From Almighty Scholar to Chief Scientist

"Battery technology, battery technology."

In the Dingguang Research Institute, Lin Xiao was in a chemical laboratory. He was wearing a white coat, shaking a test tube in his hand, and was also reading aloud.

Obviously, when he faced the battery technology for the first time, he also felt confused as when he first faced nuclear fusion technology.

Of course, this is to be expected.

Since the birth of lithium-ion batteries, human beings seem to be trapped in the shackles of battery technology, making it difficult to make progress.

This shackle mainly refers to the shackles on battery energy density.

Energy density is one of the important criteria for evaluating the quality of a battery. For example, the energy density of a lithium iron phosphate battery is generally 160 watt-hours per kilogram, that is, the unit mass of the electrode participating in the reaction contains 160 watt-hours of electric energy.

And 160 watt-hours is equivalent to 0.16 degrees of electricity.

Obviously, this energy value is relatively small.

Of course, with the advancement of technology, in 2026, the strongest lithium-ion battery can already achieve an energy density of 400 watt-hours per kilogram, but even so, it still falls short of expectations.

Because batteries that can achieve such a high energy density are relatively expensive in cost, car companies like BYD still use lithium iron phosphate batteries that are less than 200 watts per kilogram. Of course, due to the use of blades The special structure of the battery makes its energy density per unit volume relatively high.

However, no matter what, whether it is a battery that has reached a maximum of 400 watt-hours per kilogram, or a blade battery that increases the energy density per unit volume by changing the structure, these are still essentially inseparable from the ion equation of the lithium-ion battery.

And there is no way to do this. To achieve this kind of essential "ascension", it needs trial and error in countless experiments, and some coincidences that are as coincidental as the creator directly feeding rice into the mouth. This leap in battery technology.

Of course, the most important point is that at that time, battery research had just entered the initial state and had not yet entered a bottleneck state, but now it is different, the development of batteries has reached this bottleneck.

Scientists naturally have certain ideas about the development of the next generation of batteries, but the difficulty of crossing the gap has far exceeded that of the past, so naturally there will be no such thing as only 15 years between nickel-metal hydride batteries and lithium-ion batteries. development process.

Just like the graphene battery that has been hyped up.

The graphene battery used to be advertised with the slogan "charging for 10 minutes can run [-] kilometers".

It’s just that this thing looks very beautiful, and in the end, an academician said, “If someone says, this car can run 1000 kilometers, and it can be fully charged in a few minutes. It is also very safe and the cost is very low. Then you don't have to believe it, because it's impossible." This sentence extinguished the heat.

Although the direction of graphene batteries is still a direction that can be studied, people's views on it are far from as hot as before. Many people even describe it as a scam when they think of graphene batteries.

"So, is the next-generation battery an all-solid-state battery?"

Lin Xiao read a sentence silently at this time, and then put the solution in the test tube on a fixed rack, and then inserted a zinc rod and a copper rod in it, and quietly watched the reaction inside.

I saw bubbles constantly appearing around the copper rod, which meant that the reaction had started. Lin Xiao also glanced at the ammeter connected next to it, and the reading on it had changed. It also shows that a current has been generated in the wire.

This is a very simple copper-zinc primary battery. The principle is very simple. Those who have studied chemistry in high school may have seen the teacher demonstrate the reaction process by himself.

The solution in the test tube is the electrolyte solution, dilute sulfuric acid.

Seeing this reaction, Lin Xiao's mind drifted to the other side.

"All solid-state battery..."

All-solid-state batteries, as the name suggests, are batteries that are all solid, including the electrolyte.

As we all know, a battery, or a primary battery, needs a solution, that is, an electrolytic cell solution.

This is also why the battery may leak after it is broken, because the outer shell of the battery may be damaged, which then causes the internal electrolytic cell to leak.

The leakage of this kind of solution will cause greater danger to the battery. For example, this kind of solution may cause danger to human skin, or other problems, and the most critical thing is that some internal things that cannot touch the air are exposed.

For example, the well-known Samsung mobile phone explosion incident was because its internal battery structure was not well designed, which made it extremely easy to damage, so the internal lithium alloy metal oxide directly exploded after contact with air.

In addition, in addition to explosion, damage to the positive and negative separators inside the lithium-ion battery will also lead to direct contact between the positive and negative electrodes, resulting in a short circuit. After a sharp rise in temperature, the electrolyte solution will overheat and spontaneously ignite, which will also bring danger.

