After taking the advice, I became a top student.

The math competition brought about a dramatic change in Chen Mo's life. Because of the school-wide assembly, he now becomes the focus of attention wherever he goes.

This is undoubtedly very troubling.

Especially during class, the teachers would find all sorts of ways to make trouble for him.

English teacher Lin Qian has always been resentful that Chen Mo taught math in her class. In her opinion, English is not excluded from the college entrance examination, so why should English be disregarded?

One day, she deliberately asked Chen Mo an extremely difficult grammar question, hoping to embarrass him. Chen Mo stood up and answered Lin Qian's question in a perfect British accent.

Lin Qian was stunned.

However, she never called on Chen Mo to answer questions in class again after that.

She knew that English 93 only represented Chen Mo's past.

Ever since Chen Mo started learning chemistry, Deng Songyuan has been incredibly enthusiastic, calling on Chen Mo to answer questions in every class, and the questions have become increasingly difficult.

He used to always have a stern face in class and would throw chalk at the drop of a hat.

Now, every time he walks into the classroom, the first thing he does isn't to call for class, but to glance in Chen Mo's direction with the excitement of a hunter spotting his prey.

"Chen Mo!"

Sure enough, right after he finished explaining redox reactions, Deng Songyuan called on him.

"Could you answer this: what are the reduction products of potassium permanganate under acidic, neutral, and alkaline conditions?"

Chen Mo stood up and, without hesitation, said, "Under acidic conditions, it is reduced to Mn²⁺; under neutral conditions, it is reduced to MnO₂; and under alkaline conditions, it is reduced to MnO₄²⁻."

"Correct. Sit down."

Deng Songyuan nodded, but the smile on his lips showed that he had no intention of giving up.

In the following classes, he would call on Chen Mo to answer two or three times in each class, and the questions became increasingly tricky.

Which coordination compound, [Co(NH₃)₅Cl]²⁺ or [Co(NH₃)₅(H₂O)]³⁺, is more likely to undergo a substitution reaction? Why?

How can the molecular configuration of XeF₄ be explained using the valence shell electron pair repulsion theory?

"Provide an experimental procedure for preparing anhydrous aluminum chloride, and explain why it is necessary to isolate it from air and water vapor."

Chen Moquan answered correctly.

Each time he answered correctly, Deng Songyuan's eyes would light up a little more, and he would become like he was on drugs, raising his voice three octaves higher.

The whole class was stunned.

"Has Teacher Deng been driven crazy by Chen Mo?" Guo Chao whispered to Li Ze.

"I feel that Teacher Deng isn't testing Chen Mo, but rather finding a rival for himself," Li Ze shook his head.

"An opponent? I have a feeling he's raising a poisonous insect..."

until one day,

That day's topic was electrochemistry.

As usual, after finishing the course content, Deng Songyuan posed an additional question to Chen Mo.

"Chen Mo, I have an extracurricular question for you."

He pushed up his glasses, a sly glint in his eyes. "Do you know why lithium-sulfur batteries are difficult to commercialize? Analyze it from a chemical perspective."

The classroom was silent for a few seconds. It seemed like Teacher Deng had gone mad. Was this a question that high school students could answer?

Chen Mo frowned.

He knew about lithium-sulfur batteries, which theoretically have extremely high energy density, several times that of traditional lithium-ion batteries.

But he hadn't really studied in depth why it was difficult to commercialize.

"I can't answer that," Chen Mo said frankly, shaking his head.

A low gasp rippled through the classroom.

This was the first time Chen Mo had said no in front of Deng Songyuan.

Instead of being disappointed, Deng Songyuan slammed his hand on the podium, his face lighting up.

"Very good!"

His voice was filled with barely suppressed excitement: "You finally have something you don't understand! Come on, let me explain it to you!"

The whole class: "..."

Li Ze muttered under his breath, "Teacher, are you hoping he won't be waiting for too long?"

