Chapter 454 - Really Not Thinking About Going Public?
Chapter 454: Really Not Thinking About Going Public?
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
At the beginning of the year, the Pablo Jarillo Herrero’s team made remarkable achievements regarding the graphene superconductivity project, opening up a new platform for superconductivity research.
Which was, whenever the two graphenes superimposing angle approached 1.1K, the electronic band structure reached zero-dispersion, causing the band to transform into a Mott insulator when half-filling.
This research result caused a huge commotion.
Most people didn’t think a 1.1K superconductivity was anything worthy. However, in reality, this project was full of potential.
To know the reason why, it was necessary to clarify a basic concept, which was that superconductivity transition temperature was positively proportional to the material carrier concentration.
Therefore, in theory, as long as the concentration of charge carriers increased, the upper limit of the superconductivity material temperature could also be increased.
For example, graphene had a charge carrier concentration of only 10^11cm^-2 and transition temperature of 1K.
In contrast, the superconductivity transition temperature of copper oxide was around 100K, while the single-layer material charge carrier concentration was on the order of 10^14cm^-2.
Even if one didn’t understand chemistry, one could still intuitively feel the superiority of graphene materials compared to traditional copper oxide materials in the field of superconducting materials.
There were many ways to increase the charge carrier concentration in graphene. Doping could be divided into N doping and P doping, and the doping material could also be divided into small molecule doping, metal doping, lattice doping, etc.
This was precisely why graphene had an advantage.
The two-dimensional material atom sheets could be stacked and combined in many different ways to form new structures. These new structures often had new properties, which meant there was a near-infinite amount of possibilities.
The disadvantage was that it was very expensive.
However, scientific researchers often didn’t have to think about costs.
How to cut costs, manufacture, profit… These were some of the things that the industry had to consider.
However this time, Lu Zhou sincerely hoped that the industry could hurry up and find a way to effectively manufacture his research results.
The system didn’t give him a lot of time.
He had to build a DEMO nuclear fusion prototype before 2025, so superconducting materials were a must.
After all, it was not like he could build a magnetic confinement fusion device as big as the European Hadron Collider. He needed the superconducting materials…
In the evening the experiment results came out, Lu Zhou invited Connie, Professor Chirik, and Professor Chirik’s two assistants to drink at the best bar in Palmer Square.
Obviously, their drinking was funded by the research fund.
After all, the research fund was funded entirely by Lu Zhou anyway.
Professor Chirik sat next to Lu Zhou and ordered a cocktail. He asked, “Honestly, why are you suddenly interested in superconducting materials? Superconducting materials obviously isn’t as profitable as batteries.”
There wasn’t anything wrong with the research topic. No matter how unpopular a research topic was, there was still someone engaged in that topic. However, Lu Zhou’s previous research was on electrode materials, so when he suddenly migrated to superconducting materials, Professor Chirik was genuinely confused as to why he would do that.
After all, while the field of superconducting materials wasn’t necessarily unpopular, it definitely wasn’t a highly profitable field.
Lu Zhou smiled and said, “If I said it was for humanity’s future, would you believe me?”
“You’re drunk.” Chirik looked at the bartender behind the bar and said, “Hey, give him a Bloody Mary.”
“Don’t listen to him, change the Bloody Mary to a Tequila Sunrise. You can drink that tomato juice yourself.” Lu Zhou paused for a second and said, “Okay, honestly, it’s actually because my experiment needs a larger constrained electromagnetic field. The traditional copper oxide superconducting material has already reached the engineering limit of electromagnetic field strength; therefore, I need to find new materials.”
Professor Chirik said, “Is it for the sake of theoretical physics?”
He had heard about Lu Zhou and the story of 750 GeV.
Lu Zhou picked up the glass of Tequila Sunrise from the bar and slowly took a sip before he replied ambiguously, “I guess.”
“Okay… Doing research to do more research, I guess this counts as a reason,” Chirik said as he shook the glass in his hand and made a helpless expression. He slowly raised his glass and said, “Cheers to your passion for research.”
“Thank you.”
They both raised their hands and gently tapped their glasses together.
Bars on Palmer Square were pretty boring. Other than the small town’s residents, the guests here were basically all Princeton professors and students.
Scenes that happened in American movies were rarely seen here unless one went to a more popular bar.
Connie said that if they wanted to have more fun, they had to go to Philadelphia.
However, Lu Zhou said the alcohol was enough to relax his tired brains.
It was worth mentioning that although the atmosphere here wasn’t intense, everyone was very enthusiastic.
Professor Chirik couldn’t handle the alcohol and stumbled off to the toilet. A young pretty Asian chick seemed to have noticed Lu Zhou sitting alone, so she walked over and sat next to him. While smiling, she asked for his number.
However, Lu Zhou quickly realized this was one of his past students. Also, Lu Zhou had left his phone number and email on the lecture hall blackboard multiple times.
Obviously, there was no way she didn’t know his phone number.
He didn’t know what she wanted. She probably just wanted to amuse herself.
The chick looked surprised after being exposed by Lu Zhou, so she quietly walked away.
The group of drunk men hung out until the early morning before they crossed the road and returned to their respective homes.
The next day, Star Sky Technology in North America sent a team of lawyers from Philadelphia to help with the patent application.
They could only publish the thesis after receiving their patent number.
If this process was reversed, then they likely wouldn’t be able to pass their patent application as the material would no longer be novel.
In order to receive the patent number as soon as possible, the CEO of the North American branch, White Sheridan, personally came to Princeton.
When Sheridan received the completed material patent application from Lu Zhou and looked at the patent description, he couldn’t help but ask.
“Really, are you not thinking about going public?”
Lu Zhou: “Public?”
Sheridan earnestly persuaded him by saying, “That’s right, just by patent income alone, other than the one-time buyout fees, our yearly profit is less than US$100 million. However, if we are publicly listed on Nasdaq, with our potential in the lithium-sulfur batteries market and future energy industry, you’ll become a multi-billionaire in less than a year.”
Lu Zhou had to admit that it sounded pretty appealing.
However, when he heard about being a multi-billionaire, he laughed. He then said nonchalantly said, “The market value is all fake. I’ll think about it if I can turn it all to cash, but if I can’t, I’d rather not have to report to the board every time I want to set up a new project.”
His original intention of Star Sky Technology was to facilitate his research work, so it wouldn’t make sense for him to violate that intention.
As for being a multi-billionaire…
Honestly, Lu Zhou already had no idea how to spend the couple hundred million in his bank account.
“Okay then… But I think there would be any investors that will stop you from doing experiments even if you only own 1% of the shares.”
Sheridan made a helpless expression.
There weren’t many people that were as stubborn as Lu Zhou.
However, he had nothing to complain about.
After all, even though Lu Zhou had a strong desire to control the company, the salary was quite generous.
The salary alone was enough to dispel his additional ideas.