I Have a Research Support System

It is now the sixteenth week of school, and starting from the seventeenth week next week, it will be a four-week exam month.

After being promoted to a graduate student, Xu Qiu found that the number of closed-book exam courses decreased, and most of the lecturers required open-book exams, or students gave PPT reports.

Including "Composite Materials", which Xu Qiu took as an undergraduate course, Xu Qiu also took a course with the same name during his graduate studies. The assessment method of this course has changed from a closed-book examination to an open-book examination.

In addition, the teacher's requirements for students' PPT reports are not high.

Generally, it is to talk about the work that everyone is doing, or the work that has been published. If there is no specific work, it is also possible to talk about the work of other people in the research group.

In other words, although the content of postgraduate courses is generally more difficult and in-depth than that of undergraduate students, the requirements for assessment are relatively low, which can be regarded as reducing the burden on graduate students.

On the one hand, the lecturers themselves are generally master or doctoral supervisors, and they still know the situation of graduate students.

On the other hand, if we explore this phenomenon in depth, we can find that there is still a shadow of involution behind it.

First of all, the introversion of the scientific research circle puts great pressure on the teachers for scientific research.

Based on this pressure, teachers will tend to put more energy into scientific research, rather than teaching which is of no use to scientific research output. In many cases, even the courseware is done by the students in hand.

If the teachers do not carefully prepare the lessons, it will be difficult for the lessons they teach to contain too many valuable things, and the students will not learn anything after listening to them. Going to forums is better than listening to lectures, so they tend not to listen carefully.

At the same time, there is also a one-size-fits-all factor in the design of the training program by the school. Many compulsory courses are not required by all students.

Moreover, compared with academic literature, the speed of knowledge change in textbooks is very slow. Many old knowledge still exists in current textbooks, while cutting-edge knowledge has not been updated.

It would be fine if it is a basic subject, a lot of knowledge will not be outdated, and materials, as applied science, are time-sensitive.

The content of some courses was very useful in the past, such as the background of the last century, but it has become a relatively niche field and is not universal.

Students find that even if they study this kind of course seriously, in the end there is no use for it except to cope with the exam, so naturally they don't have much idea of ​​studying seriously.

It's like studying "BB machine maintenance methods" in the age of smartphones.

Of course, the specific course arrangement will not be as exaggerated as "BB machine", but most courses will contain more or less similar content.

In addition, the scientific research pressure of the teachers will also be transmitted downward to the graduate students, and the graduate students will get the scientific research pressure, such as "not enough SCI papers will be postponed".

In terms of time allocation, they will be more inclined to be busy with their own research-related things in class, or simply skip class to do experiments.

For various reasons, when it becomes normal for students not to listen carefully to the class, it is impossible for the teacher to let most of them fail the course, so they have to reduce the difficulty of passing the course.

This can be regarded as a nearly balanced state formed under the multi-party game.

Some people say that all kinds of chaos in colleges and universities and research circles are caused by the fact that "SCI is the only hero" in China.

I think that as long as the SCI evaluation standard is abolished, it will be greatly improved.

But in fact, it is more likely to be more difficult.

Maybe this policy change will benefit some postgraduates who only want to mix their diplomas, but it is difficult to bring about much change in the overall scientific research environment.

Because of the essential reason, there are still too many newcomers pouring into this industry, and there are few positions left for them, or there are not enough resources.

Just like "the young are strong, the flower growers are strong...", whether an industry can grow or not depends mainly on the strength of the younger generation in this industry, which is the backbone of the industry.

If the SCI competition mechanism is not cancelled, the green peppers (young scholars) will "do things here and there" in order to be promoted, chasing "the prosperity under the assessment indicators".

If the SCI competition mechanism is cancelled, and there is no sufficiently objective and fair competition mechanism, most of the promotion channels will be blocked, and excellent green peppers without background will not be able to get a position, so they will choose to run outside. They are relatively not that strong.

Faced with this situation, unless we find a way to increase the total amount of resources, that is, make a great breakthrough in productivity, such as promoting some form of the fourth industrial revolution, developing strong artificial intelligence, and successfully realizing controllable nuclear fusion , otherwise it is basically an unsolvable problem.

