Chemistry was a big hole. Although it was not as big as biology and materials, there were still a lot of graduates buried in it.
One reason was the danger, especially in organic chemistry, which required frequent contact with reagents. Just because you memorized the safety manual, you would be safe. When something really happened, you might not even know what happened in the reaction room.
Another reason was the salary. Although many rankings related to the starting salary of graduates liked to put applied chemistry at the top, the reality was different. As for why this was the case, one could just look at the environment of the chemical industry.
However, Lu Zhou felt that at least Han Mengqi did not have to worry about the last reason.
Even if she studied chemistry, she might not end up in this industry. Even if she did, she would not rely on it to buy a house. She had a rich mother …
Chen Yushan, who was sitting in the front passenger seat, led the way. Lu Zhou was responsible for driving and taking photos. The four of them played in Philadelphia for the whole day.
Perhaps it was because the happy atmosphere diluted the depression in her heart, Han Mengqi's mood seemed to be a lot better.
However, the one who had the most fun was Xiao Tong. This little girl seemed to have endless energy. She did not stop chattering the whole way.
Because the lively and active Xiao Tong had a natural personality, she quickly became familiar with Chen Yushan and Meng Qi. They even added each other's WeChat and QQ while resting at the fast food restaurant.
Especially when she learned that Meng Qi was also playing Honor of Kings, Xiao Tong did not even eat her hamburger. She opened the game without saying anything.
Han Mengqi looked at the game interface on Xiao Tong's phone and asked, "You also play Honor of Kings?"
Xiao Tong said proudly, "Of course I play, I'm good."
Han Mengqi continued to ask with interest, "What rank are you?"
"Diamond!" Xiao Tong said confidently. She paused for a moment and continued, "But for now, my data is still bronze. There is no doubt that my strength is already at the diamond level. It's only a matter of time before I get that frame."
Han Mengqi: "…"
Chen Yushan, who was biting her cola straw, heard the conversation between the two and laughed. Lu Zhou, who was sitting next to her, rolled his eyes.
There was no doubt that in terms of stubbornness, she definitely met the standard of "stubborn bronze".
Other than that, she was still a bit lacking …
…
With the arrival of Xiao Tong, Lu Zhou's daily life didn't change much. The only difference was that he had one more person to take care of, and the place where he slept every day changed from his bedroom to the sofa.
Although his original plan was to move out of this student apartment after he returned to Princeton, he hadn't found a new place yet.
He had two choices. One was the faculty apartment that the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study prepared for him, and the other was a two-story house with a front yard and garage. It was located between Princeton and the Institute for Advanced Study.
Actually, calling it a villa was just an elegant way of referring to it. This kind of rural house was very common in the United States. Even if one had never been there, one could still see it in American TV series. In a rural area like Princeton, the average price of such a house was only 200,000 to 300,000 USD, and the rent was not expensive.
Lu Zhou's original intention was to choose the latter because it was convenient to park. However, the owner of the house was a stubborn old man from New York. He would only sell and not rent. Lu Zhou only had 500,000 USD on him. Although it wasn't that he didn't have the money to buy a house, he didn't want to spend half of his money on a house that he could only live in for a few years.
After all, he would be returning to China in a few years. Buying a house was definitely not as cost-effective as renting one.
Although Lu Zhou considered other houses, they were either not suitable or had already been rented out. Therefore, the matter of moving was put on hold.
Fortunately, Xiao Tong wasn't picky about where she lived. Other than the fact that she would always pull his arm and beg him to drive her to Philadelphia to play with Chen Yushan, Lu Zhou didn't feel like it was too troublesome.
This kind of busy and leisurely life lasted until late August. It was only when the new issue of Nature Chemistry was published that it gradually stopped …
…
In late August, the Rio Olympics had just ended. The news was still focused on the criticism of the black sentries. Suddenly, a piece of news quietly appeared on the technology pages of major newspapers.
The cause was a paper published in Nature's sub-journal, Nature Chemistry.
The title was simple, but it caught the attention of all the industry insiders.