Therefore, the electrolyte solution has become the main source of danger.

At this time, if the electrolyte solution can be replaced with a solid electrolyte, then these problems can be solved, because at this time, even if the outside of the electrolyte is damaged, the solid electrolyte is obviously impossible to leak like a liquid electrolyte, and then cause Air gets inside and reacts with the lithium, making it difficult for the solid electrolyte to spontaneously ignite due to overheating, even if the diaphragm is damaged and a short circuit occurs.

"However, what should this solid electrolyte look like?"

At this time, Lin Xiao pinched his chin and began to think.

At this moment, his brain is like a top supercomputer, starting to run at a high speed.

After a while, he found a piece of paper from the side, and wrote the word [solid] on it, then crossed out the solid, and wrote the word [colloid].

"Well, it's colloid."

Lin Xiao nodded slightly.

Strictly speaking, colloid is neither solid nor liquid, just like jelly. Obviously, jelly is not liquid, and it does not meet the strict definition of solid. At the same time, jelly is transparent and can produce Tyndall effect, so it is a colloid. .

But now Lin Xiao's inspiration gave him an intuition that this so-called solid electrolyte can be made into a colloid.

"Well... then, now we need to try to design a colloid with lithium ions."

Solid electrolyte, currently the most perfect fit object is lithium battery.

Because solid lithium batteries have an energy storage effect that can amaze all scientists around the world under the limit energy density, such as the ultimate form of lithium batteries-lithium-air batteries, or strictly speaking, lithium-oxygen batteries.

Lithium-oxygen batteries have excellent energy density, almost ten or even twenty times that of current batteries.

The lithium-oxygen battery also needs a solid electrolyte as a medium.

Of course, there are more critical technologies about lithium-oxygen batteries. For now, Lin Xiao maintains an attitude of giving up on the ultimate form of this lithium-oxygen battery.

However, in addition to this ultimate form, there is also a super form, which is the lithium-sulfur battery.

Lithium-sulfur batteries also have excellent energy density, which is about half that of lithium-oxygen batteries.

For lithium-sulfur batteries, the solid electrolyte is the main technical difficulty it faces. As long as the problems on the solid electrolyte are solved, other technical difficulties can be easily solved.

Lin Xiao frowned slightly, and quickly made a decision—it was a lithium-sulfur battery.

Thinking of this, he put down all the experimental equipment in his hands, and at the same time cleaned up the solution in the test tube, completely disposing of all the garbage generated after the experiment according to the standard procedures of the chemical laboratory, and then came to the computer and began to write. The experiment plan.

Because he had a clear idea about what to do next, he wrote the plan very quickly, and he wrote down a plan with a length of [-] words.

"Well, it took two hours, not a bad result."

Lin Xiao nodded in satisfaction, at least he was much better than some web writers who only coded [-] words in an hour.

After saving the plan, he turned off the computer, and then came back to the experimental bench, preparing to experiment with making several colloidal electrolytes according to his own ideas.

At the same time, he also felt emotional in his heart.

"Lithium battery, lithium battery."

As the No. [-] metal element, No. [-] cation element, the next generation of lithium batteries, what kind of battery can it be?

Is it possible that after humans have completed the lithium-oxygen battery, the ultimate form of lithium batteries, there will be no way forward?

At that time, the only way to go is nuclear batteries?

This is entirely possible. After nuclear batteries are used in the future, no matter whether it is a mobile phone or a car, there is no need to replenish energy, and it will be fine to send people away directly.

However, this kind of thing, as far as it is concerned, does not need to be considered.

Because this kind of technology still needs to be upgraded through many generations of technology. After all, taking nuclear fission technology as an example, it has only been miniaturized to nuclear submarines, and it cannot be reduced to the size of a car battery.

However, at this moment, a flash of inspiration suddenly appeared in Lin Xiao's mind.

Maybe it was the energy revealer halo activated, maybe it was the inspiration he had captured himself.

"Maybe there is a hydrogen battery step?"

His eyes fluttered slightly.

On the periodic table of elements, hydrogen is ranked above lithium, and it is also the number one cationic element. In addition, hydrogen is also somewhat similar to metals in nature, so the direction of hydrogen batteries is also feasible?

