Great Country Academician

On the other side, in Jinling, in the Sichuan-Hai Materials Research Institute.

Xu Chuan is still learning about the collision between lithium-sulfur battery research ideas and directions and Argonne National Laboratory with master Xiong Fan Pengyue, and discussing solutions.

Suddenly, I was stunned when I heard that the patent applications related to the lithium-sulfur battery and 'monoclinic gamma sulfur' patented by the Sichuan-Hai Materials Research Institute were rejected.

Not only him, but also Fan Pengyue and Cao Yiran were stunned.

I knew that the country on the other side of the Pacific was shameless, but I never expected that it would be so shameless.

The rejection of a patent application has initially passed the review and obtained a patent number. This is extremely rare in international patent applications.

After all, generally speaking, being able to obtain a patent number means that the preliminary review work, from subject matter to technology, to public order and morality, document format, etc., has been completed without any problems.

In this case, when the other party rejects their patent application, their selfish motives are worse than openly saying that they don’t want you to pass.

Although under normal circumstances, a patent application can be reexamined after being rejected, and the patent office must also accept the reexamination application.

But obviously, even if they submit a review, the other party will basically choose to get stuck directly, or delay the time indefinitely.

On the sofa, after hearing the news, Master Xiong Fan Pengyue had a hint of bitterness on his face, and said helplessly: "This is a clear target."

On the opposite side, Xu Chuan shook his head slightly and said: "It's okay. Applying for a patent is just a way. At worst, all patents will be withdrawn and we will cooperate with domestic manufacturers to produce lithium-sulfur batteries."

As for the fact that the patent authorization application was targeted, he didn't have any opinion.

Since they entered the stage of rapid development in the 21st century, are there still few policies for domestic enterprises on the other side?

Sichuanhai Materials Research Institute's entry into the target list did not happen in a day or two.

As early as when the artificial SEI film was developed a few years ago, they came into each other's sight.

It's just that the Chuanhai Materials Research Institute does not have many projects or technologies developed externally.

What they export to the outside world is either artificial SEI thin film patent authorization, or high-temperature copper-carbon-silver composite superconducting materials, which can be said to be almost irreplaceable, or some other unimportant technologies.

It is difficult for them to target the former. After all, local companies also need authorization and materials.

Once the authorization of artificial SEI films is cut off, battery companies will be extremely uncomfortable. This thing can be said to be irreplaceable in current lithium-ion batteries. Although there are spare parts, replacement will cause the lithium dendrite problem to reappear, thereby reducing battery capacity and a series of other problems.

Not to mention the latter, the large-scale controllable nuclear fusion reactors currently being built in several continents in the United States still rely on high-temperature copper-carbon-silver superconducting materials.

Without this thing, their controllable nuclear fusion reactor would have to stop working.

As for some other materials or technologies, most of them are irrelevant and have little meaning in targeting them.

Therefore, although the Chuanhai Materials Research Institute has entered Lao Mi's business vision very early, there is no good way to resist it.

R\u0026D-oriented companies are like this and difficult to target.

Of course, the more critical thing is that the Sichuan-Hai Materials Research Institute is not like Warwick, SMIC, aerospace and other companies. While it needs the U.S. and world markets, it also relies on the import of chips, engines and other technologies.

While it has no desire or need for American products, it also controls a number of irreplaceable products and technologies.

So for Lao Mi, the Sichuan-Hai Materials Research Institute was like a fish bone stuck in their throat, making them quite uncomfortable.

This time they finally found a 'legitimate' reason. It would not be their style if they didn't take some action.

Opposite the sofa, Master Xiong Fan Pengyue frowned and said, "It's not a serious matter that the patent authorization application was rejected. What I'm worried about is the research situation at Argonne National Laboratory."

After a slight pause, he looked at Xu Chuan and Cao Yiran with worry on his face and continued: "We have all read the news in the Chicago newspaper. Judging from the information revealed in the newspaper, in the field of lithium-sulfur battery research , the progress of Argonne National Laboratory is probably not low."

"The route they took is also the direction of the 'monoclinic gamma phase sulfur' that we studied. Even the materials that stabilize the 'monoclinic gamma phase sulfur' are carbon materials."

