Media Coverage | The Zhuji Daily Publishes the Scientific Research Achievements of Dr. Lei Li, Executive Director of the Laboratory
Release time:
2025.05.30
On May 30, on the eve of “National Science and Technology Workers’ Day,” the Zhuji Daily published a research article by Dr. Lei Li, founder and executive director of the China-Russia Joint Laboratory, in which he shared the laboratory’s original entrepreneurial vision, innovative achievements, and aspirations for the future.
Going back to 2012, Dr. Lei Li, then the director of the Shanghai Research Institute of Xi'an Jiaotong University, first came into contact with thermoelectrochemical oxidation (TECO) technology during an academic exchange in Novosibirsk, Russia. He keenly recognized the potential for disruptive innovation that this surface treatment technology held in the field of electrical materials.
At that time, China’s power equipment industry had long been dependent on imports for core materials, and the painful bottleneck in critical technologies urgently needed to be broken. This “dual-track” scholar, with 30 years of industrial experience, deeply understood that only independent innovation could overcome these barriers. He put forward a bold vision: applying TECO technology to restructure the electrical insulation systems of power equipment—and took this as an opportunity to embark on a challenging path toward breaking the deadlock: building a scientific research “Silk Road” spanning China and Russia.
In 2016, Leili jointly signed an agreement with institutions including Xi'an Jiaotong University and Novosibirsk State University to formally establish the “China-Russia Joint Laboratory,” focusing on addressing key challenges in the field of materials science.
At the end of 2018, the Leili team introduced TECO to China. In June 2019, the first industrialized company established under the “China-Russia Joint Laboratory”—Siberian Motor Technology (Suzhou) Co., Ltd.—was registered and set up in Huaqiao, Kunshan, focusing on research into ceramic coating technologies for lightweight metal materials and their applications.
When the first automated pilot production line began steadily producing ceramic-coated aluminum alloy conductors, Lei Li cautioned his team: “Introducing technology is 0; independent innovation is 1.”
Over the past six years, Lei Li has led his team through five rounds of technological iterations. Focusing on three key areas—new high-performance aluminum conductive materials, multifunctional composite insulating materials (with resistance to high and low temperatures, corona discharge, corrosion, and radiation), and scalable preparation technologies for carbon nanotube/metal composites—the team has successfully tackled core challenges including enhancing the electrical conductivity of aluminum alloys, improving the weather resistance of insulating materials, and achieving energy savings and carbon reduction throughout the entire lifecycle of power equipment. At the same time, the team has expanded its research into innovative medical implant materials, making breakthrough progress in critical technologies such as extending the service life of high-temperature friction pairs in aero-engines. To date, the laboratory and its industrialization company have collectively filed 217 independently developed patent applications (including 139 invention patents), establishing a comprehensive system of scientific research achievements covering fields such as power equipment, energy and transportation, biomedical engineering, and aerospace propulsion.
In 2022, Zhuji, a city experiencing robust development, was abuzz with a wave of technological enthusiasm. By the end of the year, the China-Russia (Zhuji) International Laboratory—jointly established by the People's Government of Zhuji City and the China-Russia Joint Laboratory—began operations.
Since its launch, this 4,000-square-meter laboratory has quickly become a vibrant hub for multidisciplinary innovation and has achieved a series of remarkable results: it has filed 72 invention patent applications (including 53 inventions), of which 16 have been granted. The lab has also been recognized as a new-type R&D institution in Shaoxing City and has established an overseas innovation center in Novosibirsk, Russia. Furthermore, it has launched collaborative research projects with leading universities in Russia, Belarus, Dubai, Azerbaijan, and other countries.
Even more gratifying to him is that the five tech enterprises incubated by the laboratory have now formed an integrated ecosystem of production and research innovation. Today, the “Demonstration Production Base for Green Electrical Materials and New Power Equipment,” built by the laboratory, has entered the countdown to commissioning and is poised to embark on a new journey toward industrialization. With its innovative practices, it will continue writing a new chapter in the practical application of “Made in China” technologies.
From the banks of the Huangpu River to Siberia, from laboratory research and development to a booming industrial wave—Lei Li, the “tech ferryman,” has spent thirty years putting into practice his belief in “diligent pursuit of knowledge.” In the laboratory exhibition hall he leads, this grand philosophy is inscribed: “Global innovation converges in China; Chinese wisdom serves the world.”
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