During this time, Lu Zhou has always been concerned about the movements of his peers.

On the arxiv website, the paper on hollow carbon spheres and sulfur simple composites showed an overall upward trend.

Although biology and chemistry are biased towards the field of engineering, an innovative idea is not decisive, so scholars' enthusiasm for submitting papers on arxiv is far less than pure mathematics, theoretical physics, and computer science. However, the trend of the growth of such terms still intuitively reflects the trend of the academic world.

At the same time, through the search of professional academic search engines, it is also obvious that the recent achievements on hollow carbon spheres are constantly emerging.

In contrast, these results are not as groundbreaking as hcs-1.

Of course, it does not rule out that the major research institutions have already had certain results, but for the sake of greater ambition, the staged results are not published in the hands of the people, and they are secretly taking advantage of the big moves.

After all, companies like Umicore and Nichia are willing to cooperate with Luzhou when the cost of patent licensing is lower than the illegal cost, but it is obviously more keen to hold the patent in their own hands.

From the last meeting with Carnot, Lu Zhou saw some clues. I don’t even have to think about it. The Belgian laboratory must have already started to work hard to get the high ground.

If this is the case, Lu Zhou will have to speed up.

......

In mid-March, after receiving a reply from the "Science" side, Lu Zhou and Yang Xu, who was far away from Jinling, had a short time to open a short video conference to discuss the next research plan.

Before the meeting began, Lu Zhou sent the relevant information of hcs-1 to Yang Xu's work mailbox, including the data published by the submitted journals, and some have not been published yet.

It is precisely because of this, at the beginning of the video call, Yang Xu immediately asked: "What email are you and me?"

Lu Zhouyan said in a concise manner: "The new experimental plan, the relevant information is in the mail, the sample will be sent soon. In short, I need you to help me try to find a way to stably synthesize hcs-1 material."

The method of making hcs-1 material in Sarrot's laboratory has a relatively large chance. Even in a strict sense, hcs-1 is only a by-product of the reaction, obtained by centrifugation and further purification.

Even without considering the limited industrial application prospects of the hcs-1 material itself, it is difficult to achieve industrial production in response to this inefficient production method.

Unless someone is willing to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for a lithium battery and spend a lot of money to deal with piles of scrap, this is obviously impossible from a continuing perspective.

There are two ways to promote hcs-1 material, one is to improve the preparation method and compress the production cost. The other is to improve the material itself.

With hcs-1 as a reference, continue to study along the existing ideas, it is not difficult to find hcs-2 or even hcs-3 which is more suitable for mixing with sulfur.

For these reasons, Lu Zhou set two directions when he set the research direction for the Jinling Institute of Computational Materials. One is the process improvement of the hcs-1 material, and the other is the improvement of the hcs-1 material itself.

His requirements for the Jinling Institute for Computational Materials are different from those of the Sarrot Laboratory, which is to complete the system task to study the topologically folded cage molecules.

The former is focused on reality, that is, to solve the shuttle effect.

This is the need of the new energy industry and the need for a national new energy strategy. Whether it is for personal research interests or a commitment to the Huaguo Energy Bureau, Lu Zhou will work hard in this regard.

Yang Xu said with a nervous mind: "You have given me a problem."

Lu Zhou smiled and said: "I believe you can do it."

Yang Xu: "Aside from the vague direction, is there a more specific idea?"

Lu Zhou thought for a moment and said: "There is a point in thinking. I said that if you remember, you will not send another email."

Yang Xu nodded seriously and took out the pen and paper.

Lu Zhou drank his mouth and continued: "Glucose."

The silence between the two was about half a minute.

Yang Xu squats: "...glucose?"

Lu Zhou nodded. "Yes, at a specific point, the precursor is changed from a copolymer of polyaniline and polypyrrole to glucose."

This is the result of his discussions with Sarrot. As for how to discuss it, it is naturally a lot of calculations and experiments and some essential "scientific intuitions".

This may sound a bit unreliable, but at least there is some theoretical basis for the "trial and error".

Although these theories have yet to be confirmed.

However, listening to Yang Xu's ear, it is to let his brow twitched.

"Gone?"

Lu Zhou spread his hand and said in a positive tone: "No, just these."

No wonder there is no need to send e-mails.

Yang Xu spit in the heart and put away the pen and paper on the table.

After a pause, Lu Zhou continued: "A similar study is not just what we are doing. As far as I know, there are Belgian Umicore and Nichia. We are competing with international chemical giants. I know the task is very It’s arduous, but I hope you can overcome it.”

Yang Xu couldn't help but say: "If this is really a potential direction, you should not say it at the seminar."

Lu Zhou made a helpless expression: "The situation at the time was a bit special, and I didn't expect that they would be so arrogant about the content of the discussion at the seminar."

There is another saying that Lu Zhou did not say.

What he didn't expect most was that it was made public, and there are still so many people who are taking it seriously...

......

Hollow carbon spheres are a very promising direction, and as a potential direction, there is no shortage of competitors on the same road.

In academia, light is a novel idea and is worthless.

In addition to the international chemical giants such as Umicore and Nichia, there are many research institutes doing similar research. Among them, there are cooperation with enterprises, and there are also vertical issues to take money from the state.

For example, Professor Wang Haifeng is one of them.

When Lu Zhou and Yang Xu exchanged technical issues, he was also busy with the project.

However, he is not busy with experiments, but preparation for experiments.

About two weeks ago, the laboratory's subject was finally determined. The hollow carbon ball/sulfur composite was used as the positive electrode to solve the problem of diffusion of polysulfide compounds from the positive electrode to the organic electrolyte. Although he does not like Lu Zhou, he has to agree that the hollow carbon ball is indeed a very promising direction.

The opening report for the application for funding has already been handed in. If there is no accident, the results will be seen in these few days.

As a research boss, what he needs to do now is to determine a more specific research direction and assign research tasks to scientific labor.

However, at this time, his doctoral student Liu Hong was holding a brand new journal, and a constipated expression came in from outside the lab.

That way, it seems that there is something to say, but I don’t know what to say.

Looking at his own students, Wang Haifeng frowned slightly and asked.

"What happened?"

Liu Hong hesitated, and finally made up his mind.

"Professor... Our subject seems to have crashed with people."

Hearing this sentence, Wang Haifeng sitting in the office chair was almost not given his own saliva.

"Hey? You said? Crash?"

What the hell?

How can this be!

I haven’t applied for this project yet, why did I crash?