"What I'm worried about is that they may soon follow up in this field and complete the research and development of lithium-sulfur batteries."

"In this way, and with the influence of the Patent Office, we may get the patent authorization before us."

After saying that, Fan Pengyue took a deep breath and then added: "Maybe our patent application was rejected this time because of this."

"They want to suppress our patent, then accelerate research at Argonne National Laboratory and apply first!"

Since graduating with a doctorate, he has taken over the Sichuan-Hai Materials Research Institute. With Xu Chuan's support, the institute has stood at the top of the country from the beginning.

Therefore, he also came into contact with many laboratories and research institutes in the same industry and field, and learned many stories, or shady stories, about this industry.

Hearing this, Xu Chuan and Cao Yiran were stunned for a moment.

The latter opened his mouth wide, and his round face that was already a little fat turned into a big O-shape. He said blankly: "Isn't it possible? You can do such disgusting things...??"

Compared with Fan Pengyue and Xu Chuan, as a scientific researcher, he has been exposed to much less things, and dealing with experimental scientific research every day is simpler.

Xu Chuan also frowned and said: "Needless to say, the importance of lithium-sulfur batteries. If they can gain control in the field of lithium batteries, it is not impossible for them to do this kind of thing."

"If Argonne National Laboratory succeeds in completing lithium-sulfur batteries through another route, this will indeed not be good news for us."

"I'm afraid that by then not only will there be some nonsense, but it will also be difficult for our lithium-sulfur batteries to go abroad."

The idea put forward by the master Xiong Fan Pengyue is indeed very possible in his opinion. Because today, when electric energy has been liberated, batteries are far more important than before.

Not only daily necessities such as mobile phones and computers, but also various fields such as automobiles, military industry, and aerospace are related to it.

After the completion of artificial SEI film technology, their development in this field was originally at the forefront of the world. Not only that, artificial SEI film technology has also affected the country's deployment in the field of new energy.

Once they fail in the battery field, even if they and the other party jointly control lithium-sulfur battery technology, it will not be good news.

Because it will not only affect the interests of the Sichuan-Hai Materials Research Institute, but also the country’s deployment in this field.

With a long sigh of relief, Xu Chuan came back from his thoughts, looked at the two people sitting across from the sofa, and said: "Brother Fan, Gong Cao, let's stop the lithium-sulfur battery patent matters for the time being. Now there is one thing. You need to do things first.”

The expressions on Fan Pengyue and Cao Yiran's faces were condensed, waiting for arrangements.

Xu Chuan thought for a moment and continued: "If I remember correctly, according to the Chicago Tribune news, the route taken by Argonne National Laboratory in the direction of lithium-sulfur batteries is almost the same as ours."

“It’s just that they use carbon nanotubes and other carbon materials to stabilize ‘monoclinic gamma phase sulfur’.”

"I need you to put down other experiments first, conduct more experiments and tests on the stability of 'monoclinic gamma phase sulfur' through chemical material calculation models and manual experiments, and fully understand whether other carbon nanomaterials have The same effect and properties of the graphite defect lattice."

"To determine whether other carbon nanomaterials can replace the pentagonal graphite lattice."

Fan Pengyue nodded and said: "This is no problem, I can make arrangements immediately."

Beside, Cao Yiran on the sofa nodded and agreed: "I will cooperate throughout the process."

"Well, let's do this for now."

Xu Chuan responded and stood up to find Wen Yuanhang.

He was unable to interrupt the research at Argonne National Laboratory, but according to Fan Pengyue's master Xiong's guess, the impact of this incident was not limited to his and the Sichuan-Hai Materials Research Institute's patents. It was very likely to have an impact on the country's future development. The layout of the new energy field will have a significant impact.

This matter needs to be reported to the police.

Shaking his head gently, Xu Chuan stood up and left the office, rushing towards Xinghai Research Institute.

If Argonne National Laboratory's lithium-sulfur battery is successfully developed, they may be in serious trouble.

After receiving the information provided by Xu Chuan, Wen Yuanhang quickly reported the relevant situation with a solemn expression.

Judging from Fan Pengyue's speculation, this is no longer a dispute between two research institutes and laboratories.

After collecting a series of data and information, I have to say that the master Xiong's guess is indeed quite accurate.

