I am devoted to scientific research, but you want to trick me into having a love relationship?

Chapter 679 Was the attempt to show off predicted?

In July, the summer heat is at its peak.

Besides the heat, I was busy.

At the beginning of the month, Xu Qingzhou celebrated his 24th birthday and went shopping with Song Yao, and had a nice meal together.

The dendrite group is currently completing the final work, conducting iterative experiments, and refining techniques such as the TiON-TiO nanocoating and magnetron sputtering gradient doping to improve the performance of the samples.

Xu Qingzhou secluded himself at home for two days, analyzing various data, but he had no ideas. Meanwhile, the shuttle effect group's experiment also hit a bottleneck.

They are currently working on two materials, carbon nanotube composite aerogel and FeCoNi-S high-entropy sulfide, but the improvement effect has not been as expected.

This hurt them quite a bit.

Meanwhile, the lithium dendrite group was nearing completion of their experiment, but they didn't know when they would be able to produce it.

So, Xu Qingzhou, who had just celebrated her birthday, spent three days in the lab.

Finally, with Zheng Xu and the others, they solved the problem of cracks appearing in the SEI film after using the two materials mentioned above.

Song Yao was not to be outdone. At Zero Point Technology, there was a lot going on. Just in terms of lithium dendrites alone, she could apply for more than ten patents.

This is only the beginning.

From material composition and structure, namely the design of nitrogen-doped TiON lattice structure and biomimetic multi-level porous coating, to the preparation process, including the realization of nitrogen atom lattice embedding and magnetron sputtering gradient doping technology, and finally to equipment and detection, an in-situ dendrite monitoring coating integrated system was independently designed.
First, apply for basic patents to cover the core structure and initially form a technological barrier, and then build peripheral patents.

It sounds simple, but it's actually quite a lot of work.

The dendrite group progressed steadily, and Xu Qingzhou also took the time to refine the anion migration model for the shuttle effect group.

He finally had time to go through the shuttle effect group's experiments from beginning to end, logically tracing back the experimental steps, which allowed him to connect the scattered operations into a structured memory, helping to deepen his thinking.

Monday, October 7.

In his office, Xu Qingzhou frowned, tossing the lab report aside.

He spent two days reviewing all the experiments from last September to the present, but unfortunately, he didn't get any useful information.

"It's giving me a headache."

Xu Qingzhou took a sip of coffee to refresh himself; after looking at the data for two consecutive days, he felt a bit numb.

"I have absolutely no ideas. I've tried all the materials I could. Have I really hit a bottleneck?"

He moved the mouse, his gaze landing on the project file.

Actually, I didn't watch it all.

Xu Qingzhou thought for a moment, then opened one of the files, which contained discarded plans.

Two hours passed, and it was already getting dark.

"Whoo~"

"Finally, we've found something different. Nitrogen/boron co-doped carbon nanotubes seem to be promising."

Xu Qingzhou's gaze involuntarily fell on the abandoned plan.

Zheng Xu's group tested a total of three materials at the time, but the nitrogen/boron doped carbon nanotubes were discarded due to insufficient synergy between conductivity and catalytic activity.

"But based on the experiments over the past few months, it has an advantage that no other material has: strong chemical adsorption, forming strong polar sites that can chemically anchor LiPSs."

"Perhaps we can start from this point."

Xu Qingzhou twirled the pen in his hand and got right to work, picking up a brand-new manuscript from the corner of the table.

Thursday.

After finishing the last class of the semester, Xu Qingzhou, who rarely had time, went to Professor Gu Zhizhong's place to have some tea.

"Hey, what a rare guest! It's been a long time since you've come to my place."

Old Gu was the only one in the office. Meng Bin took two junior classmates to visit Sichuan University.

"I've been busy lately."

Xu Qingzhou didn't stand on ceremony with Gu Zhizhong and sat down with a smile.

