Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Grynberg sighed with a look of defeat; he looked helpless.
“I admire your commitnt to science. I hope you will consider us if you are successful.”
Lu Zhou smiled and said, “I’ll see first. If the modified PDMS material cooperation satisfies , I wouldn’t mind co-operating on new projects.”
A smile appeared on Grynberg’s face.
“I hope you succeed... Oh yeah, I want to ask about the hollow carbon spheres. Do you really think it is the key to solving the shuttle effect? I’m not inquiring about your research, it’s just...”
Lu Zhou replied, “I did say so things about lithium-sulfur batteries during the eting, but I hope you don’t over-interpret it. I am only optimistic about it, but I am not 100% sure.”
There had been countless people asking Lu Zhou this question.
Lu Zhou was responsible for everything he said. He couldn’t help but panic about getting so many people excited over hollow carbon spheres.
What if I’m wrong?
What will happen to my reputation?
Lu Zhou finally knew why the Scottish professor, Peter Bruce, still pursued lithium-air battery even after being proved wrong many tis.
This wasn’t just about research funding.
This was also about commitnt and reputation.
It seems that I have to work harder...
Grynberg smiled and said, “I was only asking, don’t take it seriously.”
However, Grynberg didn’t look like he was only casually asking about it.
Grynberg didn’t stay at Jin Ling University for long. He waited for the equipnt to arrive before leaving.
Even though it was a pity that he wasn’t able to reach a cooperative R&D agreent with Lu Zhou, this was nothing unusual. Scientific research was like gambling, and even top scholars couldn’t guarantee good research results. Maybe Grynberg dodged a bullet.
After all, Grynberg could still sign a patent agreent with Lu Zhou after the results ca out.
...
After the first batch of equipnt for the experint had arrived, Lu Zhou’s research institute in Jinling was no longer an empty laboratory building.
According to Qian Zhongming, the last batch of equipnt had already been shipped. He and Liu Bo would probably return to China within a few days.
Qian Zhongming’s tone on the phone sounded like he was excited.
After all, that was tens of millions of yuan in research equipnt. Any researcher would be thrilled to work with these pieces of equipnt.
The head of the chemistry departnt, Dean Li, heard the news and went to the laboratory building.
The old man touched the instrunt and said, “Good god, this thing must be over ten million yuan.”
Research on semiconductors and nanoters needed high-resolution microscopes. There was a huge difference between images collected with ordinary electron microscopes and images collected by SEM 1 .
There are many types of scanning electron microscopes.
The resolution of the high-end tungsten filant gun scanning electron microscope was about 3 nm, and the resolution of the field emission gun scanning electron microscope was below 0.8 nm. Needless to say, there was a huge difference in price between the two.
Lu Zhou equipped the laboratory with cutting-edge equipnt. Whether it was the imaging lens on a scanning electron microscope, the electron gun, accelerating tube, or even the high-voltage generator... they were all top-of-the-line.
Although they were expensive, it counted as a long term investnt.
Researchers were not the only ones who loved expensive equipnt, journals did as well.
If soone used a high-quality scanning electron microscope to do an experint, they could easily publish in Nature or Science.
The chemistry departnt at Jin Ling University had an electron microscope, but it wasn’t high in quality.
It wasn’t just the chemistry departnt that wanted the microscope, the life sciences departnt was also in need of it. Each professor had an allocated ti to use the microscope, while the PhD students would have to apply in advance.
Dean Li always wanted to add a new SEM to the chemistry departnt, but his application was never approved.
“Not ten million, maybe eight or nine,” Lu Zhou smiled and said, “but it’s in USD.”
Eight or nine million... USD.
Which ans 40 million RMB?
Dean Li’s eyebrows started to twitch after hearing Lu Zhou.
He couldn’t say Lu Zhou was wasting money because Lu Zhou was using his own money.
Dean Li was jealous.
“You do love to spend... You might have to invest hundreds of millions on this experint.”
Lu Zhou shook his head and said, “I can save money on other places, but definitely not on the equipnt. A rigorous mathematical model needs rigorous equipnt to support it.”
Actually, the scanning electron microscope was basically the largest expense. For the experint, the other pieces of equipnt such as the CVD vacuum tube furnace, arc chamber, Fourier infrared spectroter, and etc cost a lot less.
Of course, even though the pieces of equipnt cost a lot of money, Lu Zhou still didn’t care.
It was fine to cut down on wages, but he couldn’t cut down on the costs of the pieces of equipnt.
If the data from the experint was inaccurate, he couldn’t produce any samples. The experint would then be a failure.
Also, these equipnt weren’t for one-ti use, Lu Zhou could use them for his next project.
According to Lu Zhou’s plan, the first investnt phase would consist of US$50 million. After that, he planned on adding another US$50 million and to buy equipnt such as atomic force microscope and transmission electron microscope. His laboratory would be one of the leading laboratories in China.
It was no exaggeration to say that people would be willing to work at the laboratory for free just for the equipnt.
After all, if a researcher worked under Lu Zhou and published a few theses, their entire career would change.
They were definitely willing to work for free.
Although having no salary would be unfortunate, but that was one of the sacrifices one had to make in research.
Dean Li said, “Most people really can’t afford to research computational materials science.”
Previously, Dean Li would talk to other people about opening a computational materials science departnt at Jin Ling University, but now it seed that he severely lacked the money for it.
“Yeah,” Lu Zhou said. He continued, “Actually, I want to buy a supercomputer as well.”
A supercomputer was like a nuclear weapon of computational materials science. It was similar to “Anton” 1 .
Simple algebra and geotry calculations could be done with a piece of paper and a pen. However, if soone wanted to do quantitative calculations, even if the data from the experint accurately simulated the polyr space model, it would still be insanely computationally intensive.
However, Lu Zhou had just spent US$50 million on equipnt, so he didn’t want to spend more just yet.
Lu Zhou planned to wait for so results before making any new purchases.
Suddenly, Lu Zhou noticed that Dean Li had stopped talking.
“What?”
Dean Li: “...”
He ignored Lu Zhou.
He didn’t want to say a word.
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