Wang Haifeng had been very unhappy lately.
Or rather, he hadn't been happy in the past six months.
First, the opening thesis was redone because of its novelty. Then, a talented student was poached by the Jinling Institute of Computational Materials.
To be honest, he had never thought that the thick-browed, big-eyed, honest-looking Xiao Liu would betray him.
He didn't have many capable students in his laboratory, and now one of the most capable students had left. A lot of things were left to Liu Hong, but now Wang Haifeng had to do it himself.
It was a bumpy journey, but the research project was finally approved, and the research funding was gradually in place.
However, a few days later, "bad news" came from the other side of the Pacific Ocean. The Binghamton University Materials Research Institute, sponsored by ExxonMobil, developed a caged carbon molecule, which successfully solved the shuttle effect of lithium-sulfur batteries.
This thesis was published in the top chemistry journal, JACS, and it was promoted by ExxonMobil. Now, the entire academic community and industry was focused on Professor Stanley and his thesis.
Wang Haifeng wasn't the only one who was shocked by this news. Almost all of the domestic lithium-sulfur battery research teams, especially the "shuttle effect" research teams, were greatly affected.
Especially for research projects that required funding from companies, many companies had already reduced their investment in this area.
Research teams that couldn't even produce in-progress results were facing the dilemma of having their funding withdrawn.
In comparison, Wang Haifeng was relatively lucky.
As a Changjiang Scholar, he didn't apply for a horizontal research project. Instead, he applied for a vertical research project and received funding from the National Research Fund.
Compared to collaborating with companies, vertical research projects didn't need to worry about "profits and losses". Therefore, it was less affected by market changes. Even though it wasn't as easy to make money from horizontal research projects, the advantage was stability.
At the very least, he didn't have to worry about investors not seeing results halfway through the research project.
However, no matter what, ExxonMobil established a patent barrier on lithium-sulfur batteries and controlled the pricing power of lithium-sulfur battery cathode materials. This was bad news for the global alternative energy industry.
Even though Wang Haifeng felt bad for the future of the alternative energy industry, he couldn't help but feel a bit of comfort in his heart.
As for where this comfort came from …
At the very least, Lu Zhou wasn't the first in lithium-sulfur batteries.
After all, Professor Stanley was a big name in the field of lithium batteries. He was the one who created the earliest lithium battery model. Losing to him was not a shameful thing. It could even be said that it was a glorious loss.
However, if he lost to a junior like Lu Zhou, Wang Haifeng would feel like he had no place to hide his face.
After class, Professor Wang was about to head to the laboratory building.
At this time, a man in a suit, with an assistant, greeted him.
Wang Haifeng looked at the strange man and the assistant behind him. He frowned and asked.
"You are?"
The man in the suit had a friendly smile on his face as he handed over the business card in his hand.
"Hello, I'm a reporter from Science Daily. You can call me Xiao Li."
"Science Daily?" Wang Haifeng frowned and asked, "Why are you looking for me?"
Xiao Li said respectfully, "Here's the thing, I know that you're a big name in the field of battery materials, so I want to interview you about batteries. Do you have time right now?"
Wang Haifeng didn't plan on accepting an interview, but when he heard the word "big name", he couldn't help but feel a little smug.
"I'm very busy, I can only give you ten minutes. If you have any questions, just ask."
"Okay, Professor Wang." Xiao Li had a bright smile on his face as he signaled his assistant to take notes. He then took out a recording pen and began to ask, "What do you think about the thesis written by Professor Stanley that was published in JACS a while ago?"
Wang Haifeng said, "The academic community hasn't reached a conclusion yet, but the author of this thesis is Professor Stanley. His academic reputation is quite high."
Xiao Li continued to ask, "Then, do you think this caged carbon molecule or the HCS-1 material developed by Professor Lu has more industrial applications?"
"HCS-1?" Wang Haifeng sneered and shook his head. He said, "The two aren't comparable at all. If the former is like a lamp, then the latter is like the tail of a firefly. That's the difference between the two. "
At this point, Wang Haifeng wanted to laugh.
