Chen Liquan, laureate of China’s high sci-tech award for the 12 months 2025 as introduced in Beijing on Wednesday, is acknowledged because the nation’s founding father of solid-state ionics and a pioneer in lithium battery analysis.
A researcher on the Institute of Physics underneath the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), Chen acquired the distinction at a gathering that introduced collectively the nationwide science and know-how award convention, the final assemblies of the members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the CAE, and the eleventh nationwide congress of the China Association for Science and Technology.
Born in 1940 within the mountainous Jialing area of Nanchong, southwest China’s Sichuan Province, Chen grew up with dim oil lamps. The early hardships fostered a visceral craving for the comfort and brightness that electrical energy might convey. It was not till his high-school entrance examination that he skilled electrical lighting for the primary time. It crystallized his aspiration: to dedicate his profession to the ability sector, in order that extra individuals might take pleasure in its gentle and comfort.
In the Nineteen Seventies, as the worldwide oil disaster uncovered the vulnerability of China’s power construction, which was closely depending on imports, the crucial for a home breakthrough grew to become pressing.
In 1976, whereas on a analysis go to on the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Germany, Chen recognized the immense potential of lithium nitride for solid-state battery fabrication. A small button cell, he realized, might far outperform standard lead-acid batteries, with the capability to reshape transportation power.
Recognizing this strategic frontier as very important to nationwide power safety, Chen made a decisive pivot. He formally petitioned the CAS to desert his established profession in crystal supplies analysis and enterprise into solid-state ionics — a discipline then fully uncharted in China.
Returning residence in 1978, Chen launched into lithium-battery analysis with nothing however resolve. The nation had no related know-how, no specialised gear and no educated personnel. The path ahead was unsure, and obstacles have been formidable.
Working underneath excessive circumstances, he and his workforce toiled day and night time, taking solely temporary rests earlier than urgent on with their analysis. They accomplished a one-year analysis plan in simply 5 months, a testomony to his relentless drive.
In 1998, Chen spearheaded the development of China’s first pilot manufacturing line for lithium-ion batteries primarily based completely on indigenous know-how, gear and uncooked supplies. This milestone cracked the bottleneck of mass manufacturing and laid the cornerstone for industrial enlargement.
He was the primary on the planet to suggest an progressive answer for nano-silicon anode supplies, and associated supplies realized mass manufacturing at a ten,000-tonne scale with world-leading efficiency. Multiple core applied sciences developed underneath his management have damaged overseas patent monopolies, establishing a controllable self-reliant technical framework for China’s lithium battery sector.
Chen has constantly championed the simultaneous pursuit of analysis and expertise cultivation. He based China’s first solid-state ionics laboratory, constructed tutorial trade platforms, and mentored a technology of top-level researchers and business leaders.
By selling deep integration of academia and business, he helped take away boundaries to commercialization, facilitating the rise of dominant gamers similar to CATL, the world’s largest electrical automobile battery maker.
This ecosystem, constructed on elementary analysis, enabled by utilized innovation and scaled via industrialization, propelled China to attain a historic leap to grow to be the world’s largest lithium battery producer in 2014.
“For a nation to move forward, we cannot simply replicate what others have done. We must have our own vision. Without fresh thinking, maintaining a leading edge is impossible,” Chen mentioned.
Even as China maintains its world lead in liquid lithium batteries, Chen has by no means rested on previous achievements. Aware of the energy-density limits and security shortcomings of liquid batteries, he has remained steadfast for many years in advancing solid-state battery know-how.
After years of intensive work, his workforce broke via a world bottleneck in solid-state batteries by pioneering an in-situ solidification approach that permits ion transport throughout solid-state interfaces. They have now developed a whole solid-state battery answer with absolutely impartial mental property rights.
In 2023, high-energy-density solid-state energy batteries incorporating this core know-how entered mass manufacturing and acquired put in in autos, making China the primary nation to attain business deployment of solid-state batteries, and cementing its main place on the worldwide stage.
Mindful of China’s useful resource endowment that includes considerable coal, scarce oil and restricted pure fuel, Chen has additionally taken a forward-looking stance concerning sodium-ion batteries, exploring options that break useful resource constraints and open new avenues for diversified, impartial power improvement.
“The future goals are even greater,” he mentioned. (Xinhua)