The top student must be diligent.

Chapter 203 Some are happy, some are worried

The corridor of the laboratory building where the Department of Chemistry and Materials Science and Engineering is located, Binghamton University, USA.

"Professor Whittingham! Professor Whittingham!"

A voice sounded in the corridor, and a man holding two magazines rushed towards an old man who was walking in the corridor.

When the old man heard the shouting, he turned around and looked.

When the old man saw the person coming, he smiled and said, "Oh! It's Mr. Gram, why are you looking for me now?"

As for this old man, his name is well-known in the chemical world.

Michael Stanley Whittingham, father of the lithium-ion battery.

He was a key figure in the history of lithium-ion batteries, having invented the first rechargeable lithium metal battery, which he patented in 1977.

Until 2019, he and two other important contributors to lithium batteries won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

It can be said that when talking about the history of lithium batteries, he is a key figure that cannot be avoided.

As for Gram, the person who came to see him, he was an executive from ExxonMobil.

ExxonMobil is a well-known company all over the world. Its main business is energy, especially oil. It can be called one of the largest energy companies in the world. After all, its predecessor is the Standard Oil Company of the Rockefeller family.

Of course, in addition to the oil business, it also has a very broad business in the energy field of batteries.

For example, Whittingham's patent was once licensed to ExxonMobil.

The two have a very deep cooperative relationship, which has been maintained until now, so Gram came to Whittingham.

Gram ran to Whittingham, took a few breaths, and then said, "Professor Whittingham, I'm glad to see you. Have you read the latest issues of JACS and ACS Nano?"

"Hmm? Is the new issue of JACS out? I haven't read it yet. As for ACS Nano, I don't pay much attention to nanotechnology."

The old man asked, "Mr. Gram came to see me, is it because of some important results in these two journals?"

"Yes!"

Mr. Graham nodded and handed the two magazines in his hand to Professor Whittingham.

Then I opened the table of contents and marked the three papers above.

“Look at these three papers! Do these three new materials represent lithium-sulfur solid-state batteries?”

Upon hearing this, Professor Whittingham narrowed his eyes.

"Lithium-sulfur solid-state battery? Are you kidding me?"

"Of course I'm not kidding! Otherwise I wouldn't have come all the way to see you!"

Gram said.

Whittingham glanced at the titles of the three papers.

A carbon nanoporous material that can effectively inhibit the growth of lithium dendrites?

real or fake?

Regarding the problem of lithium dendrites, have methods been found to suppress them?

It must be fake, right?
However, considering that the journal in which this paper was published was ACS Nano, he had to temporarily put aside his doubts.

As the top journal in the field of nanomaterials, ACS Nano has an impact factor of 15, which is even higher than that of JACS. Papers published in this journal are quite credible.

Which research team produced this material?
He immediately looked at the author of the paper, and then was stunned.

Xiao Yi?

Of course he knew this name. He had seen the electron-interface reaction migration model that Xiao Yi had developed some time ago.

At the time, he also gave a very positive evaluation of this model: "How electrons behave at the interface has always been a major problem that has troubled the academic community. If this problem can be solved, it will play a key role in our analysis of related materials, especially in the analysis of electrochemical problems. Fortunately, the electron-interface reaction migration model has successfully solved this problem for us."

And it has only been a short time, and under his leadership, such results have been achieved?

Let’s look at the two papers in JACS.

A sulfur electrode with extremely excellent performance in terms of cycle efficiency and electrical conductivity is actually sulfided polyacrylonitrile?

There is also a modified lithium phosphorus sulfur chlorine solid electrolyte, this interface impedance... and this ion conductivity...

He was more and more shocked, until finally, he said to Gram: "Let's go to the laboratory now, I want to start the experiment now!"

Then he walked towards the laboratory without saying a word.

Although he is over 80 years old, his steps seem to have become stronger.

Gram hurriedly followed, shouting, "Professor, slow down! Wait for me!"

