Material Empire

"Mr. Nim, hello, nice to meet you."

Qin Hai stood up with a smile and shook hands with Nim, let him sit on the sofa, then looked at him without saying a word, waiting for him to speak.

"Mr. Qin, if you are not busy, I would like to introduce my research to you. If you are interested..." Nim said falteringly, rubbing his hands. After hearing about Qin Hai's generosity, he made a special trip to come here for alms. He had never dealt with Chinese people before, and he didn't know the habits of Chinese people, so he was a little nervous.

Qin Hai smiled and said, "Mr. Nim, don't worry, we are interested in all valuable research."

"That's great." Nim replied happily, "My research direction is magnetic polymer microspheres. First of all, please allow me to introduce you to this amazing new magnetic material..."

Qin Hai interrupted his opening remarks unceremoniously, and said: "I'm afraid this is not necessary. If I guessed correctly, what you said is based on the microencapsulation method, which combines organic polymers and magnetic inorganic substances to form A new type of material, which is magnetically responsive and has good processability."

"Uh..." Nim froze all of a sudden. The technology of magnetic polymer microspheres is a very new and partial direction in the material circle. The number of people working in this direction all over the world can be counted with one hand. Some scholars who have been in contact with this field believe that this technology cannot produce any interesting results, so this field is currently in a state of shrinking.

In Nim's mind, few people even in the United States know about such things as magnetic polymer microspheres. In China, whose technological level is far behind that of the United States, I am afraid that no one has heard of this concept. He had already planned to spend some time explaining the characteristics of this material to Qin Hai, and it would be better to add some deception to make Qin Hai dizzy, so as to induce Qin Hai to provide some funds for this research.

But I never thought that Qin Hai had already clearly described the characteristics of this technology just after he uttered this concept, so why would he open his mouth?

"Mr. Qin has heard of this technology?" Nim asked foolishly.

Qin Hai said lightly: "As I said, Daqin Group is a professional material industry group. We pay attention to everything related to materials, including magnetic polymer microspheres. However, we have not yet carried out this aspect. research, so I'd be interested to hear your introduction to this technique."

"Since Mr. Qin has paid attention to this kind of material, do you think the research of this kind of material has a future?" Nim asked honestly. His own research is because it is considered as a direction with no future in the United States, so it is gone. Sources of funds. If Qin Hai also thinks that this kind of technology is worthless, then he really has no choice but to change his career.

Qin Hai said: "The technology of magnetic polymer microspheres has not yet been successfully applied, so I can't say whether it has a future. However, our group is interested in various new technologies. If Mr. Nim can make some achievements in this area and obtain relevant patents, and we are still willing to pay some price for it.”

"No, no, Mr. Qin, I believe this technology must be promising. I once considered that magnetic polymer microspheres have good processability, and some magnetic particles can be formed on their surface through polymer modification. Specific polar functional groups, so that it has some special properties. If my idea can be successful, then this material will be used in biomedicine, photoconductive communication and..."

Having said that, Nim sank slightly, hesitating whether it was appropriate to say the following words.

"Mr. Nim, if you want to become a collaborator with us, then there shouldn't be anything we can't talk about." Qin Hai warned.

"Well...Actually, the main use of this material is as a wave-absorbing material. Mr. Qin should be able to understand what I mean when I say this?" Nim said in a low voice.

The function of the absorbing material is to absorb the microwave emitted by the radar, so that the radar cannot detect the target object. The main application direction of absorbing materials is in the military field, including stealth aircraft, stealth ships, etc., all of which achieve the stealth effect on radar by coating a layer of absorbing materials on the surface. The traditional absorbing material is mainly inorganic ferrite, which is fine for ships, but it has the defect of excessive density when used in stealth aircraft, which will increase the weight of stealth aircraft and affect the performance of the aircraft.

Due to the characteristics of polymer materials, the density of magnetic polymer microspheres is much lower than that of ferrite materials, and after modification, it can also have the advantages of broadband, high absorption rate, etc. It is an ideal outer layer for stealth aircraft coating.

