Chapter 60: Developing Solid-state Batteries

In the new energy industry, a saying has circulated for many years: "The day solid-state batteries become popularized is the day fuel vehicles exit the stage of history."

As long as one can develop a mature, mass-producible Solid-state Battery, one can thoroughly overturn the automotive industry, render existing new energy vehicles completely uncompetitive, and leave traditional fuel vehicles with no means of defense.

And the person who masters this technology will become the hegemon of the global energy industry, and will also be able to radiate into multiple industries through this technology, sway multiple industrial chains, and thereby influence the global landscape, possessing an extremely high social status.

However, the mass production of Solid-state Batteries currently faces three huge hurdles.

First, the Solid-state Battery is a new technology; due to changes in electrolyte material and changes in production process flow, the entire production line must be redesigned and adjusted, employees need to be retrained, production standards need to be reformulated, and product quality control also needs to be mastered.

And these will inevitably lead to a substantial increase in production costs, causing the Solid-state Battery, which was originally highly advantageous, to lose its due competitiveness.

Second, the electrolyte and positive/negative electrode materials used in Solid-state Batteries belong to relatively new materials; the supply chain system is not yet perfect, large-scale mass production has not been formed, and some materials cannot even find suppliers, requiring self-production and processing.

Therefore, the production cost of every single material may be very high, which will inevitably drive up the production cost of the battery, thereby leading to a loss of competitiveness.

Third, poor fast-charging efficiency.

The conductivity efficiency of the solid electrolyte is only about one-tenth that of liquid electrolytes; it can be simply understood as the charging efficiency being only one-tenth that of current new energy vehicles.

And among these three major hurdles, the first hurdle is actually acceptable; after all, as long as the production line is adjusted, this kind of cost is only temporary.

The most critical are the second and third hurdles.

And these two major hurdles, when it comes down to it, are both problems of materials.

To solve them, the best method is to develop a material that has good conductivity, while ensuring sufficient stability and safety, and which is also not too difficult to obtain.

Su Xin's research these past few days has been testing the material ratios of various solid electrolytes.

And today, he finally had a breakthrough!

After testing, the conductivity of a Sulfide Solid Electrolyte he just developed reached 1.2x10-2S/cm, which is already equivalent to the conductivity of liquid electrolytes; coupled with the high energy density of the Solid-state Battery, it can fully meet the daily usage needs of new energy vehicles.

Most importantly, the Sulfide Solid Electrolyte originally envisioned by scientists had huge shortcomings of poor electrochemical stability and poor air stability, which would lead to insufficient battery life, and it could also react with water or air to produce toxic substances, posing a relatively large safety risk.

This is also the biggest difficulty many enterprises currently face.

And now, Su Xin has added several metal oxides and halides to this type of sulfide electrolyte, which, while ensuring conductivity, has greatly improved chemical stability, significantly increased the lifespan of this sulfide electrolyte, and avoided the risk of chemical reactions with other substances.

Simply put, the safety hazards of this sulfide electrolyte have been eliminated.

Furthermore, the several auxiliary materials he added belong to relatively common industrial materials, so the difficulty of obtaining them is not great; it is just that the ratio and reaction process are slightly more complex.

And this will not lead to an increase in cost.

That is to say, this material perfectly solved the third major hurdle of Solid-state Battery mass production, and also solved half of the second major hurdle.

Next, the only difficulty is to find the most suitable positive and negative electrode materials to match this new Sulfide Solid Electrolyte.

After resting for a moment, Su Xin suddenly took a deep breath, while silently reciting in his heart:

"Godspeed, ten thousand times!"

In an instant, the world fell into silence, and all things seemed to have been frozen.

Under such extreme acceleration, Su Xin's brain was incomparably active, and his thoughts were spinning crazily.

In his mind, various materials seemed to be reduced to their most basic molecules, or even atoms, allowing him to instantly comprehend the chemical essence of various materials; based on these understandings, he performed combinatorial deductions according to the characteristics of various materials.

Which materials, when combined and subjected to a series of chemical reactions or physical combinations, are most likely to produce what kind of new characteristics? Which is most suitable for matching with the current sulfide electrolyte?

Thirty seconds later.

Su Xin deactivated his Godspeed Ability, gasping for breath like a drowning person.

These past few days, he would from time to time utilize the Super Intelligence under the extreme Godspeed state to think, and then time and again conduct experiments based on the results of his thinking; only in this way did he possess such an exaggerated research efficiency.

If left to other top research teams in the outside world, let alone five days, even three or five years to develop a suitable solid electrolyte material would be considered very impressive.

And Su Xin only used a few dozen instances of extreme Godspeed, plus a few dozen experiments.

According to the results of the thinking just now, Su Xin began to successively try several positive and negative electrode materials.

……

Two more days passed.

After dozens of experiments, a faint, relaxed smile finally appeared on Su Xin's face.

"Great, it's finally finished!"

Just now, Su Xin finally completed the experiment of the last new type of positive electrode material, and after multiple tests, the matching degree of this material with the sulfide electrolyte was extremely high, and its stability was also extremely strong; it is both heat-resistant and impact-resistant, which is also the most suitable material ratio.

The completion of this experiment also meant that Su Xin had broken through all the technical hurdles of the Solid-state Battery!

A Solid-state Battery that is heat-resistant, cold-resistant, has high energy density, high charging efficiency, and no safety hazards was born in his hands!

Next, as long as a suitable production process is designed based on the experimental finished product, the production line adjustment is completed, and a suitable supply chain is found, mass production can officially begin!

Recording all experimental data into the Tianwei database, Su Xin had just sat down to drink a glass of water when he heard a reminder from the Tiantian Assistant—

"Master, Liu Qingli is calling!"

Su Xin walked over and connected: "Qingli, what's the matter?"

"Boss, several groups of people have come to the company to look for you. I've turned them away for several days, but you haven't returned, so I had to disturb you."

Su Xin frowned: "What kind of people?"

He knew that even if ordinary people went to the company to find him, Liu Qingli would either flatly refuse, or just have someone record it, or pass it on to his secretary Feng Haifeng; she would not easily disturb him.

Therefore, the identities of the people who came should be unusual.

On the other end of the phone, Liu Qingli said with some helplessness: "Those people are admissions teachers from major universities. They said they went to your home but you weren't there, and they couldn't get through on your phone, so they all found their way to the company. They offered very generous conditions and want to invite you to enroll."

"I really couldn't make the decision on my own for this kind of thing, so I could only let them wait for you to come back, but they end up coming to the company every day..."

"Didn't I say I was going to Jing University? Why are they still coming to find me?"

Su Xin shook his head and decisively refused:

"You tell them, no matter what conditions they offer, I don't need them. I said I'm going to Jing University, so I'm only going to Jing University. The company is already set up, and I've bought a house nearby; how could I possibly go to another school? You just help me refuse them directly!"

"Alright, then I will reply to them according to your words." Liu Qingli responded, then turned to ask: "By the way, how is the progress of the new energy battery research? I heard Factory Manager Li report that you completely shut down the research institute these past few days and have been burying yourself inside researching new materials?"

"It's already mostly researched. I was just about to contact you; later, contact a patent agency to help me apply for several international patents for the new energy power battery technology. I'll head back once I've arranged the production process issues here."

Su Xin said nonchalantly.

On the other side, hearing this string of words from him, Liu Qingli froze in place, thinking she had experienced an auditory hallucination, and repeated in disbelief:

"Are you saying that you have already finished developing the Solid-state Battery Technology?!"