Soon, following the steps given in the paper, he synthesized the three materials and began to prepare batteries.

As the measurement results come out.

"The energy density is as high as over 900 watt-hours per kilogram!"

Looking at the result, Whittingham was shocked.

And Gram next to him also glared.

He couldn't help but mutter, "This energy density... is two or three times higher than the most advanced battery currently available, right?"

"More than that?" Whittingham pointed at the battery he had assembled and said, "Look at how simple my battery is. I bet that if the structure is further optimized, the energy density can be further increased by four or five hundred!"

"Moreover, this kind of data on paper is actually not very meaningful from a scientific research perspective. What you have to know is that whether it is a lithium-sulfur battery or a solid-state battery, the most important thing is its feasibility. Being able to manufacture it and make it run stably is the key."

"Think about it, even if the previous lithium-sulfur battery or solid-state battery technologies were developed, could they be used? Can they be safely put into the consumer market?"

Whittingham shook his head and said, "Definitely not. Even if it has a certain degree of safety, but the technology expires after half a year, all we will get is abuse from consumers."

"Now, these three technologies are completely feasible and can withstand the test of consumers." He sighed and said, "I can bet with you that the battery market will change drastically within two years at the latest. Lithium-ion batteries should account for 60% of the battery market now, right?"

"According to our company's research, it's already 70 percent," Gram said.

Whittingham was a little surprised: "Is it that high?"

But then he shook his head and didn't seem too surprised.

With the development of various human technologies, there is indeed no other material that can replace the superior performance of lithium batteries in terms of batteries.

As for the hypothetical magnesium-ion batteries, aluminum-ion batteries, etc., their theoretical performance cannot be said to be much better than that of lithium batteries.

Therefore, it is quite normal that the market share of lithium batteries is getting higher and higher. In the consumer electronics market alone, there are basically only lithium batteries. As for electric vehicles, there is the heresy of fuel cells, but basically only Japanese and Korean cars are using this technology. After all, Japan and South Korea have invested huge costs in fuel cells, especially Japan, which is almost a classic gamble on the country's destiny.

It’s a pity that they all failed in their bets, and their products are not as good as the lithium batteries developed by China.

Then Whittingham said, "Believe me, now that lithium-sulfur solid-state batteries have been invented, it is estimated that they will be able to grab 20% of the market within five years. As production costs drop and prices become cheaper in the future, the remaining market size will be quickly replaced."

"Xiao Yi should have applied for patents for these three technologies, right?"

Gram nodded, his tone a little unhappy: "According to the results of our investigation, it has indeed been applied for."

Whittingham shook his head: "It seems that the future battery market will completely become the property of the Chinese."

Gram remained silent and did not refute, because he knew very well that what Whittingham said was indeed true.

In the current battery market, Linde and Diaby from China together account for more than 50 percent of the market share, ranking first and second in the world respectively. Among the top ten companies, Chinese companies directly occupy six seats, accounting for more than two-thirds of the global market share.

Now, even lithium-sulfur solid-state batteries have appeared in China, which has put energy companies outside China, such as ExxonMobil, under tremendous pressure.

Of course, as an executive of ExxonMobil, Gramm is well aware of the reasons for this situation.

After all, it was they who were responsible for China's vigorous development of new energy.

"Then Professor, I won't bother you any more. I have to go back to the company first and report the situation."

"Okay, walk slowly."

Whittingham nodded.

Standing at the door of the laboratory, with his hands on his hips, watching Gram leave, he returned to the laboratory, picked up the experimental data, and looked at it with admiration.

As for the market size and so on, he doesn't care at all. After all, he is over 80 years old, and these things are no longer worth his attention.

He felt satisfied enough to see someone make such great progress in lithium battery technology again.

……

Time passed quickly, and after these three papers were discovered and the lithium-sulfur solid-state battery technology was successfully verified, the battery market began to experience huge fluctuations.