Nim's research was first funded by an enterprise that provided stealth materials to the military, and its results were intended to be applied to the new stealth fighter developed by the US military. Unexpectedly, in the military's bidding, the company that funded Nim's research was eliminated by other companies, and the research on this very promising organic magnetic material had to be abandoned halfway. Nim has devoted his efforts in this direction for several years. He had already seen the light of day, but he couldn't continue because of such a commercial reason, which made him very annoyed.

He once wrote a letter to the military, explaining the good properties of the material he was researching, and hoped that the military would pay attention to this new type of material and give him the funding he needed to complete the research. It is a pity that he sent several letters, but in the end they all disappeared without any reply. By chance, he heard insiders in the military reveal that the military had already come to a conclusion on the selection of absorbing materials for stealth aircraft, and that the company that won the bid was a company with great lobbying power. The performance of the absorbing material provided is far inferior to that of the material Nim is researching, but it can't stand up to someone above...

It is naturally inconvenient for Nim to tell Qin Haiming about such a messy matter, after all, family ugliness should not be publicized. However, in order to make Qin Hai interested in this kind of material, he had to come up with some serious material. He knew that China has always been a country that is interested in the modernization of national defense. Although China does not have a stealth aircraft yet, relevant scientific research must have already been carried out. He pointed out that magnetic polymer microspheres can be used as an excellent wave-absorbing material, and he hoped that Qin Hai would be interested in this material.

"Are you sure it can be used as a wave-absorbing material?" Qin Hai asked calmly. He remembered that the 70X Institute was researching stealth aircraft. The chief engineer he knew, Gu Qinyuan, was engaged in absorbing materials. If Nim’s materials could really be used as absorbing materials, then it would be a good idea to transfer this technology to the 70X Institute in the future. Not a bad choice. Of course, he would not tell Nim such thoughts.

"I'm sure." Nim said, "We have done experiments in the past, which proved that this material has good microwave absorption performance, which is better than ferrite material. What I am doing now is to improve its bandwidth, and Solve the problem of its preparation process."

"If that's the case, it's kind of interesting." Qin Hai said something interesting, but his tone was still calm, and he didn't show the eagerness that Nim hoped, "How much money do you need to complete your project?" research work?"

"1.5 million dollars." Nim replied without hesitation. He originally planned to quote a higher number, but after hearing Qin Hai's description of the characteristics of the magnetic polymer microspheres, he gave up the idea of ​​exorbitant prices and chose a more reliable amount instead.

"So, what can I get?" Qin Hai was noncommittal about Nim's offer, and asked another question.

"You can obtain the application patents of magnetic polymer microspheres, including the patents of the industrial preparation process, that is to say, you are the only one in the world who can produce this material," Nim said.

"If it can't find an application field, what's the use of having a patent and a preparation process?" Qin Hai said with a frown.

"I think...it should be useful." Nim tried to explain with a sad face.

Qin Hai looked at the poor scholar and smiled slightly. The technology of magnetic polymer microspheres is still in its infancy in this era. Due to the influence of the technical level, its practical application is indeed still somewhat difficult. However, in a few years, the technology will be gradually perfected, and there will be a large number of application areas. For this, Nim can foresee it from a technical point of view, but cannot prove it. And Qin Hai, as a person with advanced vision, of course has no doubts about this.

"Well, we are willing to provide funding for this technology." Qin Hai stopped embarrassing Nim, he said, "Since we still can't see the prospect of this technology, I can't provide you with so much funding for the time being .I can only provide 500,000 U.S. dollars as the first phase of funding, and after seeing valuable phased results, I will add follow-up funds. Mr. Nim, do you think this is okay?"

"It's absolutely possible." Nim replied, "I guarantee that after investing 500,000 U.S. dollars, you will definitely see valuable results."

"500,000 US dollars is not a small amount of money. I hope we can monitor the use of funds. Mr. Nim won't mind?" Qin Hai said again.

"You mean that I need to give you a detailed explanation on the use of funds?" Nim asked.

Qin Hai shook his head and said, "That's not enough. We need to send people to participate in your research work to make sure that the funds are used in the right place, and the technology we finally get is indeed real technology."

"I don't think it's difficult." Nim said with a bitter face.