The status quo is that although everyone knows that the problem exists objectively, there is no way to completely solve it. We can only try to find a balance point from it, just like walking a tightrope, steady ourselves and prevent ourselves from falling.

Not only domestically, but also in many developed countries.

Some are able to harvest other weak countries and increase their total resources, so they can live a more prosperous life temporarily, such as the beautiful country;

And if there is no way to harvest other countries, they can only lie flat and pretend to die, such as Neon Country.

In Xu Qiu's semester, apart from the compulsory "Laboratory Safety Education" which has been completed and received a P (pass) grade, there are three more courses.

Among them, one is a separate open-book exam, one is an open-book exam plus a PPT report, and the other is a PPT report without an exam. The review pressure is not very great.

Therefore, in the next few days, Xu Qiu did not stop experimenting.

While continuing to optimize IDIC-M-based stacked devices, he prepares for the exam in his free time.

On Friday, Wu Feifei approached Xu Qiu and said, "The PCBM you bought from Pretty Country NANO-C Company has now arrived at the customs in Shanghai, and you need to go through the customs clearance procedures."

"Okay," Xu Qiu nodded in response, "Tell me about the previous customs clearance method."

"Well, I'll send you a few documents, and you can change them accordingly, then print out the materials and hand them over to the asset management office for review. The specific customs clearance work will be handled by the agent company. We only need to provide the materials..." Wu Feifei said while logging into WeChat on the computer to transfer files: "Call me if you have any questions."

Previously, Wu Feifei handled the customs clearance work for the purchase of imported drugs.

This time PCBM, on the one hand, can be regarded as the medicine purchased by the organic photovoltaic team, on the other hand, because she has been busy recently, she handed over the job to Xu Qiu.

In fact, things like this in the laboratory usually require several members to master the processing methods at the same time.

In this way, once the main person in charge has something to do or graduates, there is no need to worry about having no successor.

Otherwise, it's not good for you to bother them even after everyone else has graduated.

In addition, it is not reliable to expect to hand over everything at once before graduation.

Not to mention that many people are a bit "in Cao Ying and in Han" when they are about to graduate, they don't pay much attention to the situation in the laboratory, and they often can't find anyone.

Even if you really spend a few days on the handover, it will be difficult to explain everything clearly.

Because a lot of things are details, or trivial things, when you don't encounter them, you can't think of them at all.

For example, how to replace certain special screws, the storage location of some infrequently used small equipment, how to maintain the purification device of the glove box (sometimes only once a year or two), etc...

Therefore, in daily work, it is still necessary for everyone to get in touch with the messy things in various research groups.

Xu Qiu received the four files sent by Wu Feifei and began to browse them one by one.

Among them, two are new documents, and three are old documents that Wu Feifei used in customs declaration before.

Among the new documents, there is a document in PDF format from FedEx International Express Company, which is the arrival notice issued by them.

Attached is a scanned copy of the courier bill, as well as various specific information on the courier, including the time when the courier arrives at Shanghai Customs, the total waybill number, sub-waybill number, number of courier items, courier weight, declared amount, etc. Attached is a "Guide to Customs Clearance Service for Import Express".

The other is a document in WORD format, from Modu Jinshi Customs Broker Co., Ltd., which is a confirmation document for cargo clearance information.

The other company’s wording was very formal: “Our company is entrusted by FedEx to take full responsibility for your company’s customs clearance work. In order to complete the customs clearance procedures for your company as soon as possible, please cooperate and provide the following information and materials.”

Finally, they also warmly reminded: "According to customs regulations, if the vehicle fails to declare to the customs within 14 days from the date of entry of the transport vehicle, the relevant delayed declaration fee will be charged according to law. If it has not been declared to the customs for more than three months, its imported goods The customs will withdraw and sell it according to law."

Xu Qiu took a general look, and the information they requested mainly included the import goods waybill number, business unit, customs ten-digit number, receiving unit, commodity inspection ten-digit number, trade method, freight information, cargo information, and so on.

