In the field of basic scientific research, there is a hard indicator for the evaluation of the value of original results: the citation rate of papers, that is, the number of times they have been cited by other researchers as professional literature, represents the gold content of originality.
A few days ago, the National Science and Technology Award was announced. Zhao Dongyuan and Professor Li Wei, academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and professors of the Department of Chemistry of Fudan University, completed the project "Creation and Application of Ordered Mesoporous Polymers and Carbon Materials", which originally put forward the idea of organic-organic self-assembly, created orderly functional mesoporous polymers and carbon materials, revealed the unique material transport and interface reaction rules of mesoporous substances, and won the first prize of the National Natural Science Award. This is also after 18 years, Shanghai scientists have won this award again.
What is interesting is that this achievement is a "milestone" and "pioneer" progress in this field, academician Zhao Dongyuan has been listed as a highly cited scientist in the field of chemistry and materials in the world for eight consecutive years, and the number one in the world in the field of papers and citations in the field of mesoporous materials.
"The whole synthesis process is very complicated, it's like bumping into a black box." When it comes to research, Professor Zhao said. Behind this heavy mille-footed gold original, there is curiosity, there is luck, but more than that, is tenacity.
That pivotal paper was only seven pages thin
Walking into the showroom next door to Zhao Dongyuan's office, the yellowed draft papers and experimental notes are particularly precious, which retain the accumulation and painstaking efforts of the members of the research group at that time. Among them, member Meng Yan's doctoral thesis "Synthesis and Structure of Ordered Organic Polymer Mesoporous Materials" reads: At first, the experiment could not make mesoporous, and all that was made was a cluster of nanoparticles...
"That pivotal paper, which is only seven pages thin, was written in countless explorations and failures, which is the process of scientific research." Zhao Dongyuan said: "Working like a small ant every day, after accumulating over time, you can get a rich harvest."
Mesoporous materials are porous materials with a pore size of 2-50 nanometers. Functionalized mesoporous materials are modified to make them have different functions. As a new material system developed in the 20th century, it has a regular arrangement, adjustable pore structure, high specific surface area and large adsorption capacity, and has a wide range of application prospects in many fields such as macromolecular catalysis, adsorption and separation, nano assembly and biochemistry.
"I'm a hole-maker." Speaking of his own research, Zhao Dongyuan was particularly involved, "No matter what object I see, I will consider how to make holes in it and prepare another new type of mesoporous material." ”
The mesoporous material of the catalyst is a new material system developed in the 20th century and has a wide range of application prospects. Zhao Dongyuan has invented 18 new nano-mesoporous materials named after Fudan University, led the development of mesoporous materials, published more than 500 SCI papers in important international journals, and applied for 39 chinese patent authorizations. He also serves on the editorial board of more than a dozen important international journals and is extremely influential in the academic community. In recent years, he has been listed by the international ISI Web of Science company as one of the 100 most cited chemists in the world, and by Thomson Reuters as a highly cited scientist in both the world's chemistry and materials.
"Innovation is not going with the flow and asking more questions. If there is no solution, it may be the direction of research. Zhao Dongyuan said, "My life is all chemistry, when I was in college, I read all the organic chemistry books that I could borrow in the library." Zhao Dongyuan regards academic research as his life, working more than 80 hours a week for more than a decade. In order to obtain experimental data and track the progress of experiments, they are often soaked in the laboratory for more than ten consecutive hours.
Around 2001, the entire mesoporous material was limited to inorganic materials. Zhao Dongyuan suddenly thought: after doing so many inorganic mesoporous materials, can you create an organic polymer material, soft and light and easy to use, and can also create a very high value in the national economy.
For the first four years or so, progress has been very slow. Once not, then change the direction, the second time, twice not, just three times, four times, thousands of times, Zhao Dongyuan led the team to always insist on exploration.
"The preparation of mesoporous materials from organic to inorganic, professionally it is a big leap, after the completion of the research, looking back, just a thin piece of paper, puncturing this paper, we used for nearly five years." Professor Zhao often said that basic research is to explore the laws of nature and use imagination to knock on the unknown door, but there is no trick to innovation, only to go step by step and bump.
The turning point came from Gu Dong, a Fudan transfer undergraduate, who used an unconventional method to conduct experiments on October 7, 2003, and got a very beautiful set of data in the middle of the night. When I called my teacher, Zhao Dongyuan, I shouted out, "It's done!" ”
"Gu Dong is very clever, he proposed the polymer first polymerization and then synthesis, and suddenly simplified the steps from 5 to 2." Zhao Dongyuan opened his mind under the inspiration of the students. In the next two months, everyone worked intensively to adjust the experimental parameters, test analysis, and basically got all the data at the end of the year. In 2005, Zhao Dongyuan first proposed a new idea of organic-organic self-assembly on the basis of organic-inorganic self-assembly, and made the experimental method public. It also brought the chemical research of mesoporous materials into the new "no man's land".