Of course, in the history of batteries, there have been batteries such as nickel-metal hydride batteries, but in fact nickel-hydrogen batteries are actually hydroxide ion batteries, which are different from the hydrogen batteries Lin Xiao thinks about now. The hydrogen battery can be called a hydrogen ion battery, of course, it can also be called a proton battery.

Hydrogen ions are generally considered to be indistinguishable from protons, because a hydrogen atom itself is composed of an electron and a proton. After losing an electron and becoming a hydrogen ion, it means that only one proton is left, so it is no problem to call it a proton. .

Relying on the superior properties of hydrogen as the number one element, if a problem called proton exchange membrane can be solved, and then combined with a solid electrolyte, lithium batteries will be completely replaced by it.

Lin Xiao's eyes became brighter, and then he washed away from the experiment table, walked to the computer again, turned on the computer, and wrote a new plan on the back.

【Proton Battery Project】

Now, he wants to grasp both the lithium-sulfur battery and the proton battery, with both hands, and both hands must be hard.

So very quickly, he wrote another [-] words in eloquence.

"Well, an hour and a half, even faster than before."

Of course, proton batteries probably brought him more interest than lithium-sulfur batteries.

Afterwards, he searched for papers with great interest.

If I remember correctly, there are quite a lot of research on proton exchange membranes. After all, there are a lot of people who study hydrogen fuel cells, and they have been trying to create this kind of proton exchange membranes, and there are already many types of protons. The membrane was exchanged.

It’s just that these proton exchange membranes basically exist in the electrolyte solution, and they are planned to be used in solid electrolytes, so there are certain differences; in addition, different proton exchange membranes also have different costs and performances. Different, basically cost and performance are directly proportional.

Of course, the cost of all these proton exchange membranes is relatively high. It is precisely because of this that hydrogen fuel cells are not widely used in automobiles. At the same time, the battery life is not as good as that of lithium electric vehicles, so it has not been realized. universal.

Now, Lin Xiao wants to change this situation. Of course, what he wants to study is not hydrogen fuel cells, but hydrogen batteries that can be charged and discharged like lithium batteries.

Soon, after reading a few related papers, he couldn't help complaining: "This thing really feels like a mixed bag."

There are quite a lot of companies researching proton exchange membranes, but most of them are here to make up the numbers, and a small number of companies are in the richest companies, and they are also facing difficulties in development.

"Forget it, let's take a look at the molecular formulas of these things first."

Lin Xiao shook his head, and no longer struggled with which proton exchange membrane to choose for reference. Anyway, the products of these companies are not good, so it is better for him to study it himself.

For him, all changes in the microscopic field can be directly transformed into the interaction of the four fundamental forces by him, and then he can solve the problems he faces from a more essential perspective.

After all, in this universe, all the movement of matter can be explained as the action of the four fundamental forces.

In this way, a research that can probably be recorded in the history of science began again. After all, batteries are the only large energy storage technology other than superconducting energy storage coils among the technologies that humans have mastered. Innovation is enough to attract the attention of the scientific community.

……

Time passed quickly.

In the next few days, Lin Xiao also signed with Zhu Cheng the research sponsored by Jinwu Energy Group, and all the final results belonged to Lin Xiao, including the final patent.

The sponsorship of the first phase was as high as [-] million.

Although it can be said that Jinwu Energy Group is facing a capital demand of hundreds of billions in order to build controllable nuclear fusion power stations across the country in the future, don’t forget that the original State Grid Corporation has been completely merged into Jinwu Energy Group In the middle, so he is still very rich, and investing [-] million in Lin Xiao will not have much impact.

For Lin Xiao, a sponsorship of [-] million yuan is quite a lot. Although he has identified two research goals now, the money spent will definitely increase by then, but he may not be able to use up the [-] million yuan by then. Woolen cloth.

Of course, the most important thing is that this [-] million belongs to sponsorship, and the title of sponsorship is not like some companies looking for scientific researchers to invest funds to help them research a certain required technology. In the end, the ownership of this technology belongs to this company. owned by the company.

But now this [-] million is used as a sponsor, which means that all the final results will belong to Lin Xiao.

Most of the research done by Lin Xiao in the past was funded by the state. Naturally, he could not own the research results. The ownership of these technologies belonged to the state.

So once Lin Xiao develops such a battery technology, considering the profits of the battery industry, although Lin Xiao no longer cares whether he has money, if he can see that a large amount of money flows into his account every day , Thinking about it is quite motivating.

So in the following research, he also became more motivated.

……