Chapter 277 Private Meeting

What Lu Zhou didn't expect was that when he came to the hotel lobby, not only Professor Li was here, but also two old men he didn't know.

One of them looked familiar but couldn't name it, and he didn't know the other one at all.

With a hint of doubt, Lu Zhou looked at Professor Li Rongen.

"Are you two?"

Professor Li was actually quite helpless.

Originally, he planned to contact Lu Zhou in two days to inquire about patent licensing, but he didn't expect to run into Dean Li from the next-door Chemical Institute who also came to attend the MRS meeting, and he was also accompanied by this big boss .

According to Dean Li, he has been calling Lu Zhou since the morning, but he couldn't reach anyone.

Thinking that Dean Li has helped him a lot, and the boss next to him is too big, Professor Li had no choice but to help.

As for the patent matter, it seems that we will have to wait until next time to talk about it.

"Let me introduce, this is the leader of our energy-related department, Lu Kaimin..."

"What's the leader? I came as a private person. According to the custom here, just call me Mr. Lu," Lu Kaimin shook Lu Zhou's hand enthusiastically, and said with a hearty smile without putting on any airs, "I have admired Lu Zhou for a long time. The professor is famous, I always hear people say that you are young and promising, I saw you today, you are younger than the legends."

I was a little surprised by the enthusiasm of this boss, but Lu Zhou was not a person who had never seen the world, so he shook hands with him politely.

"Excellent reputation, Mr. Lu!"

Professor Li continued to introduce: "This is the dean of our School of Chemistry, Dean Li Shuwen."

"Hello Hello……"

It is not polite to speak while standing.

After exchanging pleasantries, everyone found a restaurant near the hotel.

The standard of this restaurant is not high-end, but it is not low-end either. It mainly serves Boston local specialties.

On the way, Lu Zhou learned that Dean Li was here to attend the MRS meeting.

As for Mr. Lu Lao, the head of the relevant department, he applied for an academic visit in his own name and came with Dean Li.

During the meal, Lu Zhou chatted a lot about lithium batteries with Professor Li, Dean Li and Mr. Lu.

Chatting and chatting, the topic soon came to the issue of patents.

Mr. Lu: "I heard that Professor Lu authorized the anode material to Umicore?"

Lu Zhou nodded and said, "Yes, what's the problem?"

"No problem, just a little suggestion, Professor Lu, please don't misunderstand," Mr. Lu smiled, cleared his throat, and said in a serious tone, "The thing is like this, about the modification of PDMS We absolutely support all your legitimate rights and interests in domestic patent licensing of thin film materials. I just hope that when you choose a partner, no matter which company you choose and which method of cooperation you choose, please don’t sell the exclusive right to foreign companies.”

In fact, making such an abrupt request was a helpless move.

Huaguo is the world's largest consumer market for electric vehicles. With the breakthrough of lithium battery technology, it is foreseeable that the domestic lithium battery industry will usher in a stage of vigorous development.

It’s okay to say that the positive electrode is good. The patent of LiMo2 and other positive electrode materials has expired long ago, so it’s no problem to choose and use it casually.

But the key to lithium battery technology is the lithium negative electrode material, not the positive electrode. If the patent rights of lithium anode materials are in the hands of foreign companies, for domestic battery companies, it is undoubtedly equivalent to being stuck in the upstream water source.

The reason why Mr. Lu named foreign companies was not trade discrimination, but the example of Coartem was vivid in his memory, and it was even regarded as a classic case of intellectual property rights, which was posted on the official website of the State Intellectual Property Bureau as a warning.

It is obvious that the technology developed by oneself has to be controlled by others at the doorstep of one's own home. This kind of pain is more unacceptable than inferior technology.

Of course, the relevant departments do not want Lu Zhou to authorize at a low price or simply waive the patent fees of domestic enterprises. After all, the original intention of the patent law is to protect innovation, let social resources flow into the field of research and development, and encourage society to create wealth through intellectual property rights.

However, on this basis, the state hopes that he will be aware of the "irreplaceability" of his own technology and avoid providing international capital with tools to monopolize the domestic market.

After all, the existence of the WTO and the shortcomings of relevant domestic laws have made domestic antitrust investigations of international capital a lot of resistance, whether it is evidence collection or judgment, and direct administrative intervention may be subject to resistance from other levels.

Compared with interviews with relevant departments, this kind of dialogue in a private capacity is undoubtedly more tactful.

Of course, Lu Zhou would not fail to guess what Mr. Lu meant, even in the lobby of the hotel just now, he had a vague guess.

"Don't worry about this. The cooperation between me and Umicore does not involve the domestic market. Regarding the patent authorization in the domestic region, I will authorize it to all companies that intend to enter the production of negative electrode materials at a fair and reasonable price to ensure that Domestic battery manufacturers can obtain raw materials for production at a reasonable price."

