Graphene is a hot topic in the field of new materials. As an internationally renowned expert in this field, Liu Zhongfan is both happy and worried about the current situation of related research and industrial development in China. I am happy that a hundred flowers are blooming, and I am worried that many roads have deviated.
Liu Zhongfan is a professor at Peking University, president of the Beijing Graphene Research Institute, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and a member of the Standing Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. In 2019, he spent half a year visiting 29 cities in 14 provinces across the country, inspecting hundreds of graphene-related companies - all of which he carefully selected from thousands of homes. After coming back, he was relieved, "We are still competitive," and at the same time he was also worried, "Our method will have problems in the future."
"The phenomenon of quick success, technology and industry is very serious. On April 10, at the lecture hall event of the academician of science and technology innovation co-sponsored by the Shenzhen Innovation and Development Research Institute, the Zhongguancun Industrial Transformation and Upgrading Research Institute, and the Shenzhen Enterprise Federation, Liu Zhongfan spoke bluntly to the more than 200,000 listeners on site and online.
Academician Liu Zhongfan delivered a speech in the lecture hall of the academician of science and technology innovation. Photo/Courtesy of the organizer
"Materials are the forerunners of the industry, and we often talk about 'stuck neck' technology, but in fact, the root of 'stuck neck' is material. Liu Zhongfan said, "Materials are the bottleneck that restricts the development of high-tech industries in the mainland, and the development of new materials and opening up new tracks is the key to solving the problem of 'stuck neck' and achieving leapfrog development." ”
Liu Zhongfan believes that if silicon is a strategic new material in the 20th century, then graphene should be a strategic new material in the 21st century. In order to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, China needs to learn from other mountains in the scientific research and industrial utilization of graphene, and find a new way.
Basic research should not be rushed for quick success
Graphene is the thinnest, lightest, and strongest material, as well as the best thermally and electrically conductive material. Its application prospects have great imagination, and some have become reality, such as in batteries, sensors, touch screens and other products.
Liu Zhongfan believes that graphene, as a new branch in the industrial tree of the carbon material family, is a material that carries on the past and opens up the future, which is worthy of attention and investment. For this reason, he created an ancient poem "Graphene Praise": "The beauty is first exposed to black gold, and thousands of favors are gathered in one." Continue the red blood of the carbon clan, and the old trees and new branches benefit the people. ”
In fact, graphene originally exists in nature, and stacked multi-layer graphene forms graphite. In 2004, two scientists, Andrei Geim and Konstantin Novokovov, from the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, used the method of "tearing tape" to obtain graphene with a single-layer structure. Later, they jointly won the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics for a series of research on graphene.
"Breakthroughs in basic research from 0 to 1 are often the result of unintentional reflections, stemming from scientists' curiosity and desire for knowledge, which are difficult to plan. Liu Zhongfan said that in this sense, basic research should not be too eager for quick success, we need to cultivate innovative cultural soil, create a free and relaxed cultural environment, and allow some people to do seemingly "useless" exploratory work, which is the key to supporting original innovation.
The research and utilization of graphene has become a hot spot in the world, and China is also active in it. The first financial reporter found through Tianyancha that there are currently more than 77,000 graphene-related enterprises in existence and operation in China. According to Liu Zhongfan, China has 60 graphene industrial parks, 17 innovation centers, 113 research institutes and 17 industrial alliances, and "the rest of the world together is not as many as us".
Let's look at the number of graphene-related patents and papers. At present, China has more than 90,000 graphene-related patents in the world, accounting for 72.2% of the world's total, and the United States has more than 9,000 patents, less than 1/10 of us. So far, about 350,000 graphene-related papers have been published in the world, of which 260,000 are in China, accounting for 74.5%, and the second place in the United States is 47,000, which is about 5.5 times that of the United States.
"I'm thinking about a question: why do we have so many patents and so many articles? Is it really useful? This is a big question. You may say who made you scientists work so hard? Don't blame scientists, blame our evaluation system. Statistics can never reflect the truth, even a true data is meaningless, it does not show that we are leading the world. Liu Zhongfan's words drew a round of applause from the audience.
