People's Daily Online, Hefei, September 6 (Reporter Hu Yusong) Can you imagine that the academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, who promoted the rapid development of China's lithium battery technology, had never seen an electric light before he was 16 years old.
At the site of the 2026 "Write the Chapter of Youth on the Land of the Motherland" online theme publicity and interactive guidance event for the ideological and political course, 86-year-old Chen Liquan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a 1959 alumnus of the University of Science and Technology of China, emotionally introduced his scientific research history spanning half a century to teachers and students, vividly explaining the responsibility and ideal pursuit of scientific researchers.
Academician Chen Liquan shared his scientific research experience with HKUST students. Photo provided by the organizer
“When we were young, we all used kerosene lamps, and we didn’t see electric lights in the county until we were in high school.” Academician Chen Liquan grew up in a mountainous area in Sichuan. The difficult study environment gave Chen Liquan a simple wish very early on: to use electricity to let more people share the light.
In 1959, Chen Liquan was admitted to the University of Science and Technology of China. After graduation, he worked at the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 1976, Chen Liquan, who was studying in Germany, was attracted by a button-sized lithium nitride battery. Chen Liquan is keenly aware that this button battery and the technology behind it are related to national energy security. Subsequently, Chen Liquan took the initiative to apply to switch to the field of solid-state ionology, firmly anchoring his personal research direction where the country needs it most.
After completing his studies and returning to China, Chen Liquan started from scratch and started the path of scientific research on lithium batteries in my country. "After returning to China, conditions were limited. My family lived in a house renovated from an abandoned chicken coop. The laboratory was built during difficult times and is very crude."
Academician Chen Liquan shared his scientific research experience with HKUST students. Photo provided by the organizer
The conditions were difficult, but Chen Liquan and his scientific research team achieved research results one after another. After more than thirty years of hard work, China's lithium battery technology has gradually achieved a leap from following to leading: China's first solid-state lithium battery was hand-made in 1988, and the first lithium battery pilot production line with independent technology was built in 1998. In 2014, China's lithium battery international market share ranked first in the world for the first time.
"An important mission of scientists is to plan the future for the country in ten, twenty or even fifty years." This is the scientific research belief that Chen Liquan has always adhered to. Faced with the doubts of foreign experts that "we cannot make a usable solid-state battery," he held back his energy: "Of course you must pursue success in scientific research, and you must also dare to fail, but you must not admit defeat if you dare to lose. If people don't believe it, show it to them." The "in-situ solid-state" technology route he proposed solved the world problem of "solid-solid contact" and promoted my country to take the strategic initiative in the field of new generation batteries.
Today, 86-year-old Chen Liquan still has new ideals. In Chen's eyes, the future China is "Electric China". "In the not-too-distant future, aircraft in the sky will be electric, ships in the sea will be electric, and in the space station, the carbon dioxide exhaled by astronauts can also generate electricity." At the event, Chen Liquan affectionately sent a message to the young people present: "There must be many classmates among you who are more whimsical than me. Electric China depends on you."
On the evening of September 6, the 2026 "Write Youth on the Land of the Motherland" online theme publicity and interactive guidance event was held at the University of Science and Technology of China, sponsored by the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, the Ministry of Education, the People's Daily, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League, and the Anhui Provincial Party Committee Cyberspace Affairs Commission, and hosted by the Propaganda Department of the Anhui Provincial Party Committee, the Anhui Provincial Cyberspace Affairs Commission, the University of Science and Technology of China, the Hefei Municipal Party Committee Cyberspace Affairs Commission, People's Daily Online, and the China Youth Daily.
