Chapter 318 Move Fast!

The hardware level of the Frick Chemistry Laboratory is indeed worthy of the top level in the United States. The rich and powerful Princeton is not only willing to spend money on professors, but also invests in instruments unambiguously.

Connie consciously brought the latest MACCOR high-precision battery testing system over, and Connie looked at Lu Zhou with a simple and honest smile.

"This guy is the best battery testing system in the entire Frick Chemical Laboratory, and I borrowed it for you!"

Lu Zhou: "In fact, there is no need for such a good battery test system..."

Coney explained, "But you said it was better to invest in instrumentation than to spend your budget on samples consumed by repeat experiments."

After staring at Connie, Lu Zhou suddenly felt that this kid is not as simple and honest as he looks at all.

The money for buying the machine was all credited to his account.

If it was before, Lu Zhou would definitely feel distressed for a while.

But now...

Well, waste is shameful, he still feels a little distressed.

But it doesn't hurt that much.

Putting the matter of the instrument aside for the time being, Lu Zhou asked with a serious face: "Can you make a battery sample?"

Connie immediately said: "No problem, it's easy!"

Lu Zhou thought for a while and gave an order: "You are in charge of samples 11 and 14, and I am in charge of samples 15 and 23. Mix hollow carbon sphere powder with elemental sulfur at a mass fraction of 30%, 20%, and 10% , make positive electrode materials, and then assemble lithium batteries, how do you understand it?"

Connie straightened his chest and said, "Of course!"

There is nothing to say about the negative electrode material, because the synthesis process is simple, and now the combination of modified PDMS film and copper core lithium sheet is not only a standard configuration in the industry, but also a standard configuration in major materials research institutes.

As for the positive electrode material, it takes a little thought.

Not only hollow carbon spheres, but all carbon nanomaterials have similar troubles.

Simple mechanical stirring and grinding can only make the hollow carbon sphere aggregates mix with the matrix powder macroscopically, but can do nothing to disperse the aggregates themselves.

Before using the ball milling method to mix the hollow carbon spheres with the elemental sulfur, it is also dispersed in ethanol by adding surfactants such as polyurethane, and then mixed with the elemental sulfur.

As for the remaining steps, there is no big difference from Lu Zhou's lithium battery experiment.

Assemble the battery in the glove box, then connect it to the battery test system, and confirm the performance of these materials in the electrodes through a large number of charge and discharge tests.

There is little skill in these jobs.

In fact, the study of materials science itself has no skills.

The current research and development of new materials is mainly based on researchers' "scientific intuition" and a large number of repeated "trial and error" experiments, using limited conditions to find a feasible method. If you can once again establish a set of theories that are applicable within a limited range, it will be considered a very powerful master.

Although mathematical methods can reduce the workload of experiments, experiments are still essential...

...

I remember the last time I exploded my liver was at this time last year.

In order to complete the last step of solving Goldbach's conjecture, Lu Zhou locked himself in a world of less than twenty square meters, completely immersed in the maze of numbers, looking for the ultimate way out.

Compared with the feeling at the time, the feeling now is nothing short of a big deal.

This long-lost feeling is really nostalgic.

Almost a week has passed since the first experiment started.

During this time, except for Lu Zhou not sleeping in the laboratory, the rest of the time was basically soaked in the laboratory.

In addition, two days ago, Yang Xu, who directed the experiment at the Jinling Institute of Computational Materials, made a table of the influence of the specific surface area and pore size of hollow carbon spheres on the sulfur loading, the mass fraction of polysulfide compounds in the electrolyte, etc., and sent to his mailbox.

In order not to delay the work there, he needs to establish a mathematical model based on these data as soon as possible, and then formulate the next experimental plan.

Things seem to be all piled up.

Rubbing the sour brows, Lu Zhou put aside the ballpoint pen in his hand, looked at Connie who was observing the sample and asked.

"What about Sample No. 15?"

Connie, who also had dark circles under his eyes, was standing next to the scanning electron microscope and shook his head with a distressed expression, "The last group was also completely scrapped, almost all the sulfur element was deposited on the surface of the carbon material. You can come and have a look , looks spectacular..."

Lu Zhou sighed softly: "Take the sample to the scanning electron microscope to take a picture, and then dispose of it... I have seen enough."

It's too tragic.

If this is the case, the three groups of samples numbered 11, 14, and 15 are almost wiped out.

For such a tragic experimental result, Lu Zhou couldn't help but wonder if there was something wrong with his theory.

Can hollow carbon nanospheres with a specific surface area in the range of [2326m2g-1, 3762m2g-1] and a diameter in the range of [60nm-70nm] really inhibit the diffusion of polysulfide compounds?

However, this is also the last thing he wants to doubt.

Because after that, he calculated many times and got the same result.

If there is a problem with this theory, then he has to face a difficult choice.

It's just pretending not to know, and continuing to cheat the industry against his conscience. It is still better to be a scholar with integrity, take the initiative to correct any mistakes, and honestly contact the editorial department of "Journal of Mizuki University" to withdraw the manuscript...

In the case of the former, the feasibility is still very high. Even if it is proven wrong by others in the future, it can be prevaricated with "honest mistakes", and no one will embarrass him. But think of those wasted social resources...

and many more!

Lu Zhou was suddenly shocked and came back to his senses.

This experiment has not been finished yet, so I started to think about the future.

Where does this go?

Clenching his fists, Lu Zhou took a deep breath, calmed down, looked at Connie and continued to ask.

"What about sample No. 23?"

"Let me see...the 10% and 30% groups have been screwed since 200 RPM, and the 20% group...it's unbelievable that it's 500 RPM and still struggling."

Struggling is an interesting word to use.

It seemed that his assistant had given up any hope for this experiment.

However, in Lu Zhou's view, it was completely different.

As if grasping at the last straw, he restrained his excited tone and asked, "What about the volume change of the negative electrode material?"

After looking inside through the transparent part of the battery case for a long time, Connie froze for a moment, and came up with an ambiguous answer: "There seems to be no change."

Lu Zhou resisted the urge to swear: "Don't use visual inspection, disassemble it for me and measure it with a caliper! I want an accurate answer!"

"I know, I was just joking..." After dismantling the battery, Connie carefully handled the positive electrode material inside, and measured the width change with a vernier caliper.

Once the volume expansion effect of carbon-sulfur composites occurs, it is very obvious and can be clearly observed even at the macroscopic scale.

After testing once, Connie recorded the data in the experiment report, and was suddenly slightly taken aback.

Then, he tested another set.

Another set was tested...

Looking at Connie who was dawdling there, Lu Zhou frowned slightly.

"Failed?"

"No..." Connie shook his head, swallowed and said, "It's unbelievable that the result is so good..."

"Measure the chemical composition of the electrolyte immediately!" Standing up from the office chair, Lu Zhou's momentum was unprecedentedly high, "Move quickly!"