The meeting will take place at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, located in Union Square, just steps from Chinatown. The hotel offers on-site dining options, a 24-hour gym, and a dedicated meeting room for academic meetings.

After driving Lu Zhou to his destination, Sarot parked the car in the underground garage and walked to the elevator with Lu Zhou.

This kind of conference is not only a good opportunity to exchange academic issues with peers, but also a good opportunity to expand your network. An opportunity like this is something that no aspiring researcher would easily pass up.

Of course, unlike his boss, Lu Zhou was reimbursed by the organizer from the moment he got on the plane. And Sarote had to pay out of his own pocket to participate in this meeting.

Standing on the elevator, Lu Zhou looked at Sarote: "I'm going to go upstairs and sleep, what about you?" ”

Sarot glanced at Lu Zhou in disbelief: "You actually plan to go to sleep?" There's still a dance party in a moment. ”

"I don't know how to dance," Lu Zhou yawned and said with a lack of interest, "and one participation in this kind of banquet is enough." ”

On the evening of the day of the seminar, there was also a larger, more formal ball.

As for this kind of party to warm up for academic exchanges, it doesn't matter to him whether he participates or not.

After a few hours on the plane, he now just wants to get some sleep in his bed and recharge for tomorrow's awards ceremony and speech.

Sarot made a helpless expression: "Then you go to sleep, I'll go to the hall on the first floor for a while." Need me to order a dinner delivered to your room? ”

Lu Zhou waved his hand: "No, you have fun by yourself, if I'm hungry, I'll call the front desk." ”

Sarot's room was on the third floor, and he needed to make some preparations before going to the ball, such as mending his hair with some mousse or something.

As for Lu Zhou, he took the elevator and continued up to the fifth floor.

Walking through the corridor covered with red carpet, while passing the lounge area in the middle of the corridor, two men in suits noticed him, immediately stopped talking, got up from the sofa, and greeted him.

Lu Zhou glanced at the two who came towards him with some surprise, only to feel that one of them was a little familiar, but he couldn't name it.

"Fortunately, Professor Lu from Princeton, it's a pleasure to meet you here." The old man, who looked more familiar, stretched out his right hand, shook it with Lu Zhou, and said enthusiastically.

"Hello...... Who are you? ”

"Stanley Whittingham, State University of New York at Binghamton," the old man politely introduced himself.

Hearing this name, Lu Zhou's expression suddenly appeared a hint of abruptness.

Stanley Hittingham (Stanley Hittingham), this person is also a big bull in the field of lithium batteries, no wonder he feels familiar.

As for how good this old man is, as early as the 70s, he used titanium sulfide as the cathode material and lithium metal as the anode material to design the earliest lithium battery. And this is also recognized as the earliest lithium battery.

It's just that because of the well-known safety problems caused by lithium dendrites, lithium batteries have not been able to successfully get out of the laboratory. It was not until Luzhou's modified PDMS material solved this problem that the lithium battery could be regarded as having completed the transformation from bomb to battery.

"Fortunately, fortunately," Lu Zhou shook hands with Stanley and looked at the one standing next to him, "Who is this?" ”

Professor Stanley said: "This is Darren Woods, CEO of ExxonMobil. ”

"Nice to meet you, Professor Lu." Darren Woods smiled at Lu Zhou and stretched out his right hand, "Your papers published in Nature and Science are impressive, but some of the ideas are too difficult to understand, I'm afraid I have a lot of things to ask you." ”

Although I haven't heard of Darren Woods, ExxonMobil Land Boat has heard of it.

Just two months ago, Mobil's CEO was Rex Tillerson. However, with the rise of a real estate tycoon, the executive, who had been named the "world's most influential CEO" in 16 years, submitted his resignation and changed careers to become secretary of state.

It seems that this Woods is Tillerson's successor.

"Hello," shaking hands with the CEO, Lu Zhou looked at him with some surprise and asked, "Mr. Woods is also interested in lithium batteries?" ”

Woods smiled slightly: "Of course, oil is a valuable chemical raw material, and it is too wasteful to burn it. We prefer to make gasoline a chemical feedstock. In fact, in order to alleviate a series of climate problems such as global warming, we have been committed to investing in the field of new energy, and batteries are naturally a vital part of it. ”

Although ExxonMobil is an oil and gas company, it is not only involved in oil and gas, but also in chemical, automobile, new energy and other industries.

The first lithium batteries were made by Professor Stanley's laboratory, and the funder was none other than Mobil Chemical.

Lu Zhou smiled and didn't speak.

It is normal for Mobil to be interested in the field of new energy, but it is strange if he is not interested. But it would be ridiculous to say that the reason is because of a sense of social responsibility such as global warming.

Looking at Lu Zhou with blazing eyes, Woods smiled and continued to ask, "Speaking of which, has there been any progress in the synthesis process of HCS-1 materials?" ”

Lu Zhou shook his head: "Not yet." ”

"That's a shame," Woods sighed, saying in a rather regretful tone, "it's a very good material, but it's a little unacceptably priced." ”

Obviously, Mobil Chemical also used carbon nanotubes to co-heat the fullerene material according to the method described by Lu Zhou in the paper, and screened a small amount of HCS-1, which was mixed with elemental sulfur according to the 20% mass fraction ratio.

Although the number of cycles and cycle efficiency are not friendly, its excellent energy density is still coveted.

For example, quadrotor drones, some underwater operation equipment, and fields with high endurance requirements, there is still a lot of space for lithium-sulfur batteries

Lu Zhou smiled and said, "Yes, but in my opinion, it still has big flaws." ”

Woods shook his head: "No, no, no, you don't understand, not all batteries are so demanding on the number of cycles and cycle efficiency, and sometimes we use replaceable disposable batteries in pursuit of energy density. ”

After a pause, Woods smiled and offered an invitation: "If this technical problem is solved, it will benefit the whole world a lot, I wonder if you need some funding?" ”

Lu Zhou shook his head: "Unfortunately, my research is not needed, maybe you can consider investing in some laboratories with more potential." ”

"It's a shame that I don't think anyone has more potential to do this great work than you."

This is the second time Woods has said the word "regret", but despite what he says, his expression doesn't show much regret.

Clearly, similar research is being conducted in the laboratories in which Mobil has invested.

And I'm afraid that a lot of results have been produced, but the phased results have not been published.

Glancing at Professor Stanley standing next to him, Lu Zhou knew a little in his heart.

The two men had come to find out about the progress of their research.

Thinking of this, Lu Zhou couldn't help but smile and shake his head.

Want to know the progress of his research?

It's easy to say, just buy a copy of "Science" and look at it twice.

He had never hidden it.

After chatting for a few words, he found that the two had been testing themselves, and Lu Zhou suddenly felt a little lacking in interest, so he said goodbye and dragged his suitcase to his room.

Woods, who watched the big guy leave, gradually put away the smile on his face and looked at Professor Stanley next to him.

"Where do you think his research is going?"

Professor Stanley frowned slightly: "It's not easy to say, this person is hiding deeply." If the two papers published in Science were all of his current research progress, we would still have a good chance of coming out on top in this area, but I don't believe that's the only one. ”

After a pause, Professor Stanley's expression was a little solemn, and he continued in a serious tone.

"Didn't you notice? Although we have been testing the progress of his research, he is not at all indifferent to the progress of our research, and he is not even interested in asking a question......"