The next afternoon, the MRS Conference lithium battery lecture hall was packed with people. There were no empty seats.
A lot of people came to the venue early and waited for the report to begin.
Lu Zhou stood at the entrance of the lecture hall and looked at the crowd. He could not help but feel his scalp tingle.
He didn't know why, but he suddenly felt a sense of admiration for Professor Sarrot.
In a sense, it took a certain amount of courage to come here with an incomplete project to fight with his peers for the sake of the jobs of the twenty or so researchers in the laboratory and millions of research funds.
In this industry, people of the same trade were enemies, and people of different trades were also enemies.
Take lithium-sulfur batteries for example. The manganese dioxide nano-layer and polymer solid electrolyte seemed to be unrelated at first glance, but in fact, they were both trying to solve the shuttle effect of lithium-sulfur batteries.
In fact, everyone's technology had flaws, it was just a matter of how much.
Everyone wanted the industry to adopt their own plan, invest in their own research, and "survive".
Similarly, even though Lu Zhou's thesis ushered in the lithium battery concept, it also caused a lot of project teams to lose their funding. A lot of researchers lost their jobs because of this. Lu Zhou was sure that a lot of people were cursing him behind his back.
However, what surprised Lu Zhou was that when he stood on the podium and looked down, he did not see anyone who was obviously looking for trouble.
At least, there were no people in the front row.
Instead, their eyes were filled with …
Anticipation?
Lu Zhou wondered if he was seeing things. However, the report was about to begin.
Lu Zhou calmed himself down and walked on the podium. He plugged the USB into the multimedia podium and signaled the staff next to him to bring him three whiteboards.
Normally, a materials science report would not have this much content on the whiteboard. However, his report was obviously focused on mathematics.
The venue gradually quieted down. Lu Zhou tested the microphone and spoke concisely.
"I have already written a comprehensive description of the properties and preparation methods of the modified polydimethylsiloxane film in my thesis. I believe you have all read it before this report, so I won't repeat it here."
Lu Zhou paused for a second before he continued, "Compared to the PDMS film, I believe you are more interested in how I discovered it."
Hearing this, many people in the audience nodded in agreement.
Not all of the people sitting here were lithium battery researchers or company representatives. Many other big names in the field of organic materials were also sitting here.
For people in different research fields, they were not curious about the PDMS material itself. Instead, they were curious about how Lu Zhou built a mathematical model for this material.
Lu Zhou did not waste time on opening remarks and went straight to the point.
"In the initial stage of deposition, lithium ions usually acquire electrons and deposit on the collector. This is considered a heterogeneous nucleation behavior. Because this initial nucleation phenomenon will have a decisive impact on the final lithium deposition mode, my initial idea was to solve the problem of irregular growth of lithium dendrites from the early stage of the nucleation stage.
"Through the SEM electron microscope observation, we can see the root of the crystal nucleus immersed in the electrolyte as a spherical cap-shaped crystal nucleus deposited on a flat substrate. Abstractly speaking, it is a three-dimensional sphere. We can set θ as the contact angle, r as the radius of curvature, a as the radius of the contact surface, γ as the surface tension … "
Some things could not be explained clearly.
Lu Zhou picked up a marker and began to write on the whiteboard.
[Sv = (π/3) (2 + cosθ) (1-cosθ) 2]
【? Gt = (? Gf + zFη/Ω) Svr3 + γSAr2 + (γSN- γSE) Πr2Sin2Θ]
[…]
More and more equations were written on the whiteboard.
The tip of the pen danced on the whiteboard as lines of calculations appeared.
The entire mathematical model was like a meticulously constructed skeleton, supporting the research results with blood and flesh.
Even if he did not deliberately memorize it, Lu Zhou could smoothly derive it on the spot.
The researchers sitting in the audience stared at the whiteboard, afraid to miss a single detail.
However, even then, there were very few people who could keep up with Lu Zhou's rhythm.
Professor Kerr could not keep up with Lu Zhou's thoughts. He took a deep breath and looked around anxiously.
He noticed Professor Bawendi from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology sitting next to him. Bawendi was looking at the whiteboard with his arms crossed. He couldn't help but ask.
He could not help but ask, "Do you understand?"
Professor Bawendi did not directly answer the question.
After a moment of contemplation, he gave his own evaluation in a relaxed tone. "Of course, it's an interesting method."
Professor Bawendi studied quantum dot technology. Not only in chemistry, but he also dabbled in condensed matter physics.
However, when it came to physics, it would be strange if one was not good at mathematics.
Professor Kerr was helpless when he heard Professor Bawendi's evaluation.
At this stage of the report, there were many things on the whiteboard that he could not understand.
It was not that he did not understand mathematics, it was just that he had never done in-depth research in mathematics. After all, materials science was a discipline based on experiments. Most of the data was made, not calculated.
However, someone told him that computational materials science was not only a supporting role in the materials science laboratory, but it could also play a role in the laboratory. Other than doubting his life, he did not have a better idea.
Maybe he had to find some time to do some research.
Time quickly passed by.
Lu Zhou was in the zone. It was like he was back in his Princeton classroom. The audience was all his students, and they were listening attentively to his theory.
Lu Zhou responded to the pairs of curious eyes and spread his theories with the greatest enthusiasm.
When Lu Zhou finished writing the last line of equations, he stopped writing.
He took two steps back and looked at the whiteboard in front of him. He did not say anything.
Staring at the back of this figure that wasn't tall but was unusually imposing, the audience was silent. They were afraid that their breathing would interrupt this big shot's train of thought.
Five minutes went by like this.
Lu Zhou finally turned around and placed the marker in his hand on the podium.
"That's the basic situation.
"Next is the Q&A session. If there's anything you don't understand, feel free to ask."
There was still silence in the venue.
No one stood up, no one raised their hand, and no one even made a sound.
Even the harshest experts were silent at this moment. People couldn't help but wonder if this was really the scene of the MRS Autumn Conference.
Gradually, the silence was broken.
Those who came back to their senses began to applaud.
"Clap clap clap …"
After the first, there was a second.
Soon, thunderous applause filled the entire venue, like a storm sweeping through the area.
Lu Zhou looked at the people applauding and paused for a second.
What surprised him was not the applause, but the fact that no one stood up to ask a question.
Lu Zhou had a strange expression on his face.
For now …
I'll pretend that they understood.
Anyway, after the conference, the American Materials Society would print a thick brick-like collection of papers. If they were interested, they would naturally study what he had said in detail.
As for what he had to do, he had already done it.
Lu Zhou signaled to the staff next to him that the meeting was over.
However, when he was about to unplug the USB, he suddenly remembered something.
"Oh yeah, I almost forgot, the PowerPoint isn't done yet."
He was too excited and almost forgot about the "business".
Lu Zhou pressed the button on the laser pointer and quickly went through the rest of the PowerPoint.
"There's nothing much to say about the modified PDMS film. I've done six sets of experiments over the past two and a half months. After 1000 to 2000 Coulomb cycles, the macroscopic situation inside the battery and the microscopic SEM image of the negative electrode material cross section. "
This experiment was not difficult, but it was troublesome and time-consuming.
However, in order to dispel the concerns of the industry, this experiment was necessary.
The PowerPoint stopped on the second to last page. Lu Zhou paused for a second before he spoke.
"I believe a lot of people are interested in this."
Indeed, a lot of people were interested.
When the company representatives saw the picture of the spotless battery casing after the 2,000 Coulomb cycles, their eyes almost popped out of their sockets as they stared at the PowerPoint.
The route to the New World was drawn on the map. They had never been so close to the "treasure" they dreamed of.
That was the future.
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