Liu Zhongfan further introduced that at present, the domestic graphene industry is concerned about the hot spots, and the "three major pieces" such as new energy, big health, and coatings account for 82%. Compared to Europe, the United States, Japan and South Korea, our main point of interest is "not on one channel". Take South Korea as an example - this is a dark horse in the field of graphene, they have formed a network with Samsung as the core, and have mastered many core patents related to devices. And in our country, it is mainly the patents applied for by university professors, many of which are "useless", and we are "applying for the sake of applying".
According to Liu Zhongfan's observation, the current domestic graphene industry has overcapacity, of which small workshop-style graphene enterprises account for more than 99%. Excessive fragmentation of policy guidance is an important reason for the "national production of olene", "because you can get all kinds of resources if you do this". However, this disorderly competition has weakened our market advantage to a great extent.
"I think the effective coordination of 'national will' and 'market will' is the key to the healthy development of the graphene industry in mainland China." There is a very good sentence in this year's government work report, 'promoting a better combination of an efficient market and a promising government', and this sentence needs to be implemented. Liu Zhongfan said.
The graphene industry needs artisan groups and leading companies
What is the current stage of development of the graphene industry? Liu Zhongfan said frankly that it is still in the initial stage, "from the samples in the laboratory to large-scale products, and then to market-oriented commodities, this road is long", and even most of the samples in the laboratory are "stillborn".
"Because there are still many key problems in this industry, such as low-cost large-scale preparation technology has not yet been solved, there are also low-cost batch stripping and transfer, and there is still a lack of a 'killer' level application, that is, 'it can't do without it' use. Liu Zhongfan said that these problems are all "stuck neck" problems, which are basic research and cannot be rushed.
"Solving the problem of 'stuck neck' is boiled out, and it is by no means a temporary rush of money, and it requires decades of unremitting efforts and continuous resource investment. Liu Zhongfan said that he especially likes Bill Gates's words: we always overestimate the changes that will occur in the next one or two years, and always underestimate the changes that will occur in the next ten years, "Now some people's understanding of graphene is that one or two years will definitely be able to make a lot of money, so a pile of piles, if you need to wait ten years to make a lot of money, he doesn't wait, he feels too far." Our businesses don't wait, and neither do our governments. If we don't change the practice of quick success and mass movement, and the way of thinking that we can't do well and rely on others to buy, we will continue to encounter the problem of 'stuck neck' in the field of hard technology such as graphene. ”
Academician Liu Zhongfan delivered a speech in the lecture hall of the academician of science and technology innovation. Photo/Qin Xin'an
Liu Zhongfan said that the current graphene products can not support the building of the graphene industry, and the graphene material manufacturing industry still has huge room for improvement, so we can't be too anxious. Speaking of which, he took Toray Corporation, the global leader in the field of carbon fiber, as an example, and believed that China's development of the graphene industry needs to be self-defeating, ambitious and ambitious, and a large number of "craftsmen" who pursue the ultimate.
Carbon fiber is already a common and important material, which is widely used in aerospace, automotive, military and other fields. China has vigorously developed the carbon fiber industry in the past 20 years, but its current share in the international market is close to zero. The top five companies in terms of market share are Japanese, German, and U.S. companies, with a combined market share of 62%, of which three Japanese companies, led by Toray, account for 37% of the global market.
Toray has been working on carbon fiber since the early 60s, and it has been in mass production for 10 years because the market demand is not large and it is not profitable. In 2003, Toray won a big contract for the Boeing 787, and it began to usher in a turnaround. But it was not until March 2011 that it entered a period of stable profitability, and it took 50 years.
In his speech, Liu Zhongfan showed the audience a "craftsman map" drawn by Toray, which recorded in detail which model of product was invented and made by whom. "It's a great picture. It's usually hard for us to make such a picture, because very few of us really focus on one thing, and even if a particular person focuses on a certain thing, it's usually not necessarily visible because they are low-level employees. Liu Zhongfan said.
According to Liu Zhongfan, in fact, China's carbon fiber research is almost synchronous with Japan, and the difference between China and the world in the 70s of the last century is not so big. However, when the relevant departments organized more than 20 scientific research institutions to prepare for further joint research, they were stopped because of problems such as unclear ownership of intellectual property rights. After entering the 21st century, the country has re-attached importance to the research and application of carbon fiber materials, and now although the production capacity has gradually risen, most of them are at the low end and lack of competitiveness in the international market.