With the "door" being pushed open, more than 1,500 scientific research institutions in more than 60 countries and regions have followed the research, using similar methods to study mesoporous polymers and carbon materials, and published more than 40,000 papers. In Zhao Dongyuan's research group, members have published more than 200 papers based on the results of the project, and have been cited more than 30,000 times. For decades, Zhao Dongyuan has been doing scientific research, and he has selflessly passed on his experience to students. Tian Bozhi, the winner of the first "President's Award" of Fudan University, is his student, who has been in graduate school for 3 years and published 8 SCI papers as the first author.
"If you don't go into no man's land and experience failure, you won't succeed." He said.
"If you like it, you can burst out of infinite power"
If the surface area of each gram of mesoporous material developed can reach 3,000 square meters, the breakthrough of material properties has brought more application ideas.
After continuously reducing costs, Zhao Dongyuan's team put scientific research results into industrial production and carried out large-scale preparation. For example, the use of mesoporous materials as catalysts greatly improves the efficiency of heavy oil conversion, which can help enterprises increase production of about 1.5 million tons of high-quality oil products every year after national promotion; the production of mesoporous carbon and mesoporous polymer tons, used in supercapacitors, has been demonstrated in LED street lights at the Beijing Olympic Games and electric vehicles at the Shanghai World Expo. In addition, it is also widely used in biological testing, environmental treatment, electronic materials and many other aspects.
In terms of civilian use, it has not yet been realized, but Zhao Dongyuan has already imagined: mesoporous materials have been used as insulation and thermal insulation materials in industry, is it possible to apply to clothing in the future? For example, the use of nanopores to make clothes, both light and thin, warm and strong. In fact, they are now making a liquid made of mesoporous polymer materials. "In the future, smeared on the body, a thin layer, you can completely insulate, you can't see it at all, minus 30 ° C are not afraid!" He said excitedly.
"Science supports the development of technology, and scientific research is not only for exploration, but also for the upward development of society and the strength of the country." With this kind of thinking, Professor Zhao Dongyuan's innovation has never stopped.
Once, he took his son to play in lego world, and when he saw various large assembly components, he thought: In the microscopic world, can you also use various functional primitives to form holes? Subsequently, a new research direction was opened up - modular assembly in the synthesis methodology of mesoporous materials.
Once, Zhao Dongyuan's research group is promoting the research direction, a foreign team took the lead in publishing a paper, the members of the research group had some mood swings, he said, "It doesn't matter, scientific research is to rely on a steady stream of new ideas, new ideas, we have a deep understanding of the material, we must be able to make better." In Zhao Dongyuan's view, growing up in fierce competition is also the charm of basic research.
Many students sent e-mails asking him: What are the conditions to enter your laboratory? Zhao Dongyuanhui: If nothing else, my only condition is that you love science and aspire to become a scientific worker. "Research needs you to immerse yourself in it, you need to like it. Students who can enter Fudan, regardless of liberal arts and sciences, I believe that intelligence is enough, and the rest depends on whether you really like it. Like, you can burst out of infinite power. Just calm down and think, go to the bottom of the matter, and one day you will be rewarded. He said.
Many students of natural science majors remember that when they first entered the university, every Tuesday afternoon in the professional basic course "General Chemistry", the main teacher was Zhao Dongyuan, who did not quit for 13 years. "Concentrated sulfuric acid can be dehydrated, which is what has been taught in the middle school chemistry class, and in the "General Chemistry" class, I learned that this simple reaction can play an important role in the most advanced nano-mesoporous material preparation technology, like a 'stroke of genius'..." A classmate wrote at the campus forum. Zhao Dongyuan pays attention to inspiring students' thinking in his teaching, and is good at linking general chemistry with the frontiers of modern chemistry research, attracting good seedlings to enter the world of chemistry. Twice a week, he was almost never absent, and even if he had been in a meeting abroad the day before, he must have flown back overnight. "Focusing on details" is the deepest impression of graduate students on Zhao Dongyuan. When doctoral student Li Xiaomin was interviewed for admission in 2011, Zhao Dongyuan's words were still unforgettable. "When we were talking about an electron diffraction map, the teacher asked, 'Why are there so many white spots?' I didn't answer it all at once, and although it was common, it seemed like I had never thought about it. Xiao Li smiled and said that at that time, it felt like the right place had come.
At the recent Shanghai International Science and Art Exhibition, a special work attracted attention - a dragonfly stood on a lotus leaf on the surface of the water under the faint ink smudge, and in the reflection, several fish chased each other, lightly flashing a little summer. This "Early Summer" work was painted by modern nanotechnology.
"This work is created by scientific research electron microscopy drawings in an orderly arrangement of nanoparticles, and then reproducing them in the form of traditional Chinese paintings, ink paintings." One of the authors of "Early Summer" is Zhao Dongyuan. Behind the picture, he said, is the hope of scientific researchers to pass on cutting-edge knowledge to more people.
Zhuang Ziyue: There is great beauty in heaven and earth without words. Zhao Dongyuan said that in fact, when a certain realm is reached, science and art, like art, are exposed to the same "great beauty of heaven and earth." "100,000 Whys (Sixth Edition) • Chemistry Volume" is edited by him, no matter how busy the work is, the responsibility of science popularization on his shoulders has never been put down.