through evaporation in a low-temperature environment failed, or was not successful enough.
Now, new problems have arisen.
Chen Muwu knew that deuterium existed in the world, and Oppenheimer also preconceivedly believed that Chen Muwu said that there was an isotope of hydrogen that was heavier than hydrogen.
So this spectrum line was considered by the two of them to be the spectrum of deuterium, which was completely fine.
But to others, the intensity of this spectral line cannot indicate the existence of deuterium at all. It may just be some impurities present in liquid hydrogen.
If you want your thesis to stand up, you must provide stronger evidence.
For example, a brighter spectral line.
After such a long period of hard work, I had no choice but to start all over again.
Chen Muwu felt that his blood pressure was a bit high and he had to find a way to lower it.
Yes, step down!
I should have thought of this!
If evaporation of liquid hydrogen fails in a standard atmospheric pressure environment, then try changing to the triple point of hydrogen!
The so-called triple point is a temperature and pressure that allows the gas, liquid and solid phases of a substance to exist at the same time.
For water, at a pressure of 611.73 Pascals, water will have three phases of solid, liquid and gas coexisting at 0.01 degrees Celsius.
This is a demonstration experiment often seen in science and technology museums. At this pressure and temperature, the water sealed in the sesame cake will magically boil and freeze at the same time.
Sir Sir Dewar, the predecessor of British low-temperature physics, left Chen Muwu a valuable asset when he liquefied hydrogen in the Davy Faraday Laboratory, that is, he measured the triple point of hydrogen. : The pressure is 7100 Pascals and the temperature is 14 Kelvin.
Chen Muwu took out the Debye theory again and performed new calculations near the triple point of liquid hydrogen.
The calculation results this time show that near the triple point, the vapor pressure ratio of hydrogen and deuterium is less than 0.5.
This means that by distilling hydrogen at the triple point, you can ensure that the concentration of deuterium reaches the required level!
Ever since Chen Muwu began to say nothing and took his eyes away from the eyepiece, Oppenheimer had been staring at him worriedly.
His mood also changed from happy to more and more uncertain as the teacher behaved.
Could it be that my observation was wrong, that the spectral line was not emitted by deuterium?
It wasn't until Chen Muwu left the laboratory, returned with Dewar's research data, and then put down the pen he was writing on the paper to calculate, that Oppenheimer cautiously asked: "Teacher Chen, is there something wrong? But? That spectrum line is right there!”
"Robert, there was indeed some trouble just now..."
Chen Muwu explained to him the problem with that spectral line.
"...But I have found a solution to the problem. Take the time to do this experiment again. We will definitely succeed this time!
"Oh, and don't be idle. Take this time to take a photo of the spectral line and see if you can clearly record it on the film for comparison later."
Chen Muwu was busy cooling down the temperature and pressure in the experimental equipment, while Oppenheimer was recalling what he had learned at Harvard University, how to use film to record spectra.
After experiencing doubt, depression and panic, the two people in the laboratory began to "operate" in an orderly manner again.
Fortunately, a few days later, the experiment must be successful and it finally succeeded.
If he fails this time, Chen Muwu will doubt his life.
Could it be that the people at Leiden University sold themselves pure hydrogen without any impurities?
How is that possible!
This time, Oppenheimer saw a clear spectral line dozens of times brighter than last time in the spectrometer's eyepiece at the same position where he had found the spectral line before.
Although pure deuterium gas could not be prepared, this new spectral line that appeared outside the spectrum of hydrogen atoms was like a fingerprint of a criminal.
It shows that an isotope heavier than hydrogen does exist in the world.
Oppenheimer just wanted to jump up and give his teacher an American hug to celebrate.
As a result, a hand was immediately put on his shoulder, and he pressed Oppenheimer hard on his seat: "Don't get excited. If you accidentally touch the spectrometer, you will have to adjust it for a long time. Record it with the film first. The more serious thing is to take a look at the spectrum, after all, it will be used when writing a thesis."
Only then did the Americans realize that this discovery was enough to call it "great" for them.
But for Teacher Chen, this discovery can only be ranked very low in his scientific research career, and it can be regarded as an insignificant and small achievement.
That's why he can be so calm.
Oppenheimer took photos, while Chen Muwu changed tables to write letters.
H-1, H-2 and H-3, the three isotopes of hydrogen, have very vivid translations in Chinese, protium, deuterium and tritium.
The number of 丨 or 丿 below the prefix "gas" represents the number of nucleons contained in the isotope nucleus.
In the original time and space, it took Yuri less than half a year to discover deuterium.
However, the United States and the United Kingdom have been arguing for more than two years about the naming of heavy hydrogen H-2.
The American Lawrence, the one who invented the cyclotron, hoped to use deuteros, which means "second" in Greek, as the root word to name heavy hydrogen deuterium and the heavy hydrogen nucleus deuteron.
However, when Rutherford gave a report to the Royal Society, he pointed out that the British academic community wanted to use diploos, which means "double" in Greek, as the root word, and call heavy hydrogen diplogen and the heavy hydrogen nucleus diplon.
The two Ernests (coincidentally, both Rutherford and Lawrence had this name), representing the academic circles of the two countries, were arguing across the Atlantic over which Greek word should be used to name heavy hydrogen. chatter.
In the end, the Americans who discovered heavy hydrogen won, and the British proposal was not accepted.
But now, it is the Chinese who discovered heavy hydrogen.
In Chen Muwu's heart, heavy hydrogen is deuterium, a simple and beautiful Chinese character.
As for whether it is called deuterium or diplogen in English, it doesn't matter to him.
So why not just give him a favor and hand over the naming rights of deuterium to his teacher.
Even if the Americans quarrel with Rutherford again over the name issue, they are not afraid. After all, Chen Muwu is the discoverer of heavy hydrogen. This time he can unscrupulously help the teacher to distract him.
He had another reason for giving away the naming rights, and that was that the weather was getting hotter day by day, and Rutherford's birthday was coming again.
Last year, Zhu Zhaoxin gave him many expensive gifts, but Chen Muwu, who had become increasingly stingy because of building a school, did not want to spend so much money this time.
(End of chapter)
