Chapter 964 Oxygen Porter

Among the many technical problems restricting lithium-sulfur battery technology, the most difficult one may be the shuttle effect.

The so-called shuttle effect means that during the charging and discharging process, the polysulfide (Li2Sx) intermediate produced by the positive electrode will dissolve into the electrolyte, diffuse through the separator to the negative electrode, and finally directly contact the metal lithium of the negative electrode.

At the beginning, in order to be the first to conquer lithium-sulfur battery technology and complete the patent layout ahead of Exxon Mobil, Lu Zhou, who is shouldering the future of Huaguo's new energy industry, started a project with Professor Stanley, a big cow in the field of lithium batteries. A contest between distances.

At that time, Professor Stanley, with the support of Exxon Mobil, also used an extremely disgraceful means to buy an assistant of the Sarot Research Institute under his name, stole him and gave it to Saro The caged carbon molecular model that Professor Te went to study.

But also thanks to this oolong.

Professor Stanley not only went farther and farther on the "wrong" road, but also completed the system task of "analyzing the carbon nanospheres under the modified PDMS film" for Lu Zhou, helping him raise the level of materials science to LV4 , and indirectly helped him hit the research bottleneck of a wave of Nobel Prize-level achievements...

I am ashamed to say that for so many years, Lu Zhou has never called this generous old professor with a thank you call, and I am quite sorry.

And the black powder contained in the test tube in his hand at this moment is the caged carbon molecule researched by Professor Stanley, that is, the carbon nanospheres found on Wreckage No. 1.

Yang Xu: "This is..."

"A caged carbon molecule that transports oxygen molecules, although I prefer to call them carbon nanobeads."

Handing the test tube to Yang Xu, Lu Zhou continued, "Don't forget that in addition to the diaphragm between the gas exchange chamber and the outside world, our lithium anode material also has a layer of modified PDMS film. When the PDMS film is formed, it is mixed in, and when the concentration difference of oxygen molecules on both sides of the film reaches a certain value, they transport oxygen molecules from one side to the other like little bees.”

In short, it is to add two insurances to the oxygen and nitrogen separation system. The first insurance is that oxygen molecules selectively pass through the membrane, that is, the mixture of organic substances listed on the whiteboard by Lu Zhou. The function is to create a gas exchange chamber. A relatively pure oxygen environment with an oxygen content of up to 98%!

As for the second insurance, it is the modified PDMS film on the lithium anode material itself!

Only after adding hollow carbon spheres, the modified PDMS film on the surface of the lithium negative electrode can transport oxygen molecules from high-purity oxygen to the surface of the lithium negative electrode material.

"...we can even control the rate of the overall lithium oxidation reaction by modifying the number of carbon nanospheres on the PDMS film, thereby indirectly controlling the performance of the battery."

Listening to Lu Zhou's description, Yang Xu's eyes were full of shock.

Does this thing really work?

As much as I want to ask, it's a shame as a researcher asking such a stupid question when the samples are already in his hands.

Without any hesitation, he brought the test tube to a piece of experimental equipment.

There are battery molds and a protective gas operation box, which are specially used to assemble battery molds and test them.

It's easy to test Lu Zhou's theory, and you don't even need a complete lithium-air battery model.

He only needs to make a lithium metal sheet covered by a modified PDMS material mixed with this carbon nanosphere, and then expose it to a series of environments such as air and pure oxygen, pure carbon dioxide, and pure nitrogen. It is easy to know whether it has the property of permeating oxygen, and whether it only allows oxygen to pass through.

After complicated preparations and patient waiting, the results of the experiment finally came out under the high expectations of everyone.

In the air environment, the reaction of the sample is not obvious, and there is a very small amount of oxide on the surface, which can be determined to be lithium oxide!

In a series of environments such as nitrogen, carbon dioxide, etc., the sample did not react at all!

As for the pure oxygen environment...

As Lu Zhou said, amazing changes have taken place on the surface of the entire lithium negative electrode!