The required materials mainly include customs declaration power of attorney, inspection power of attorney, contracts and orders, agency agreement, packing list, blank official seal paper, etc.

Still relatively complicated.

Then, Xu Qiu looked at the three old documents sent by Wu Feifei, namely "Fullerene Derivatives-Information" and "Fullerene Derivatives-Other Information", as well as Wu Feifei's previously filled documents from the same The goods clearance information confirmation document of the customs declaration company.

Xu Qiu first opened the "Statement of Situation", the content of this file is relatively simple, it is a literal description of the situation:

Dear School Asset Management Office:

I purchased 10 grams of fullerene derivatives PC[60]BM and 1 gram of PC[70]BM from Pretty Country NANO-C Company for my research work. PCBM is a fullerene derivative. Due to its good solubility, high electron mobility, and good phase separation with common polymer donor materials, PCBM is mainly used as an electron acceptor in organic solar cells. standard. The polymer is artificially synthesized by chemical method, has no animal origin, and has no active ingredients. PCBM arrived in Shanghai on October 21 via FedEx, tracking number: 770543229636.

I hereby explain that I hope that you will be allowed to go through the relevant procedures.

Department of Materials Science, Shanghai University of Technology

October 24, 2014

##

This document needs to be submitted to the school's asset management office.

Referring to Wu Feifei's template, Xu Qiu directly changed the date, waybill number, and grams of PCBM, and then saved it.

This time PC[60]BM bought a total of 5 grams, and PC[70]BM bought 1 gram. The total cost was 2270 US dollars, about 10,000 soft sister coins.

Among them, one gram of PC[60]BM costs US$300, one gram of PC[70]BM costs US$675, and the shipping fee is US$95.

It can also be seen from this that the cost of fullerene materials is actually much lower than that of non-fullerene materials at this stage. The cost of 1 gram of the latter can buy 5 grams of the former.

After all, PC[60]BM is modified on the basis of fullerene C-60, and its molecular structure is relatively simple. C-60 has now been industrialized, and there are many methods of mass production, and the price has been lowered.

The preparation process of non-fullerene materials is relatively complicated, and often requires more than five steps of synthesis reactions, and also involves the introduction of aldehyde groups under the low temperature conditions of liquid nitrogen, and the reaction conditions are relatively extreme.

Of course, if a non-fullerene acceptor material with very good performance can be determined in the future, the price can be lowered through mass production.

Now the price is expensive, and there is also a premium for scientific research.

Then, Xu Qiu opened another "other information" file.

It is about the nature of PBCM. There are seven basic information listed in total. This can be used directly without modification:

1. Product name: fullerene derivative (methyl phenylbutyrate)

2. Source: chemically synthesized from C-60 and C-70

3. Whether active or not: inactive

4. Fineness: no

5. Packaging: black plastic bottle

6. Model: PC[60]BM, PC[70]BM

7. Brand: Pretty Country Nano-C Company

Finally, Xu Qiu opened the cargo clearance information confirmation document that Wu Feifei filled out last time.

Before, he was quite worried about how to inquire about various information including customs ten-digit number, commodity inspection ten-digit number, and HS number.

It's all right now, just refer to Wu Feifei's historical version.

After Xu Qiu figured out the general process, he spent half an hour preparing the materials, and then sent various documents to Wei Xingsi's office to print out.

He handed all the materials to his younger brother Mo Wenlin.

Mo Wenlin passed the file to Xu Xinjie again.

Xu Xinjie walked out the door with the materials bitterly.

Speaking of which, Yin Houlang on the organic photovoltaic side, because he worked with Wu Shengnan in Jiangwan all the year round, saved a lot of time on running errands. Basically, all errands here were assigned to Xu Xinjie.

In the end, before leaving get off work at 5:30 in the evening, Xu Xinjie handed over the various materials reviewed by the school's asset management office to Xu Qiu.

Xu Qiu packed the materials and ordered a courier to mail them to Modu Jinshi Customs Brokers Co., Ltd.

The rest will be handed over to the customs clearance company, just wait for the other party to send the PCBM materials.