On the road of developing the graphene industry, what is the enlightenment of the carbon fiber industry to us? Liu Zhongfan summed it up in four points: First, patience and persistence. How long can we hold on to Toray for 50 years? The achievements of scientific and technological innovation must be implemented through enterprises in the end, and they cannot develop without leading enterprises. The third is to find the "killer" level application scenario. Without Boeing's orders, it would have been difficult for carbon fiber to make a breakthrough. Fourth, the group of leaders and craftsmen. It can't be said that there is no carbon fiber without Toray, but it is possible that it is still in its infancy.
Liu Zhongfan believes that the above four points are the common underlying logic of the development of the new material industry. For China's graphene new material industry, he gave an eight-word judgment: the future is immeasurable, and there is a long way to go.
Scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, and governments have their part to play
Liu Zhongfan used to do research on carbon tubes, another carbon-based material, and began to move to the field of graphene in 2008. From doing basic research at the beginning to doing industrial expansion later, Liu Zhongfan described it as an "extremely difficult" road, and often told people that he was "full of food and support". But he also admitted that this is a road he likes, and he is reluctant to leave.
In 2016, with the support of the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission, Liu Zhongfan led the establishment of the Beijing Graphene Research Institute (BGI), one of the first new R&D institutions in Beijing. In the following year, Beijing Graphene Research Institute Co., Ltd. was established, "one side is the research institute, the other side is the enterprise, and the two are one-to-one incubation". Liu Zhongfan explained the original intention of this design, saying that he has been a professor at Peking University for decades, and knows that traditional scientific research institutes are generally only suitable for technical research, and it is often "impossible to do it" if they hope that they will make something to break the "bottleneck" of the industry. He hopes that the Beijing Graphene Research Institute will do some exploration in this regard, "My goal is to build a global graphene leader and provide customers with the best material solutions."
The biggest difference between Beijing Graphene Research Institute and traditional scientific research institutes is that it pays special attention to oriented rather than divergent basic research, and is committed to the development of new methods, new processes, new equipment for material preparation, as well as new ideas for material application and solving the problem of "stuck neck" in the industry. "I don't pay attention to publishing articles, publishing articles should be a by-product, and treating it as the pursuit of goals is putting the cart before the horse, which leads to problems. Liu Zhongfan once again complained about the shortcomings of the scientific research evaluation system, "I have to solve the problem of material preparation." ”
Liu Zhongfan also realized that another deep-seated reason why scientific and technological innovation was "stuck" was that scientific research was out of touch with industry. He explained that from the 0~9 innovation chain, there are now a lot of people in China who are doing front-end basic research, and a lot of people are doing back-end industrial transformation, but not many people are interested in the middle of the pilot test. "Scientists do the work of scientists, and the industry does the business of the industry, and no one cares about the middle part, and no one builds bridges, which is a very big problem. Liu Zhongfan said.
Why did such a problem arise? Liu Zhongfan, who was in the "bureau," was very clear. He analyzed: "On the one hand, our current talent evaluation system makes scientific and technological workers satisfied with publishing academic papers, and he has no incentive to push scientific research results to pilot and industrialization, 'I don't do this and I don't lack anything'." On the other hand, it is difficult for enterprises to catch the scientific research results from the laboratory, because of the lack of engineering and large-scale links, the vast majority of enterprises do not have the ability and willingness to fill this gap. One didn't want to go back, the other didn't want to go forward, so he got stuck there. If this problem is not solved, no matter how many platforms are built, it will only produce a bunch of self-congratulatory results, resulting in 'whatever you want' in the laboratory, everything can be studied, but in the market, 'what is used', nothing can be formed, and nothing can be formed. ”
In order to avoid this trap, BGI did not simply do basic research from the beginning, but regarded pilot engineering and industrialization as the top priority in parallel. "What are the advantages of BGI? I have three teams working together - basic research team, process research and development team and equipment manufacturing team, all of which are indispensable. Liu Zhongfan said.
