November 16-17, 2026, Gucheng, Xiangyang, Hubei.
As INFOR brings its production lines to Hubei, solid-state batteries move to the center of the discussion. With INFOR's Hubei industrial park bringing high-end grinding and dispersion/mixing capability to Gucheng, the conversation about new energy materials is moving beyond “how fine can the powder be”: cell makers will only truly adopt solid electrolytes in semi-solid-state batteries once they combine good ionic conductivity with stable interfaces.
This time we welcome a scholar who has spent more than 20 years working on polymer electrolytes, inorganic ceramic fillers and cell engineering side by side: Professor Liu Xingquan of the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC) has confirmed that he will attend the 2026 New Energy Materials Industry Development Forum and INFOR Hubei Industrial Park Opening Ceremony, where he will deliver a keynote titled “PEO-Based Inorganic Oxide Ceramic Solid Electrolytes and Solid-State Batteries”.
From PEO Chains to Ceramic Interfaces: A Veteran Who Has Made Solid Electrolytes Work
Liu Xingquan is a Grade II professor and doctoral supervisor at the School of Materials and Energy, UESTC. He is a recipient of the Chinese Academy of Sciences “Light of the West” talent program, an academic and technical leader of Sichuan Province, a council member of the China Energy Society, a standing committee member of the national expert committee on energy materials and devices, and was named an Innovation Figure for High-Quality Development in the 14th Five-Year Plan period at the 2021 China Scientists Forum.
His research covers four main areas: solid electrolytes for all-solid-state lithium and sodium batteries, high-energy-density electrode materials, and the industrialization of lithium-sulfur and sodium-ion batteries. His approach can be summed up in one sentence: go from molecular modification to cell validation, then go back and revise the process sheet.
• PEO-based composite solid electrolytes: Working on composites of polyethylene oxide (PEO) and garnet-type inorganic ceramics such as LLZTO, he tackles three long-standing problems: the low room-temperature ionic conductivity of PEO, the Li₂CO₃ passivation layer on ceramic surfaces that blocks ion transport, and poor compatibility at the polymer-ceramic interface;
• Interfacial ion-gate control: He proposed a weakly solvating molecular ion-gate (WSMI) strategy, in which modifier molecules containing carboxyl or trifluoromethyl groups chemically anchor to the ceramic surface, remove the insulating passivation layer in situ and create a local weakly solvating environment, letting Li⁺ hop along multiple pathways between PEO chain segments, ceramic fillers and interface sites;
• Solid-state battery engineering: His composite electrolyte has achieved stable cycling for more than 2,000 hours in Li||Li symmetric cells and 87.8% capacity retention after 1,100 cycles in LiFePO₄ full cells, while also demonstrating dendrite suppression on the lithium metal anode side;
• Material-equipment collaboration: He has led projects under the national 863 Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology, the National Natural Science Foundation of China and a number of industrialization projects with companies. He was among the first internationally to take nickel-based, NCM and LiFePO₄ cathode materials through pilot production and industrialization, and 13 of his invention patents have been put into production.
As peers put it, his work is “not just stirring ceramic powder into PEO, but giving every ceramic particle its own ion corridor that opens by itself.”
Closely Aligned with the Forum's New Energy Materials Theme
Professor Liu's keynote, “PEO-Based Inorganic Oxide Ceramic Solid Electrolytes and Solid-State Batteries”, sits right on the forum's hottest theme: the move toward solid-state batteries.
The talk will start from PEO chain-segment motion, the intrinsic ion conduction of inorganic ceramic fillers, the removal of surface passivation layers and the building of weakly solvating interfaces, then move on to dendrite suppression at the lithium metal anode and full-cell cycling performance, laying out the whole chain from molecular design to powder dispersion, electrolyte film formation and cell packaging. For material producers, cell makers and equipment suppliers pursuing high-safety solid-state routes, this is a rare chance to align across scales: how upstream ceramic powders are ground, dispersed and kept from agglomerating directly determines the interfacial defect density of the composite electrolyte, and once those defects are magnified at cell level, they become sources of dendrites and thermal runaway.
INFOR's new Hubei park will validate powder consistency, slurry stability and electrode yield on the same site, helping material experts understand equipment tolerances and equipment engineers understand interfacial impedance.
A New Park Opens with a Live Lesson on Polymer-Ceramic Electrolytes
Professor Liu will distill more than a decade of his team's research on PEO-based composite electrolytes into a hands-on talk for production line engineers.
Unlike a purely academic report, he prefers to talk about materials in the language of process: from how to treat hydroxyl groups on filler surfaces and how to build ion channels in composite films, to how to set the slurry viscosity window for roll-to-roll coating. Each technical point maps directly to equipment process parameters.
For cell makers planning semi-solid-state lines, the value of the talk is hearing from a materials scientist who has built pilot lines and run full-cell cycling himself which “optimal solutions” in the literature hold up at scale, and which overlooked powder details decide whether solid electrolytes can be mass-produced.