Deng Songyuan ignored him and started drawing on the blackboard.

"Lithium-sulfur batteries use sulfur as the positive electrode and metallic lithium as the negative electrode, with a theoretical energy density of up to 2600Wh/kg, which is five times that of existing lithium-ion batteries! However, it has a fatal problem called the shuttle effect."

He quickly wrote the reaction formula on the blackboard.

"During discharge, sulfur is reduced to form lithium polysulfides (Li₂Sₓ, x=4~8). These polysulfides dissolve in the electrolyte, diffuse to the negative electrode, react with metallic lithium to form short-chain polysulfides, and then diffuse back to the positive electrode. This is called shuttle."

This leads to low coulomb efficiency and rapid capacity decay, and the formation of dendrites in the lithium metal anode can puncture the separator and cause a short circuit.

Deng Songyuan spoke with great enthusiasm, gesturing wildly. For some reason, Chen Mo felt that Deng Songyuan was radiating light and bursting with immense passion when he was talking about this issue.

"Therefore, scientists have tried many methods, such as coating sulfur with carbon materials, designing porous structures to adsorb polysulfides, and developing solid electrolytes, but there is still no perfect solution."

He spoke for over ten minutes straight, finally catching his breath and looking at Chen Mo, "Do you understand?"

Chen Mo nodded thoughtfully, but his eyes were fixed on a certain direction in the void, as if he were having a high-speed brainstorming session.

"Teacher Deng."

Chen Mo suddenly spoke, his voice not loud, but it carried a power that made people involuntarily quiet down.

"You just said that the shuttle effect of polysulfides is due to their dissolution and diffusion in the electrolyte."

"right."

"What if... we don't let it dissolve?"

Deng Songyuan was taken aback. "Don't let it dissolve? What do you mean?"

Chen Mo walked to the front of the classroom, picked up the chalk, and drew a simple diagram on the blackboard.

"If you use a porous material to confine sulfur in nanoscale pores, the size of the pores is just right for lithium ions to pass through, but polysulfide molecules are too large to get in."

He drew a circle with a ring of small holes around it.

"If polysulfides get trapped in the channels, they won't be able to move around."

Deng Songyuan's eyes lit up: "You mean physical confinement? This idea has already been explored by others, such as carbon nanotubes, mesoporous carbon, and metal-organic frameworks..."

"No."

Chen Mo interrupted him and drew another diagram on the blackboard. "I'm not talking about simple physical limitations."

As you mentioned earlier when discussing coordination chemistry, some metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) not only have porous structures, but also uncoordinated active sites on the inner walls of the pores, which can chemisorb polysulfides.

He spoke faster and faster, the chalk clattering on the blackboard.

"If we could design a dual-functional MOF with a pore size of just 2-3 nanometers, capable of both physically confining polysulfides and chemically adsorbing them through polar functional groups or metal sites on the inner wall of the pores, wouldn't that be a combination of physical and chemical confinement?"

Deng Songyuan opened his mouth, but no words came out.

Chen Mo continued, "Moreover, I just saw that you wrote 'conductivity' on your blackboard."

He added a few small dots to the drawing with chalk.

"MOFs typically have poor conductivity, but if conductive carbon materials, such as graphene or carbon nanotubes, are combined with MOFs to form a three-dimensional conductive network, then both the conductivity and shuttle effect problems can be solved simultaneously."

"Even..." Chen Mo paused, his eyes shining, "if some catalytic sites are added to this composite structure to accelerate the conversion kinetics of polysulfides, the rate performance and cycle life of the battery can be improved."

"You mean, the adsorption-catalysis synergistic strategy?"

Deng Songyuan was struck dumb, his eyes flashing with a bright light as countless inspirations flooded his mind.

The classroom was completely silent.

The whole class stared blankly at Chen Mo, as if they were looking at an alien creature.

Zhou Hao murmured, "What...what is he saying?"