Usually, when he has time after class, he will go to sit with Gu Zhizhong or Chu Jiangfeng.

Unlike Gu Zhizhong, Chu Jiangfeng, who was still teaching undergraduates and rarely stayed in his office—a man in his fifties or sixties who traveled all over the world—visited Gu Zhizhong's office much more frequently. Soon, the aroma of tea filled the room.

Gu Zhizhong poured tea for Xu Qingzhou before smiling and asking, "You actually had time to come today. How did the experiment go?"

"There has been some progress in lithium dendrite assembly."

"Progress is already very good. Experiments can't be rushed; we have to take it one step at a time, steadily and surely."

Gu Zhizhong said with a smile, "The competition in the battery field is much fiercer than before. Just a few days ago, the Max Planck Institute in Germany announced that it had achieved 3000 hours of dendrite-free short circuits by optimizing the grain boundaries of solid electrolytes."

"Yes, this is already a remarkable advancement in the battery field."

Xu Qingzhou nodded.

The battery industry is buzzing with activity. A South Korean team's gold nanoparticle-induced technology achieved a capacity retention of >82.5% after 500 cycles, while reducing dendrite growth rate by 90%.

MIT has developed a mechanical stress control method that can apply mechanical stress to guide the directional growth of dendrites and prevent them from penetrating the diaphragm.

Domestically, CATL has produced a sulfide solid-state battery with an energy density of 600Wh/kg.

Everyone says that we are about to enter the era of solid-state batteries.

He smiled and continued, "It seems you've been following battery news quite a bit."

Four or five years have passed, and Professor Gu has hardly changed at all. In fact, Xu Qingzhou felt that he was in better spirits than when they first met.

"I just glanced at it."

Gu Zhizhong said with a smile.

He might not have cared before, but after Xu Qingzhou started conducting battery experiments, he would occasionally take a look.

"Tell me about your experiment first. Based on what I know about you, I estimate your progress is not much worse than that of the Max Planck Institute."

Gu Zhizhong stroked the tea.

Xu Qingzhou almost choked. Well, Professor Gu had already anticipated his movement.

He said, "There has been some progress. Last week, we resolved the lithium dendrite issue."

"."

The office was silent for a few seconds.

Gu Zhizhong's hand, which was drinking tea, froze. He stared in astonishment at the young man in front of him. Although he prided himself on his good composure, it still took him a while to understand the meaning behind Xu Qingzhou's words.

He put down his teacup and asked, "You mean...you've already solved the lithium dendrite problem?"

Xu Qingzhou nodded with a smile, "Yes, it's currently in the confidential stage. Professor Zhao and the others are doing the final work. It will probably be another month or so before it's officially announced."

Seeing Xu Qingzhou's serious expression, Gu Zhizhong fell silent again, picked up his tea and took two sips to calm his nerves.

He couldn't help but glare at her and say, "Is this what you meant by 'a little breakthrough'?"

He was prepared.

This kid is pretentious, or perhaps just young and arrogant. Those minor experimental advances probably don't even count as progress in his eyes.

but.
I underestimated them.

Lithium dendrites—although he wasn't in the field of physics, he knew how difficult they were to solve. The fact that Xu Qingzhou and his team were able to do so within a year was nothing short of a miracle.

Xu Qingzhou smiled and said, "I'm just laying the groundwork first, taking it step by step, to give you some mental preparation."

"Next time, just tell me directly about this kind of thing; it's making me worry unnecessarily."

"Next time for sure."

Looking at the young man calmly drinking tea across from him, Gu Zhizhong was a little surprised, his expression was very complicated. "You, ever since I met you, it seems like you've always been doing unexpected things."

From the Cramer conjecture to the twin prime conjecture, and then to the Riemann conjecture, the field of physics has been transformed, first with superconducting thin films, and now even lithium dendrites have been solved.

"I was just lucky."

"Wow, you're being humble again now?"

(End of this chapter)