In the stock market, the share prices of battery-related companies have fallen rapidly.

These companies also held meetings overnight to discuss solutions to this new technology.

But there is no doubt that they all know very well that no matter how much they think about countermeasures, there is absolutely no good way to deal with this kind of thing.

Who lets them be so advanced?
Unless they can also achieve a major breakthrough in technology in this area.

However, breakthroughs are not so easy to achieve. Otherwise, having invested so much money in this area over the years, wouldn’t they have already achieved a lot of results?
Of course, for the academic community, these three achievements have made many research groups excited.

Xiao Yi directly produced such amazing material, doesn't it seem that their research topic is useless?

Others have already been able to use it in practical use, but they are still under laboratory conditions.

The results that could originally be published in Nature or Science may now only be published in the first section, and the papers that could originally be published in the first section may only be relegated to the third or fourth sections.

For a time, the academic community was also wailing.

Some of these research teams were supported by some large companies. However, as soon as this incident happened, these research teams were directly scolded by the company leaders with words like "good-for-nothings" and then disbanded on the spot.

What can they do?

Scientific research is like this, the winner takes all. When a major technological breakthrough occurs, there will inevitably be a mess left behind.

Only one person can stand on the crest of the tide of the times.

However, while some are happy, others are sad. It is a tragedy for other companies and laboratories, but for consumers, it is great news.

There are many people discussing this matter on various social platforms.

There are even more people discussing this on Weibo and Zhihu in China. After all, China is a leader in the battery industry, so it is normal that so many people are discussing this.

On Zhihu, related questions even ranked among the top three hot topics.

[The team led by Xiao Yi has successfully achieved a very significant breakthrough in battery technology. Three related papers have been published in two top journals, "JACS" and "ACS Nano". How do you interpret this news? ]

When you click on this question, you will see that the first answer with the highest number of likes is from a person who is a researcher specializing in various fields such as materials and electrochemistry, and is also a professor at Tsinghua University.

[Thanks for the invitation. I finally encountered a problem that matches my expertise.

As for how to interpret this news, I only need to say one thing: the battery life of the mobile phone you are holding right now will be increased by two or three times in the future. Today's mobile phones generally have a battery of 5000mah, so in the future it may be 15000mah or even 20000mah. And if you want to use a battery with this kind of battery life, you probably only need to wait another year.
Of course, maybe you are holding a laptop or a tablet right now, but the same principle applies. You will soon be able to use a laptop or tablet with three or four times the battery life of your current one.

Especially for laptops, if you are currently using a Windows computer, have you ever envied the long battery life of a Mac laptop? Don't worry, you will soon be able to use a laptop with a longer battery life than the current Mac. Of course, if you are currently using a Mac, don't worry, you will soon be able to use a Mac with a battery life of more than three days.

Of course, in addition to these, there are also friends who want to drive pure electric vehicles. In the near future, the range of pure electric vehicles will easily reach more than 1000 kilometers. Even if it is a high-performance pure electric vehicle, 2000 kilometers is completely possible!

Moreover, the low-temperature power loss problem that electric vehicles have been criticized for will no longer be a problem with the support of lithium-sulfur solid-state batteries. According to the test results of major laboratories, even in extreme environments such as minus fifty degrees Celsius, it can maintain 80% of its performance. And it should be noted that gasoline vehicles may not be able to start in low-temperature environments, but electric vehicles do not have this problem. So to some extent, pure electric vehicles using lithium-sulfur solid-state batteries will beat gasoline vehicles in all aspects except that they cannot run after refueling.

Of course, if you drive a hybrid car, just ignore what I said.

But it is undeniable that pure electric vehicles will truly achieve zero emissions, will truly help improve the environment, and will not affect people's travel experience at all.

In short, the lithium-sulfur solid-state battery developed by Professor Xiao Yi will become a technology that truly changes people's lifestyles! 】

(End of this chapter)