Massachusetts Institute of Technology, materials science laboratory.
Professor Monkey G. Bawendi was sitting at his desk. He was leisurely drinking coffee while he browsed a new article on arXiv.
As a big name in the field of nanochemistry, this big name had been in the limelight recently.
Not long ago, the journal "ACS-Nano" published his research paper on PbS quantum dot thin-film solar cells, which attracted widespread attention from Silicon Valley technology companies.
Although there was still a long way to go before this technology could be commercialized and accepted by the industry, the potential it showed was already equivalent to "black technology".
Many people said that he was only one step away from winning the Nobel Prize. When quantum dot technology was truly popularized and changed the world, then the Nobel Prize would not be far away.
That day might be ten years from now, or maybe twenty years from now, but it was not too far away. The industry had begun to slowly accept this technology. It was expected that this technology would first be used in displays, and it would eventually change the face of the semiconductor industry.
However, no matter how far he was from commercialization, he already owned four companies with this technology. Other professors might worry about research funding, but Lu Zhou had become a real boss, and he was paying for experiments out of his own pocket.
Suddenly, he received an email from Nature in his mailbox.
"Lithium dendrites?"
Professor Bawendi looked at the email on the screen and raised his eyebrows with interest.
Rubbing his chin, he turned around and shouted to his assistant, "Ladis, bring me a sandwich."
"Okay, Professor."
A Latin American woman in a white coat got up and went outside. Soon, a bacon sandwich was brought over.
Professor Bawendi sat in front of his computer while enjoying his breakfast. He continued to read the email.
Honestly speaking, he did not believe anyone who claimed to have solved the lithium dendrite problem.
Although he was not in the lithium battery industry, someone in his team had researched this area, and he had heard about the impact of lithium dendrites.
The best research and development in this area was probably the United States' Sion and the United Kingdom's Oxis, but there had been no special progress recently. Samsung continued to register patents like crazy, but no one saw them really make a big news.
The only "progress" was that a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology discovered that fixing sulfur in mesoporous carbon materials with a special electrolyte could effectively inhibit the growth of lithium dendrites.
However, in the end, it turned out that this was just a misunderstanding. If lithium dendrites were so easy to solve, then IBM, who once threatened to use supercomputers to calculate the distribution of each ion path, would not have withdrawn their investment.
Back to this thesis. If this thesis was written by someone else, Professor Bawendi would have thrown it aside. However, the author of this thesis was very interesting. Although he was famous, he was not in the field of electrode materials. He was a mathematics professor at Princeton University.
"Through the PDMS material film to improve the 'permeability' of the negative electrode material and inhibit the growth of lithium dendrites … This is not a novel idea, but the performance on the SEM electron microscopy is surprising, and it doesn't look like it was photoshopped."
"Computational materials science can do this? This is unheard of. "
In the image, according to the images of the negative electrode material after several charging and discharging cycles, the negative electrode material under the PDMS film did not form the deadly white tree branches. Instead, it was replaced by a layer of moss-like folds. As the charging progressed, the layers were stacked on top of each other.
Then there was the discharge link. Because the surface of the entire negative electrode material was a relatively smooth layer of moss-like folds in the microscopic state, there was no so-called tip area. Until the end of the discharge, there was no large amount of dead lithium residue on the electrode.
There was no doubt that if this was not faked, these results would definitely be groundbreaking.
The only downside was that the folds would also affect the battery life and performance. However, compared to the dendrites that were stuck in the bottleneck of lithium battery technology, this flaw was negligible.
Professor Bawendi tapped his index finger on the table and thought for a long time.
The paper was a good paper, and the data and pictures listed in the paper were flawless. However, because this breakthrough was so significant, he couldn't make up his mind, just like the editor of Nature.
After thinking for a long time, Professor Bawendi suddenly had an idea, and he turned around and shouted.
He turned around and said, "Ladis, I will send an experiment report to your email. Tell Isaac to follow the experiment report. Remember to tell him that this is his experiment task for this week. "
"Okay, professor."
Done.
Professor Bawendi's lips curled into a smile.
Isaac was his master's student, and his research area was in the direction of batteries.
The experiment itself was not too difficult, and it could be tested within three days.
Although the average reviewer was not responsible for repeating the experiment, in order to satisfy his own curiosity, he decided to find a few master's students to do the experiment.
Anyway, he had all the equipment, and the materials did not cost a lot of money.
If he really solved the lithium dendrites problem, then he would be witnessing history.
…
While the Nature Chemistry peer review was going on, Lu Zhou was not idle.
Once again, he called the three master's students to his office. This time, Lu Zhou gave each of them a book list.
There were not many books on the list. There were only six books in total.
However, he asked them to thoroughly understand the contents of these six books within a month and a half, which was before September.
When the time came, he would come up with questions based on the contents of these six books to observe their learning.
For a student who had just completed their undergraduate studies, this task was definitely not an easy task, but it was not impossible. They had already read a lot of the content during their undergraduate studies, but they did not delve into it.
Now, what Lu Zhou needed them to do was to go from shallow to deep.
It was impossible to participate in his research project without putting in some effort.
It was foreseeable that this summer would be very fulfilling for them.
A week passed by. Lu Zhou, who was writing an opening report in his office, suddenly received a call from China.
Xiao Tong shouted excitedly on the other side of the phone.
"Bro, bro! I got in! "
When Lu Zhou heard Xiao Tong's excited voice, he smiled.
"Congratulations!"
Xiaotong asked pitifully, "Brother, can I ask you for a favor?"
Lu Zhou said generously, "Tell me, what gift do you want? I'll send it to you. "
Xiao Tong shook her head and said pitifully, "I don't want a gift, I just want to come to Princeton to play with you!"
When Lu Zhou heard that Xiao Tong did not want a gift, he was stunned for a second.
"What's so fun about Princeton?"
Other than Lake Carnegie, there did not seem to be any particularly fascinating scenery, at least not in his opinion.
As for the rich academic atmosphere, it was not something that ordinary people could feel.
Xiao Tong said unhappily, "It's too boring staying at home, I want to go out for a walk."
Lu Zhou thought about it and felt like it made sense.
It was rare for her to have such a relaxing vacation. It would be a waste of her life to stay at home and play games. It was good for her to go out for a walk. Also, with him watching her, it was more reassuring than going out alone.
Lu Zhou: "Okay then … Do you know how to apply for a visa?"
Seeing that her brother had relented, Xiaotong immediately said, "Of course, I have already gotten my passport! I'll go to Shanghai the day after tomorrow to apply for a visa! "
It turns out that Xiao Tong already planned this.
Lu Zhou smiled and shook his head.
"Okay then, I'll buy you a ticket. Just get on the plane, I'll pick you up."
Xiao Tong's cheers came from the other end of the phone.
"Yay! Bro, you're the best! Hehe, mwah ~ "
"F * ck off, don't mess with me."
After hanging up the phone, Lu Zhou smiled and put his phone on the table.
At this moment, he suddenly remembered something.
Speaking of which, I wonder how Han Mengqi is doing.
Even though Lu Zhou didn't do tutoring for a long time, she was still Lu Zhou's student. Her job had helped him a lot, so Lu Zhou still cared about her situation.
After the college entrance examination, he did not ask about her results. Now that the acceptance letter came, he wanted to know if she got into her ideal university.
Lu Zhou opened WeChat and sent a message.
[Did you receive the acceptance letter?]
He waited for a while and did not see a reply.
Thinking that she probably did not see it, Lu Zhou put his phone aside.
I hope she gets into her ideal university.
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