Regarding equipment, Liu Zhongfan deliberately said a few more words. "Equipment is the curing of the material manufacturing process, and it is difficult to make competitive materials without its own unique equipment. Grasping equipment R&D and equipment manufacturing, it has the core competitiveness of the graphene material market. Liu Zhongfan said that BGI should grasp the materials with one hand and the equipment with the other, which is the "core of the core" of the entire research institute. He also pointed out that equipment manufacturing is the weak link of China's high-tech industry, and it is also a trillion-level industry, and it is very important to support Beijing, Shenzhen and other places to build special zones for equipment industry.
Looking back on the more than ten years of leading the team to "play hard" with graphene, Liu Zhongfan once again mentioned the decisive significance of the evaluation mechanism to scientific and technological innovation in his speech. He strongly agrees with the idea in the book "Transforming China: China's Road to a Market Economy" (CITIC Press, 2013): a performance-based reward system can force scientists to publish articles, but it will combine academic motivation with material gain, and nothing can stifle creativity and originality more than that!
"The current scientific research evaluation and reward mechanism is to some extent 'inducing crime', changing 'doing it for interest' to 'doing it when it is beneficial'. Including giving 'hats' (titles), which were originally given 'hats' to facilitate research, but now they have become doing research to get 'hats', but as a result, everyone goes after 'hats', and 'hats' are flying all over the sky, and research is not doing well. Liu Zhongfan believes that only by doing research based on interest and curiosity is the duty of a scientist, and only then can he gain a real sense of achievement.
The research results of scientists need to go through the baptism of market competition before they can be transformed and implemented and create market value. This step depends on the business and the entrepreneur. In addition to scientists, BGI also has a group of like-minded investors and professional managers who are managing various business divisions and subsidiaries of BGI in a modern enterprise model. "The industrialization of graphene materials requires the sincere cooperation and collaborative innovation of scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs. Enterprises are the best carriers of industry-university-research collaborative innovation, and within the enterprise, scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs have completely consistent interests, so that they can work together under the traction of clear market goals. Promoting the entrepreneurial spirit, fully respecting and trusting entrepreneurs, cultivating a market culture of fair competition, and allowing thousands of enterprises to grow up are the only magic weapons to promote the transformation of high-tech achievements and prosper the economy. Liu Zhongfan said.
Liu Zhongfan believes that the government must restrain the impulse to dominate original innovation and not get too close to the frontier of science, otherwise it will bring huge decision-making risks and seriously damage the academic ecology. "What is the academic frontier? The academic frontier is one with a high degree of uncertainty, and what is certain is not called the frontier. Decisions made by uncertainty are extremely risky and hardly successful. Liu Zhongfan explained that the industry and the market need the innovative ecology and the cultural soil of fair competition, so all policy guidance must be based on the prosperity of the market, which is where the "promising government" plays a role.
Liu's "Ene Dream" in the field of new materials
Located in the center of Zhigu in Haidian District, Beijing, BGI has two buildings, one R&D building (Moyuan) and one industrialization building (Eneyuan). In the past five years, Liu Zhongfan has been going there every day as long as he is in Beijing, and almost every day he is the first to arrive and the last to go. On February 2, 2020, during the new crown epidemic, Liu Zhongfan, who was moved, wrote a poem "Tasha Xing, On the Way to Work": the sky is white, deserted, and the traffic seems to have been busy. Acquaintances don't know each other, hide their faces and frowns and walk around the street. A plague, a nightmare, and ups and downs are life. The spring cold is expected to be an ordinary thing, and thousands of purples and thousands of reds are waiting for the east wind.
In the past five years, BGI has completed the integrated layout from graphene basic research, pilot test to industrial landing, and has grown into a world-leading graphene material R&D and industrial incubation base. In the past two years, BGI's revenue has exceeded 60 million yuan, six or seven times that of 2021. But this is just a bud waiting to be released, and there is still a long way to go from the "thousands of purples and thousands of reds" that Liu Zhongfan is looking forward to. His goal is to build a 100-billion-level "graphene industry tree" and form a graphene industry ecology that is "dominated by me, deployed across the country, and connected to the world". In this process, it is hoped that the preparation for the listing of the company will be completed in 2028 and the "Ene Dream" of Liu's with a total revenue of more than 100 billion yuan will be realized in 2035 - it also belongs to the "Chinese Dream" in the field of new materials.
(This article is from Yicai)