After the international authorization application for the lithium-sulfur battery patent was rejected, under the leadership of Professor Theresa Achille, the Institute of Energy and Global Security under the name of Argonne National Laboratory fully launched the promotion of the lithium-sulfur battery project. .

In order to speed up the research progress, they even invited Professor Stanley Whittingham, the 2019 Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry.

This veteran professor with dual nationality in Britain and America is currently the director of the Materials Institute and the Materials Science and Engineering Program at the State University of New York and Binghamton University.

He won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2019 for his research contributions to lithium-ion batteries. It can be said that the widespread application of lithium-ion batteries today is inseparable from the research of this old professor.

With the full participation of this famous old professor in the chemistry community and the laboratory, Professor Theresa Achill has made rapid progress in the work on lithium-sulfur batteries and stabilized ‘monoclinic gamma phase sulfur’.

Through continuous experiments, they are trying to stabilize the performance of the ‘monoclinic gamma phase sulfur’ crystal through carbon materials.

This is the key point to solve the shuttle effect of lithium-sulfur batteries.

However, no matter how fast Argonne National Laboratory is, it cannot be faster than the Sichuan-Hai Materials Research Institute, which has relatively mature data.

With the support of a supercomputing center + chemical material calculation model built at a cost of more than 1.5 billion meters of gold, Fan Pengyue and Cao Yiran have conducted more than Three digits.

From carbon nanotubes, to graphene, to fullerene, linear acetylene carbon and other allotropes of carbon, they have conducted a large number of simulation experiments and artificial repeatability experiments.

Judging from the experimental data, although these carbon allotropes have a certain effect in stabilizing the 'monoclinic gamma phase sulfur' crystallization, it is difficult to catch up with the pentagons that have been specially treated with nitrogen and sodium materials. Defect graphite lattice material.

It's effective, but not very effective.

This is the case where numerous carbon allotropes stabilize the crystallization of ‘monoclinic gamma sulfur’ in lithium-sulfur batteries.

After learning the news, Xu Chuan also breathed a sigh of relief.

Judging from the current situation, it is very difficult and almost impossible for Argonne National Laboratory to perfectly "replicate" their lithium-sulfur battery technology in a short period of time.

After all, nitrogen-sodium materials are specially treated with graphite to form pentagonal defective carbon-sulfur composite materials, which were obtained through countless simulation experiments of chemical material calculation models.

Although it is not impossible in theory to take this path through artificial experiments, the possibility is lower than winning a five million grand prize directly by buying two yuan of materials.

Although in materials science, there is a discipline or field called 'reverse analysis engineering', which refers to the observation and analysis of 'material samples' through microscopic spectra to achieve the purpose of restoring the basic formula.

But in fact, it is almost impossible to achieve perfect analysis, decipherment and reproduction of materials with current reverse analysis methods.

It's very simple, because to reorganize something, you must know all its information, otherwise it is not certain whether the reorganized thing will be the same.

Especially at the molecular and atomic level, the uncertainty principle of quantum mechanics shows that neither measurement nor operation can be 100% accurate.

In other words, you want to measure all the information about the object, but in fact you can only get partial information, and it is not accurate.

When you want to manipulate atoms and molecules so that they meet your preset conditions (such as placing them in a certain position), you cannot do it accurately and it is very likely that they will be misplaced.

Because you don’t know what environment, how high the temperature, how high the humidity, etc. it was synthesized in.

Therefore, it is easy to reversely analyze and reorganize to achieve certain results, but it is almost impossible to reproduce it perfectly.

After all, if reverse analysis was really that easy to complete, apart from other things, the high-temperature copper-carbon-silver composite superconducting materials he studied would have been everywhere.

Those Western countries are even less likely to spend a lot of money to buy from him.

This is very realistic stuff.

It is difficult for Argonne National Laboratory to develop lithium-sulfur batteries in a short time. For them, this is undoubtedly good news among bad news.

If Argonne National Laboratory cannot develop a lithium-sulfur battery that is comparable in performance to theirs, China's subsequent deployment in the field of new energy and batteries may even be reasonably transformed and moved in the direction of monopoly. !

PS: There will be another chapter later, but it should be after twelve o'clock.