Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
They certainly had a blackboard.
Even if they didn’t, someone would find out just for Lu Zhou.
Old Lu heard Lu Zhou’s request and immediately told his assistant.
Within two minutes, the conference staff dragged a blackboard from a classroom into the auditorium.
Lu Zhou walked to the blackboard, picked up a piece of chalk, and started to write on the blackboard.
He actually already studied this question when he was researching the topological transformation of spherical surfaces back in Princeton.
Particularly, the relationship between the electrochemical and mechanical properties of the hollow carbon spheres. He had systematically analyzed and produced mathematical models in this area.
Now all he needed to do was to present his research.
This wasn’t difficult for Lu Zhou at all.
The conference hall quieted down.
No one made a sound, they were all watching Lu Zhou.
Professor Sun stared blankly at the blackboard; he didn’t expect Lu Zhou to actually start writing.
Actually, if Professor Sun was familiar with the mathematics industry, he would know that any mathematician would be able to prove their ideas. Especially Lu Zhou.
After all, the person standing in front of the blackboard once proved the twin prime conjecture on the spot, leaving a legacy at Princeton.
In contrast, proving an already established theory was nothing difficult.
Lu Zhou wrote down the last line of equations and stopped. He looked back at the other professors in the conference room.
“According to my calculations, hollow carbon nanospheres with a specific surface area in the range of [2326m2g-1, 3762m2g-1] and a diameter of [60nm-70nm] can theoretically slow the diffusion of polysulfide compounds and inhibit the shuttle effect.
“Of course, this is all theoretical. Specific chemical formulas, molecular morphology, and more conclusions need to be validated through repeated experiments. I only demonstrated the possibilities.
“This is the basic situation, are there any questions?”
This…
I don’t have any questions.
The professors looked seriously at the blackboard, but they were muddled on the inside. The engineers from various companies were taking down notes; they didn’t care if it was useful or not, they wanted to copy it down first.
Old Lu’s eyes lit up. Although he didn’t understand what Lu Zhou had written, he saw the possibility of a new form of energy.
Lu Zhou placed the chalk in his hand down.
At the MRS Conference, no one was able to understand his proof. The group of lithium-ion professors could only nod at his conclusion without even asking a single question.
It was the same here.
…
Actually, Lu Zhou had been thinking about a problem when he was researching “Debris No.1”.
It wasn’t about the technology itself, but things outside of the technology.
Objectively speaking, the birth of a piece of technology had to be in accordance with certain laws.
For example, the zipper. Human civilization invented clothes for protection, and in order to make the clothes more convenient to wear, buttons were invented. Then, in the 19th century, the industrial revolution made a dramatic breakthrough in production technology, and the zipper was born.
For the same reason, Lu Zhou believed that there had to be previous inventions before the lithium-air batteries.
In their high tech civilization, there had to have existed a previous iteration of the invention.
It was highly possible that this invention was the lithium-sulfur battery.
Although the carbon nanospheres in the anode material of Debris No. 1 wasn’t directly related to lithium-sulfur batteries, it still brought inspiration to him.
Technological inventions weren’t done in a day. The hollow carbon sphere had to have been invented before the lithium-air battery.
Lu Zhou remembered the prompt of the mission task; his intuition told him that the hollow carbon spheres had to be the key to solving the lithium-sulfur battery problem.
Therefore, he conveyed this viewpoint at this conference.
However, he didn’t know if people would believe him.
The conference ended, and people began to exit the auditorium.
Professor Wang sat in his seat and didn’t move; he had a dissatisfied expression.
He had no logical reason to be unhappy. After all, he was involved in carbon-sulfur composite materials, and a hollow carbon sphere was also a kind of carbon-sulfur composite materials, but Lu Zhou’s attitude toward it made him very dissatisfied.
A 23-year-old researcher had just educated him?
Not only that, but he also thought that Old Lu thought way too highly of Lu Zhou.
Scientific research was esoteric, but there was no special technique. The method was nothing more than continuous experimentation, trial and error, summing up mistakes, and using the experience to build new theories.
In a sense, to experiment was to gamble.
Many people had tried to add surface polymer materials to the surface of lithium anodes. The company, Moli, had spent hundreds of millions of dollars on this research topic. After their bankruptcy, the project was picked up by NEC, who also burned hundreds of millions of dollars on the topic, but they still hadn’t produced any results.
However, a mathematician like Lu Zhou just came in from nowhere, wrote a couple dozen lines of calculations, and claimed to solve this billion-dollar project? Wasn’t that outrageous?
Wang Haifeng was furious.
However, he had to accept the reality.
Computational materials science was previously an unpopular master’s major. Most students in computational materials science ended up working in software development. However, after the paper Lu Zhou published in Nature last year, many universities started to contemplate whether or not they should add a functional analysis class to their course.
Wang Haifeng looked at Lu Zhou and said to academician Wu Shigang, “Don’t you think this kid is crazy?”
Although they had differences in academic viewpoints, they were both in the field of lithium batteries, so their non-professional relationship was still good. However, Lu Zhou suddenly appeared out of nowhere, shocking the materials science field.
But, Academician Wu and Wang Haifeng had different opinions.
Most engineers were more pragmatic, and in his opinion, age and identity were secondary. Although he had opinions about Lu Zhou, they were purely academic.
Also, Academician Wu usually spoke what was on his mind.
He was brutally honest in conferences and in his daily life.
Wu Shigang looked at Wang Haifeng and said, “He funds all of his research with his own money, why is it any your business? Just do your own research.”
After that, Mr. Wu packed his things and left.
Wang Haifeng was just defeated by Lu Zhou, and now, his old friend attacked him as well; his blood pressure started to rise, and his face started to blush.
Finally, after a while, he was able to mutter something, “Why is that Lu Zhou guy so happy anyway… He’s nothing.”
Wang Haifeng picked up his vacuum flask and walked away.
