Chapter 277 The Wind Rises! Let's Get to Work!

"Hehe, everything is stable now."

Li Jiajun wiped the sweat from his forehead caused by his excessive excitement.

The fifth technical bottleneck—low-temperature resistance. Conquered!

At this moment, he felt like a martial arts master who had just opened up his Ren and Du meridians; his whole body was filled with a sense of clarity.

Li Jiajun stretched his back, feeling that his current state was simply fantastic.

He picked up the requirements document again, which had become frayed at the edges from his constant reading. His gaze fell on the final entry.

There, it was the final core technical indicator proposed by that "Seasoned Old Angler."

As long as this was resolved, this legendary "Super Fishing Rod" would be theoretically complete.

【Core Indicator: Extreme Corrosion Resistance】

【Requirement: Given the needs of sea fishing, or even fishing in certain extreme environments, the material must possess extremely strong anti-corrosion capabilities.】

【Specific Parameters: Must be able to resist long-term exposure to high-concentration salt spray, various types of oil stains, and even erosion from certain concentrations of acid and alkali liquids. The surface of the Fishing Rod must possess 'self-cleaning' capabilities, be water-repellent, oil-repellent, and remain as new over time.】

After reading this passage, Li Jiajun's mouth twitched uncontrollably again. He was speechless.

'I can understand salt spray resistance; after all, one has to go to the seaside to fish, and seawater is highly corrosive.'

'But what the heck is oil and acid-alkali resistance?'

'Are you planning to fish at the drainage outlet of a chemical plant?'

'Or are you planning to take the Fishing Rod and fish out someone's bucket of gutter oil?'

An image appeared in Li Jiajun's mind: a fully armed fisherman, wearing a gas mask and a hazmat suit, sitting next to a pool of bubbling green acid, fishing...

"Eww..." He shuddered and quickly shook this unusual image out of his mind.

"Regardless of how hellish this guy's fishing spot is, since I've accepted the deposit... oh wait, since I've decided to do it, I have to do it right." Li Jiajun muttered to himself.

The current problem is that although carbon fiber itself is chemically stable, that is just the carbon filaments. The Fishing Rod is made of a composite of carbon filaments and resin. Resin has an aging lifespan and is also afraid of various chemical solvents. Once the resin is corroded, the carbon filaments will fall apart, and the Fishing Rod will be ruined.

"Paint it?" "No, ordinary paint is just a facade; it will fall off with the slightest bump, making the corrosion even worse."

"There needs to be a way... to prevent those dirty things from sticking to it at a physical level."

Li Jiajun furrowed his brows and pondered. Subconsciously, he picked up the remote control, wanting to turn on "Animal World" as he had done a few times before to find inspiration.

But, the moment his finger touched the switch, he stopped.

"Forget it. Always watching TV makes me, the factory director, look stupid, as if I can't do anything else besides watching TV." Li Jiajun threw the remote back onto the table.

He felt he should try a different approach and look for answers in the real world. He stood up, stretched his somewhat stiff neck, and then walked slowly to the large floor-to-ceiling window in the office.

Outside the window was a small garden that came with the new factory. Although it looked somewhat desolate with weeds growing because he had just taken over, there was a small artificial pond in the center of the garden.

Last night, Baishui City had just had a heavy rain. Now, the rain had stopped and the sky had cleared, and the air was filled with the fragrance of soil.

Li Jiajun looked at the scenery outside the window, and his originally somewhat restless mood calmed down a little. His gaze swept across the pond casually. There, a few lotus flowers were growing.

Although it wasn't the season for them to bloom yet, those huge, emerald-green lotus leaves had already covered half the pond, swaying gently in the breeze.

"Hmm?" Suddenly, Li Jiajun's gaze froze.

He saw that on those emerald-green lotus leaves, crystal-clear water droplets were rolling about.