On Sunday, based on the stacked device efficiency of the IDIC-M system, the device efficiency in the simulation laboratory has reached 15.7%.

At the same time, in reality, Xu Qiu also repeated the result of 15.4%, which has officially surpassed the original IDIC-4F system, and the upper limit of efficiency has increased by about 0.3%.

At this stage, it is indeed very difficult to improve further.

Xu Qiu reckoned that the IDIC-M system might come to an end, and there was no hope of breaking through 16%.

After all, this is the conclusion drawn from thousands of devices in the simulation laboratory, and the sample size is large enough.

Therefore, Xu Qiu decided to temporarily hand over the optimization work and repetitive experiment work of the actual stacked devices to Mo Wenlin.

In order to further improve the efficiency of stacked devices, a feasible path in Xu Qiu's vision is to keep the existing IDIC-M bottom cell unchanged and use near-infrared acceptor materials developed by other research groups to replace the IEICO in the top cell. -4F.

Now in the simulation laboratory, the simulation experimenters have synthesized several near-infrared non-fullerene materials selected by Xu Qiu, including COi8DFIC, and began to formally explore the performance of stacked devices.

In reality, Wu Shengnan's progress is relatively slow, and the process of synthesizing several materials is about 70%.

It's normal, in reality, you can't work 24 hours a day.

Monday, group meeting.

The perovskite team reported first.

Wu Feifei’s JMCA article on semi-transparent devices based on two-dimensional perovskite materials has been written and submitted, and Sun Wo’s second author, Yu Ya and Deng Hu’s two undergraduate students mixed three or four.

In addition, because Xu Qiu didn't do too much work on the device last week, leaving some space for them, Sun Wo prepared a total of three batches of stacked devices based on two-dimensional perovskite.

After Sun Wo broke through the efficiency of stacked devices from 8% to 9.6% last week, they broke through the efficiency again to 10.1% last week, and now the growth rate of efficiency has begun to slow down significantly.

Wu Feifei saw that the two-dimensional perovskite stack device was not likely to produce a big article, so she planned to look for opportunities in new fields.

This time, she aimed at the tin-based two-dimensional perovskite system that Sun Wo had worked on for a while, and made a literature report.

The main reason is that the recent tin-based two-dimensional perovskite published an article in "Science".

A domestic team has achieved an efficiency of 12% for tin-based two-dimensional perovskite devices, while the efficiency of previous tin-based two-dimensional perovskite systems was often only a few percent, or even a few tenths of a percent. A very big breakthrough.

The main advantage of tin-based perovskite materials is that there is no lead and little toxicity.

At the same time, the two-dimensional structure endows it with high stability, so it is a relatively perfect perovskite photoelectric material.

The main problem before was the relatively low efficiency. Now that the domestic team has made a breakthrough, Wu Feifei also wants to get involved and see if she can get some results.

Of course, Wu Feifei didn't start experimenting hastily and tried. Her first step is to do what she always does—to write a review in this field.

The experimental aspects are still handed over to Sun Wo and the others for preliminary exploration work.

Duan Yun group will be in the state of paddling.

Now the thermoelectric-related work in the group is in a state of no successors. Although Wu Feifei has inherited some thermoelectric-related knowledge through the handover, she is usually working on the perovskite field that she is more familiar with.

Last week, Duan Yun went back to talk with the Vocational and Technical College in Taicheng. What he learned was that the start-up fund of the laboratory was 500,000, which would be bound for eight years and could not be left. , career establishment, provide rent subsidies, and also provide dormitories for faculty and staff, and can solve work for spouses within a reasonable range...

Duan Yun did not disclose the salary. Xu Qiu guessed that the probability is not very high. After all, judging from the other benefits offered by the other party, it is a bit too good...

Things go against the grain, and if such good conditions are given in the early stage, it means that the long-term income is probably not good enough, and it is necessary to release "bait" to attract people to sign a "deed of sale".

Otherwise, there is a high probability that a large number of people will flood into such a position with a low threshold, which will bring the overall salary level back to normal.

Moreover, Duan Yun was happy when he left, but expressionless when he came back.