"With Professor Lu's words, I feel relieved," Lu Kaimin said immediately with a reassuring smile on his face, "Professor Lu, please rest assured, the country will definitely not let you suffer for a talent like you!"

"It's serious, there's no harm in talking about it." Lu Zhou smiled, and said in a relaxed tone, "Mr. Lu didn't come to Boston just for this matter. A phone call is enough for this kind of thing."

Lu Kaimin shook his head: "It's not entirely because of this, it's an unexpected situation. In fact, the original purpose of my trip was just to visit you and ask you for advice."

Lu Zhou: "What is it?"

Lu Kaimin talked seriously: "In the white paper on the 13th Five-Year Plan, the high-level instructions for the development of the new energy industry are to increase the battery capacity to 500Wh/kg by 2020. At present, with the lithium battery With technological breakthroughs, there is no difficulty in completing this target. But the world is also progressing, and we can’t just be satisfied with this. For the next step of development strategy, I would like to ask you, an expert, for your opinion.”

Lu Zhouhan said: "I'm a math guy. I'm afraid it's not appropriate for me to give advice on this kind of thing. For things related to the country's future development strategy, you should consult engineers in the battery field."

Lu Kaimin insisted: "I don't agree with this. Academic things can be spoken freely. Who said that the opinions of mathematics professors have no reference value? Just like our collider, Mr. Yang's opinions are valued by the state, and Mr. Qiu's opinions are valued by the state. Opinions are also valued by the state. Only by combining the opinions of all people and gathering the wisdom of all people can we find a suitable path. Regarding the future of lithium batteries, I hope that Professor Lu will not hesitate to enlighten you."

That's what I said, but it's a completely different matter...

Lu Zhou felt helpless.

How should he explain to this old Mr. Lu that although Qiu Chengtong is a mathematician and studies differential geometry, other people also study mathematical physics. He is considered a half-physicist, even if he wins a physics award someday. I don't think it's strange. After all, the Calabi-Qiu manifold of the old man is one of the basic concepts of modern string theory.

And Lu Zhou himself, although he was blown up by the "old liars" at the MRS conference as an "industry benchmark" in computational materials science and "one of the fathers of lithium batteries", in fact his research did not involve lithium batteries. In itself, most of the calculated data are also theoretical values.

Asking his opinion is worse than asking those who make batteries.

However, seeing Mr. Lu's eagerness to seek talents, if he didn't say anything, he would offend people instead.

"...Then I'll just say a few words casually, and don't take it seriously." Lu Zhou thought for a while and continued, "In my personal opinion, among the many directions of lithium batteries, lithium-sulfur batteries have great potential. The theoretical specific energy of the Li-S system is 2600Wh/kg. Of course, there are still many problems to be solved. For example, the most difficult shuttle effect, and the poor electronic conductivity of elemental sulfur, etc. "

Lu Kaimin hurriedly asked: "What about the lithium-air battery? Is it reliable?"

When Lu Zhou heard this, he immediately understood what he was thinking.

In advance of the layout in the frontier field, everyone has the same starting point, so it is also the most likely to surpass the United Kingdom and catch up with the United States.

After all, in comparison, whether it is lithium batteries, sodium batteries, magnesium batteries or the legendary silicon batteries, giants such as Sony and Samsung have already laid out patents in advance.

In such a big environment, even if you develop it, you may not be able to get rid of other people's patent barriers in the end. Choosing a key research and development direction is naturally more appropriate to choose a promising direction.

However, even so, leap forward research is absolutely not advisable.

Especially lithium air...

Lu Zhou shook his head: "It's very difficult, very difficult... To put it bluntly, it is proposed at this stage, and it is clearly a fraudulent expense."

I have to admit that the energy density of lithium-air is really attractive, and it is easier to establish its own core technology than the lithium-sulfur battery that others have studied for many years.

Not to mention a business giant like IBM, even Comrade Steven Chu, former Secretary of Energy appointed by Obama and winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics, was almost limped when formulating an energy development strategy.

In the face of attractive prospects, lithium-air batteries face more serious problems.

This is not just a problem of lithium dendrites. From the separation of pure oxygen to a series of complex side reactions, any one of these technologies is solved, and it is not just the battery industry that has changed.

With modern technology, it's not that I'm not ready to answer this question, but I don't know where to start.

In fact, Lu Zhou knew in his heart that someone would put his thesis and name in the PPT, and use the concept of lithium-air battery to cheat scientific research funds.

Although the matter of scientists cannot be called cheating, he still hopes that Huaguo's technology tree can avoid detours and spend money on projects that really need money.

Even these projects may lack that little imagination.