Wizard of science

Blackstone Castle, Logistics Area Processing Workshop.

Li He controlled various instruments and walked back and forth in the room.

From time to time, Alex was asked to do some auxiliary work, which seemed quite busy.

After a while, Li He opened the gas tank and poured carbon dioxide into the liquid in the container. He saw an obvious white precipitate forming in the liquid.

That's aluminum hydroxide.

Without further ado, the precipitated aluminum hydroxide was collected through filtration, and then Li He opened the furnace in the processing workshop for calcination.

The scorching flames puffed and puffed in the furnace, and billowing heat waves came out from the gaps in the furnace, causing the processing workshop to heat up quickly.

Li He remained unmoved and operated meticulously.

After a moment, the flame in the furnace went out, and Li He took out the finished alumina, which is Al2O3.

And this is just the beginning.

With almost no rest, Li He collected the alumina and started the next step of processing.

Alumina is purified, impurities removed and ground.

After a while, aluminum oxide powder like flour was obtained.

Immediately afterwards, another larger furnace was started, alumina powder was placed from above, hydrogen as a fuel and oxygen as a combustion accelerant were passed into it, and a fierce flame was generated and began to burn blazingly.

The temperature in the room had just dropped slightly before it was pushed to a higher level.

Sweat dripped from Alex's face.

Li He's cheeks were also a little moist, but he ignored it completely. He kept observing the situation of the furnace and adjusting the status of various parts of the furnace to keep the inside of the furnace in a specific temperature range.

After adjusting for a long time, Li He shouted and ordered Alex: "Go to the warehouse and get some of the # 998 material."

"Yes." Alex nodded quickly, left, and returned shortly.

Opening a small iron box that Alex retrieved, you can see that it contains green crystal powder.

Li Hyuk immediately poured it into a glass container and performed a new treatment.

Finally, the processed finished product is put into the furnace and heated together with the previous powder.

Busy, busy, busy...

For the next several hours, Li He kept circling the furnace in the processing workshop without any rest, constantly adjusting and feeding materials.

Until several hours later, under Li He's operation, the furnace went out and the temperature slowly dropped.

"Click!"

The furnace door opened, and the scorching air at thousands of degrees inside was sprayed out, causing the surrounding light to refract.

After returning to normal for a moment, Li He looked directly into the furnace, looked at the final result, exhaled, and showed a satisfied expression.

…

Not long after, Li He left the processing workshop and appeared on the first floor of the main test area of ​​the main fort.

Opening a box on the huge test table in the center, you can see that it is full of rubies - rubies synthesized by scientific means.

If you look closely, there is almost no difference between it and a real natural ruby.

The only difference may be that synthetic rubies are purer, brighter, and more beautiful in appearance.

After all, it is produced through step-by-step chemical reactions under human intervention, and is of higher quality than what is produced by nature under the action of a series of random factors.

"Gems." Li He looked at the many rubies in the box and murmured to himself, "I don't want magic stones, I want gems, and I want rubies to trade... Well, just use rubies. One hundred rubies... no Questions, you can have more if you want in the future.”

It was a bit troublesome for him to synthesize ruby ​​for the first time.

Although the chemical equation is very simple, the operation process needs to be continuously streamlined. There are many links in the process that need to be watched at all times in order to avoid accidents.

But after this experience, it will be easier to continue production.

If a particularly large quantity is needed, he can find a way to design a production line for industrial mass production.

If the man at the night market insists on trading with rubies, he is confident that he can use the rubies to buy everything the other party can sell, no matter how much there is, he can directly buy the other party and "go bankrupt".

After all, rubies are precious and are a symbol of wealth and nobility.

But in fact, it is just a chemical substance.

To be more straightforward, it is just a variant of aluminum oxide (Al2O3), that is, α-Al2O3.

The principle is very simple. After the alumina is heated to reach the "alumina unity point" of 1240°C, the so-called ruby ​​can be obtained. In the specific operation, there are many details to take into account, but the principle is as simple as that.

Of course, the ruby ​​obtained in this way is actually colorless, so it is more appropriately called a white ruby.

In order to give the gemstone its beautiful red color, a colorant called chromium oxide is added.

Only in this way can a ruby ​​like a blood-soaked ruby ​​be truly synthesized.

If you want to get gemstones of other colors, it is easy. With the alpha variant of alumina, just add different colorants.

Add cobalt oxide and it becomes emerald.

Add iron oxide and it becomes sapphire.

By adding a variety of colorants and adjusting the composition and ratio, gemstones of various colors such as orange, peach, purple, chicken blood, golden, beige, grass green, dark green, sea blue, purple, etc. can also be produced.

If vanadium oxide is used as a colorant, color-changing gems can even be produced, which appear blue-violet under sunlight and red-purple under light.

Gemstones may be extremely precious in the eyes of other people, but in the eyes of researchers who master scientific principles, they are really just a chemical substance.

If it didn't have the advantages of high hardness, good wear resistance, and no fear of corrosion, it could be used in many fields, and it would not be much different from iron blocks.

"One hundred rubies... then one hundred rubies..." Li He counted out a hundred rubies from the box, put them evenly into two bags, put away the remaining rubies, turned around and walked out of the main castle.

…

In a blink of an eye, the next night.

The valley night market where Dark Heart Academy is located was opened again, and Li He appeared in front of the stall selling meditation books as scheduled.

"You are on time." The stall owner, who was wrapped in a robe, looked over and asked straight to the point, "Have you brought the ruby?"

"Speaking of which, after you promised me yesterday, I thought that new resource points and rubies were discovered somewhere within the Dark Heart Academy's sphere of influence, so you had the confidence to come up with a hundred rubies. But I asked about it. , there is no such thing.

At present, within the entire Dark Heart Academy, except for some wizards' private resources, it is difficult to purchase twenty or ten rubies on the market, not to mention a hundred, and the prices are exaggerated to a certain extent.

To be honest, I am very curious, can you really hand over so many rubies? "

Li He was speechless and answered with actions.

He took out a bag from his robe and dropped it gently on the stall.

When the bag was opened, a blood-red light was revealed, revealing densely packed exquisite rubies.

this!

The stall owner was a little stunned.

…