It is estimated that the heart is also tangled.

If you choose to go back, you will be faced with a relatively comfortable job that you can lie down on. The upper limit will not be too high. You may earn a salary of several thousand yuan a month, and there is no hope of promotion. Occasionally teach and teach students, do experiments.

If you work hard and stay in first-tier cities, such as the start-up company in Warwick or Shanghai, the upper limit will be higher, but it may be very hard, or you may lose your job due to lack of energy in the middle age and be optimized.

Tian Qing's writing speed suddenly accelerated last week. The current progress of the article "Research on the charge transport mechanism of non-fullerene systems with linear changes in three HOMO energy level differences" has reached 90%, and the target journal is ACSAMI.

Her kind of effort is intermittent. Sometimes when she wants to do scientific research, she puts in more energy, and when she doesn't want to do scientific research, she puts in less energy.

Chen Wanqing did not report, the team will paddle +1.

Xu Qiu didn't report either, and the team will paddle +2.

Because when Xu Qiu was working on stacked devices last week, Wei Xingsi was extraordinarily diligent. He ran to the laboratory several times a day, and asked Xu Qiu how the results were when they met.

Every time Xu Qiugang got the result, Wei Xingsi could understand it immediately, so there was no need for him to repeat it.

Han Jiaying continues to write articles on H5 donor materials, the target journal is JMCA, and the current progress is 85%.

In addition, the work of PTQ1 is only short of the light source data, and the data will be completed next week.

It just so happens that after the JMCA article in the hands of the school girl is rejected, it can be seamlessly connected and write a new article.

The PTQ1 work this time is still very meaningful. A donor material with a simple structure and fewer synthesis steps has been developed, while maintaining excellent optoelectronic properties of the device.

Han Jiaying said before: "If a brother is required to write articles for this job, two people can share it, whoever is at the top and whoever is at the bottom is fine."

Xu Qiu thought about it, and decided to let the school girl write it by herself. He is still a little busy recently.

This job can be submitted for a big article, you can try AM or NC.

After all, this experimental idea is also a high-quality result selected by the simulation laboratory among several experimental ideas, and it cannot be wasted.

To a certain extent, it is also a scientific research achievement of the "King of Papers" level obtained through introversion from a large number of scientific research achievements in Xu Qiu's mind.

Xu Qiu suddenly discovered that many things can be explained by the model of involution.

Involution seems to be a more generalized model—everything can be involved.

Wu Shengnan helped Wei Xingsi to write the outstanding youth fund application form. Xu Qiu helped to read it last week. The written book is not bad. No deviation.

In terms of experiments, the COi8DFIC and other materials she synthesized at Jiangwan are currently 70% in progress.

My own FOIC material has been synthesized, and I have begun to plan to prepare semi-transparent devices.

Mo Wenlin also did not do any experiments last week, and continued to concentrate on sorting out the work based on the J2:PCE10:IEICO-4F system, the target journal AFM, and the current progress is 65%.

Due to the exam week, several undergraduates did not participate in the group meeting, and at the same time reduced the frequency of going to the laboratory.

Because today's group will have a lot of people paddling, so it is relatively short, and it only lasted for about half an hour before it was over.

After the group meeting, Wei Xingsi said, "Xu Qiu, come to my office."

Entering the 218 office, Wei Xingsi said straight to the point: "The multilayer device now has an efficiency of 15.3%. This result is very good... I think we should write the article first, what do you think?"

"Hmm..." Xu Qiu began to think. His current highest result in the simulation laboratory is 15.7%. Originally, he wanted to wait for 16% before writing the article. There is no conflict in doing experiments. Anyway, if there is a breakthrough in efficiency, he can follow up at any time, so he nodded in agreement: "Yes."

"Here comes the question, which journal do you plan to submit to?" Wei Xingsi said in a relaxed tone, and even joked: "Nature or Science, that's a question. You can't submit to Cell, right?"

Xu Qiu thought for a moment and said, "Let's go to "Science". If you get rejected, you can switch to "Nature".

"...Okay," Wei Xingsi had no objection: "Let's write according to the template of "Science" first, come on!"