Looking at Yang Xu, who no longer knew what to do and the expression on his face to express the shock in his heart, Lu Zhou smiled and continued in a relaxed tone, "If you observe the entire reaction process under microscopic conditions, your expression would be even more surprised."

Yang Xu swallowed, and said with difficulty: "...this experiment...you have completed it a long time ago?"

Lu Zhou: "As I said, I did this experiment when I was teaching at Princeton, but I haven't published it yet."

Of course, there are still many differences between the current carbon nanosphere and the original version made by Professor Stanley.

Especially in terms of details, Lu Zhou adjusted the positions of several large π bonds on the surface by means of computational chemistry to make its transporting ability more obvious, and the requirements for oxygen purity were also slightly lowered.

However, the methods for preparing such carbon nanospheres all lead to the same goal through different routes.

"It's incredible..."

"This property of shuttling and transporting oxygen molecules in polymer materials is really amazing!"

Looking at Yang Xu who was amazed, Lu Zhou said with nostalgia.

"It's quite miraculous. Until now, I have been thinking about the mechanism of this miraculous transport process, and even made two sets of theories that can explain it, but I have not been able to find evidence to prove which one is correct."

Yang Xu: "How...how did you do it?"

Upon hearing this question, Lu Zhou suddenly felt a little embarrassed, and said with a smile.

"It's a long story. In short, thanks to the help of an old friend, I solved the most critical problem of the synthesis of this kind of caged carbon molecules. Then I made a little improvement on the basis of his research, modified several large pi bonds."

Of course, the most important thing is Wreckage One...

If this kind of material is being introduced, it is only necessary to find a hollow carbon sphere that can be highly compatible with oxygen molecules. This experiment is enough for him to do.

Yang Xu asked, "Is the patent okay?"

Lu Zhou immediately replied: "No problem, my old friend is very generous and sold it to me at a very cheap price."

This was a long time ago.

Not long after the lithium-sulfur battery came out, the patents in ExxonMobil's hands had become waste paper, not to mention that the lithium-air battery still had no shadow, even Professor Stanley himself didn't know that the things he developed were used in Lithium-air battery, so Xingkong Technology bought the patent without much cost.

Of course, it was not in the name of Xingkong Technology and him when buying it.

Although it doesn't cost much, the operation is still a little complicated.

Yang Xu, who didn't know the inside story, said with emotion: "That old friend of yours is really a good person."

Lu Zhou also smiled heartily.

"Yeah, I think so too, he's a nice guy."

...

The technology of selectively permeating oxygen molecules through the membrane has been overcome, and together with the key carbon nanospheres, there is basically no suspense about the lighting of the technology tree of the entire lithium-air battery.

After calling Chen Yushan and leaving the patent layout to her to worry about, Lu Zhou left Jinling Institute for Advanced Study.

Speaking of which, it was still morning when he came, and he was wearing stars and wearing moons when he left.

It's okay to use a computer to do the simulation before, it's just a matter of putting the ready-made model on the computer and running it again. It took a lot of time to test the transport of oxygen molecules by carbon nanospheres, especially the production of the modified PDMS film-coated lithium metal sheet, which took a long time.

Sitting in Wang Peng's car, Lu Zhou, who hadn't closed his eyes for more than 30 hours, yawned and was about to squint for a while, but at this moment, he suddenly received a call from Director Li.

As soon as the phone was connected, he didn't even have time to say "Hello", when a fiery voice came from the opposite side.

"I've read that report of yours! Is it true? Are you sure? That carbon base—" Suddenly realizing that it's inconvenient to talk about it on the phone, Director Li immediately stopped talking and gritted his teeth. Changed his words, "You wait, I'll come to your house and tell you."

Yawned, Lu Zhou, who didn't understand what he was talking about, asked in a daze.

"Come to me wherever you are now."

"Go to Beijing! Come here by plane!"

Lu Zhou: "...?"

Before he could react, the phone beeped and hung up.