The higher-ups paid so much attention to that twenty-year-old professor, but what happened in the end?
That professor beat him to it.
Little Li said in surprise, "Isn't this analogy … a little too exaggerated?"
Wang Haifeng said, "It's not exaggerated at all, I'm being conservative. You're a layman, so you don't know much about the materials science industry. In fact, even though there are excellent research results in our field every once in a while, less than 10% of these research results have industrial applications. The HCS-1 material is an in-progress result. From an academic point of view, it's a good result. However, for the industry, this technology is worthless. Do you think anyone is interested in his patent? Not at all. "
Xiao Li nodded and said, "But how are you so sure that the caged carbon molecule obtained by Professor Stanley's research team has industrial applications? Is it through the data in the thesis? "
"The thesis isn't the point, it's ExxonMobil's attitude. That kind of international energy giant won't do anything until it's done. If they're interested, then the technology is obviously real. " Wang Haifeng said emotionally, "I have to say, hollow carbon spheres are a good research direction. It's not just Professor Lu's team that's researching this, many other research teams in China are doing the same. Of course, I'm one of them."
"I don't think it's appropriate for Professor Lu to make a high-profile statement about hollow charcoal spheres. Even if you really think it's good, you can just keep it to yourself. Maybe Professor Lu didn't want to research in this direction, but now that you've said it, he thinks it makes sense. Maybe he'll just follow your ideas.
"But I can understand. After all, he's a young man. When he's 20 years old, maybe he'll learn what it means to be mature. "
When Professor Wang said this, he had a look of pity on his face.
It was as if half of the reason why they lost this game was because of Lu Zhou, their "dumb teammate". He made it too clear.
However, in fact, Professor Wang's words were a bit harsh.
Before that conference, there weren't many research teams that chose hollow carbon spheres as their research direction. Whether it was in China or abroad, it was far from popular.
This included Wang Haifeng. Even though he had been working on carbon-sulfur composite materials for a long time, his initial design of the experiment wasn't based on hollow carbon spheres.
Not to mention, publishing the content of the conference had nothing to do with Lu Zhou. It was decided by the higher-ups.
However, this mouth belonged to him, so it was up to him to say what he wanted to say.
Xiao Li's eyes lit up. He immediately asked, "Then what do you think of Professor Lu?"
Wang Haifeng smiled and commented leisurely, "You're a talented researcher. You can achieve great things in any research institute, but you lack the ability to see the big picture. It's hard for you to take on important tasks."
Xiao Li: "Why do you say that?"
Professor Wang smiled and said, "Look at the Jinling Institute of Computational Materials, they've spent hundreds of millions of US dollars on it, and it hasn't even made a splash."
Even though he sounded a bit jealous, he wasn't embarrassed at all.
After all, the limited application prospects of HCS-1 wasn't something he made up, everyone knew it …
After bragging in front of the reporters, Wang Haifeng felt like he just ate a popsicle. He felt indescribably comfortable.
He hummed a tune as he returned to the laboratory and sat down on his office chair.
At this moment, his newly hired teaching assistant entered the laboratory with a journal that had just arrived. He walked straight towards Lu Zhou.
"Professor, this is the new Science journal. You told me to send it to you as soon as I received it. Then … I'll leave it here. "
"Okay, leave it here." Wang Haifeng suddenly noticed that the teaching assistant's expression was a bit strange. He frowned and asked, "What's wrong?"
"No, nothing." The teaching assistant put the journal on the table and smiled awkwardly. He didn't say anything and hurriedly left after giving the journal to Lu Zhou.
Wang Haifeng sensed something was wrong with the teaching assistant's voice. He frowned and didn't say anything. He reached out and picked up the new Science journal.
However, just as he was about to open the cover and read the content, his hand suddenly stopped.
It wasn't just his hands that stopped moving. His gaze and even his breathing froze as if he had been petrified.
On the cover of this issue of Science, there was a line of text in the "highlights" section.
This was what Wang Haifeng didn't want to see —
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