On May 25th 2016, the iChEM’s Chief Scientist for the Platform of Optimal Utilization of Carbon Resources, Prof. Xinhe Bao, MCAS from Dalian Research Institute of Chemical Physics, CAS and Fudan University, was invited to Xiamen University for lecturing the course of Advanced Energy Chemistry for undergraduates majoring in Energy Chemistry, whose subject is related to “Nano Confinement Effect in Catalysis.” The audiences mainly were juniors, MCAS, experts in catalysis, teachers and graduates. Prof. Bao especially designed some cartons in order to make the undergraduates easily understand the basic theory of catalysis. He also introduced the history of catalysis science development by some well-known and key scientists with their interesting stories, and took daily life as example to arouse the interests of students to catalysis. Meanwhile, he’d like to share his ideas and thoughts on hot frontier topics and challenges in catalysis, which really is a very wonderful and interesting presentation to all attended students and teachers.
This lecture introduced the catalysis, catalytic chemistry, nano confinement effect in catalysis, novel nanomaterials for catalysis, catalysis examples in optimal utilization of carbon resources, etc. The course began from basic concepts, and clearly introduced energy barrier, surface absorption and active sites, ingeniously explained the catalytic process and catalyst by vividly taking the relations between people as an example. In the research of catalytic surface science, Prof. Bao said, characterization for catalyst and catalytic reaction require especially high temperature, high pressure, in situ, dynamic, and also polycrystal power catalyst, while the surface science mostly is for low temperature, vacuum, and single crystal. Big difference, i.e. so-called “materials gap” and “pressure gap” existed between the two research fields; of course there may be also the great breakthrough potential in these fields. Combined with research work of his group, Prof. Bao introduced the three characteristics of space confinement, electron confinement, and reactants enrichment of carbon nanotube, and introduced in detail about the catalysis of new type and the surface groups of nano materials, and application of confined catalysis of nanotubes. He also prospected the establishment and development of the theory of confinement catalysis.
According to the trend and strategy of energy development, shortage of liquid fuels in China, short supply of energy, and development of olefins, Prof. Bao pointed out that looking for some methods to effectively replace oil especially fitting for our national conditions is important, while we still have to face the pressure of CO2 emission and water shortage during carbon-based energy conversion. He also introduced “the milestone breakthrough in coal conversion”, which is to get light olefins directly from syngas by coal gasification in high selectivity, breaking the rules of ASF distribution and solve the “see-saw” effect between selectivity and conversion. Based on this, Prof. Bao hopes to promote the transfer from innovative fundamental research to industrialization under the instruction of DICP’s rich experience in industrialization, by cooperation with Prof. Zhongmin Liu’s group. Besides, Prof. Bao also systematically introduced another breakthrough research of his group in recent, which is direct activation and oriented conversion of methane, pointing out the challenges and the development of cooperation with industries.
Prof. Bao encourages all the students to acquire knowledge and do research based on multidiscipline, multi-field and multi-technology, especially emphasizing the importance of in situ and dynamic characterization. By taking above examples, he told the students to do more experiments step by step, frequently discuss with teachers, and specially notice those unexpected results or phenomena appeared in experiments.
Prof. Bao, as the supervisor of Dr. Dehui Deng (iChEM research associate, positioned in DICP but work at XMU now, carrying out collaborative research among the member institutions ensured by the iChEM Fellow system), especially visited Deng’s group and laboratory and discussed the research progress with students and gave some instructions and valuable suggestions. Dr. Deng’s group develops gradually since its establishment in 2014 and the related achievements grow quickly, whose group already became a model group for promoting the platform construction in optimal utilization of carbon resources and also the collaboration between member institutions.