Those water droplets did not spread out into a stain like they would on ordinary paper or fabric. Instead, they maintained a perfect spherical shape, like transparent glass beads. As the lotus leaves swayed, they rolled back and forth on the leaf surface.

What was even more magical was that the heavy rain last night had splashed the soil around the pond, and many leaves were covered in dust and mud. However, as those crystal-clear water droplets rolled past, the droplets did not get dirty; instead, like a vacuum cleaner, they rolled up all the dust and mud they encountered along the way into the interior of the droplets.

Then, with a "plop," the dirty water droplets rolled into the pond. On the path where the water droplets had rolled, the surface of the lotus leaf became clean and emerald green, without even a trace of water left behind. Not a drop of water sticks! Emerging from the mud without being stained!

"This..." Li Jiajun watched this scene, his eyes gradually becoming deep. He recalled that famous physical phenomenon—the Lotus Effect.

"Why does the lotus leaf not get wet?" "Why can't dirty things stick to it?" "What if I could also make the surface of my Fishing Rod possess this characteristic?"

Li Jiajun muttered to himself, his whole body almost pressed against the glass, staring fixedly at that lotus leaf. His thoughts seemed to penetrate distance, penetrating the epidermis of the plant.

In his mind, that smooth lotus leaf surface was magnified countless times. He saw it! It wasn't smooth at all! Under a microscopic view, the lotus leaf surface was densely covered with countless micron-scale papillae. And on top of every micron-scale papilla, more nanometer-scale waxy villi were growing.

This complex, rough surface with a dual micro-nano structure constructed a layer of air cushion at the microscopic level! When water droplets landed on it, they actually didn't touch the leaf surface but were "supported" in mid-air by these tiny villi!

The contact angle is greater than 150 degrees! This is superhydrophobicity! Because the contact area is extremely small, the water droplets cannot spread and can only maintain a spherical shape. Because they cannot adhere, any oil stains, acid liquids, or salt water can only obediently roll away on such a surface!

Isn't this the most perfect anti-corrosion solution? There's no need to resist it head-on! You just need to make it unable to stick!

"So that's it..." "The Great Way is simple." "So-called extreme corrosion resistance is actually extreme repulsion."

Li Jiajun looked at that lotus leaf that "emerged from the mud without being stained" and fell into deep contemplation. His eyes became completely vacant, and his thoughts were rapidly constructing and reorganizing in the microscopic nano-world.

He was designing a coating. A biomimetic coating that could imitate the dual micro-nano structure of the lotus leaf. It didn't need expensive materials; it just needed to reach the extreme in physical structure!

At this very moment, the final lightning bolt of inspiration tore through the fog.

【Ding!】 【You have observed the microscopic hydrophobic structure of the lotus leaf surface, combined with surface physics and nano-coating technology, and instantly understood the preparation method for superhydrophobic anti-corrosion materials! You have had an epiphany: 【Lotus Effect Biomimetic Nano-Coating】!】

As the notification sound faded, Li Jiajun let out a long sigh of relief, as if a thousand-pound burden had been lifted from him. He leaned against the window, a look of extreme confidence on his face.

"It's done." He knew that by constructing a special dual micro-nano structure on the surface of the material, he could make this "Fishing Rod" possess extreme water and oil repellency.

By then, let alone salt spray or acid rain, even if you threw this Fishing Rod into petroleum to soak for three days and three nights, took it out, and gave it a shake, it would still be clean, just like new!

Thus, high strength, high modulus, lightweight, high-temperature resistance, low-temperature resistance, and corrosion resistance—these six major core technical challenges, which were all the perverted requirements proposed by that "Seasoned Old Angler," were all conquered!

"As for the remaining things like guide rings, reel seats, handles..." "There are ready-made top-tier accessories on the market; just buy them and install them; there's no need for an epiphany." "It's not a problem at all anymore."

Li Jiajun turned around and looked at the requirements document on the desk, which was riddled with marks from his successful breakthroughs. A glint shone in his eyes. Since the technology was all ready, then... let's get to work!