There was only one reason.
Because the author proposed a new type of PDMS material and claimed that by spinning the material on the surface of the lithium anode, it could effectively solve the problem of lithium dendrites. If this paper was published in other journals, it might not even attract a lot of attention.
However, this paper was published in a sub-journal of Nature!
The originally peaceful materials science and battery field suddenly set off a storm.
Although this was not the first time the materials science community was shocked by a lithium battery "breakthrough", this time was obviously different. This was because the reviewer was Professor Bawendi, and according to the reviewer's evaluation, he seemed to have made an amazing discovery through repeated experiments …
Such a shocking piece of news naturally wouldn't be buried so easily.
A few days after the paper was published, it received positive comments from several big names in the industry. Then, it was published in Nature and Science, and it was featured in the Highlights section.
The so-called "highlights" were similar to republishing, but different from republishing.
For example, if you published an article in Journal A, and this article had a major breakthrough in a certain field or direction, and was chosen by Journal B, the journal would find an expert in that field to summarize the highlights of the article you published in Journal A and publish it in Journal B. (There were also those who wrote their own highlights).
This kind of situation was more common in the fields of chemistry and biology. It was not uncommon for an article published in a sub-journal to be picked by the main journal. However, it was relatively rare for an article to be picked by both Nature and Science.
Compared to the calm industry, the attitude of the academic community towards this paper could be described as "fanatical".
If this paper was true, most of them would not suffer because of this. Instead, they would benefit from it.
The reason was simple. The industry's concerns about lithium batteries were mainly focused on the series of safety problems caused by lithium dendrites. If the problem of lithium dendrites could be solved smoothly, there was no doubt that a large amount of research and development funds would flow into this field.
Even if a few laboratories that researched anode materials had their funding cut, there would be more funding and research projects coming in.
Therefore, in less than a week, almost 80% of the laboratories researching lithium batteries carried out repeated experiments on this paper.
This grand event quickly attracted the attention of the media.
A reporter from CBS's science and technology program did an interview with Professor Ross Cryer from Cornell University.
Coincidentally, when the Columbia TV reporter arrived, Professor Kerr's laboratory happened to be in the final stage of repeating the experiment on the thesis.
When Professor Kerr was asked about the significance of this technology, he spoke in a serious tone.
"… Our research team is repeating the experiment. If this is not an accident, then this technology will undoubtedly change the face of the entire industry.
"Because whether it is lithium-sulfur batteries or lithium-air batteries in the concept stage, they cannot avoid the dendrite problem. Conversely, the problem of lithium dendrites can be solved by the negative electrode material. We don't even need to make too many changes to the previous design, we can just replace the negative electrode material. "
Professor Kerr's answer made the reporter's eyes sparkle with excitement.
Without a doubt, the big news was right in front of him.
"But Professor Kerr, according to our interview with the former head of the lithium-air battery project at IBM, the industry is pessimistic about this technology. What do you think about this?"
Professor Kerr thought for a bit and replied, "It's normal to be pessimistic. Every once in a while, a laboratory will claim to have solved the lithium dendrite problem. It is necessary to be cautious about new technologies. To be honest, even now, I am still skeptical because the solution proposed by the author is not new, it is even a bit outdated. "
The reporter immediately asked, "Why do you say that?"
Professor Kerr: "Because the mainstream approach is to increase the viscosity of the electrolyte, or even directly use solid materials. Or we can make a carbon structure on the lithium negative electrode. When discharging, we can also ensure that the negative electrode structure does not collapse after the lithium enters the positive electrode. Professor Lu's design of coating the negative electrode material has actually been tried countless times in the past 20 years. And … "
Reporter: "And?"
Professor Kerr shrugged and said, "And he's a mathematics professor. I don't know much about computational materials, but even so, I know that building models is not enough. "
Suddenly, there was a burst of cheers in the laboratory.
Professor Kerr and the reporter were stunned.
Reporter: "What happened?"
Professor Kerr and his assistant looked at each other and looked at the reporter with a strange look.
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