Xiamen University Hou Xu's team "Liquid Gating" was selected as one of the top ten emerging technologies in the field of chemistry in 2020 Inspired by science fiction movies

The inspiration for "liquid gating" originally came from "Stargate", the film's twisted space-time flowing liquid interstellar gate, prompting Hou Xu to think about whether liquid can become a kind of "door". (Courtesy of Hou Xu's team)

According to Xiamen Daily, the world's largest and most authoritative chemical organization, the International Federation of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), recently announced the top ten emerging technologies in the field of chemistry in 2020, two of which are emerging directions led by Chinese scientists, one of which is the liquid gating technology proposed by Professor Hou Xu of the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering of Xiamen University, which is inspired by science fiction movies.

Founded in Paris in 1919, IUPAC launched the Top 10 Emerging Technologies in Chemistry awards last year, hoping to select innovative technologies with great potential around the world to change the current global chemical and industrial landscape and promote the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The emerging technologies selected are expected to better improve the quality of human life and society, help us use and transform resources more rationally and efficiently, and provide sustainable solutions for many applications such as new materials, batteries, sensors and medicine.

Among the results of this year's selection are two emerging directions led by Chinese scientists: "aggregation induced luminescence" proposed by Professor Tang Benzhong of South China University of Technology/Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and "liquid gating technology" proposed by Professor Hou Xu and others of Xiamen University.

"Liquid gating" is a new concept first proposed by Professor Hou Xu and others in 2015. Interestingly, science fiction movies were his source of inspiration. Hou Xu, 37, said the concept of "doors" has always existed in a solid form in people's minds. However, in the American science fiction movie "Stargate", alien technology uses the flow of dynamic interstellar gates to distort the wormholes of time and space and realize the transmission of matter in an instantaneous light-year. Although it is a science fiction film and television work, this concept gives Hou Xu a broader understanding of the form of "door".

In an accidental separation experiment, Hou Xu accidentally found that gases would pass through liquids when they exceeded a certain critical pressure value, but could not pass through below this pressure. This phenomenon inspired Hou Xu: Can liquids also become "doors"? In recent years, Hou Xu's team has developed the original concept into shape, so that the idea has successfully entered reality.

Experts believe that this emerging technology will play a very important role in large-scale filtration and separation processes, such as sewage treatment, and that liquid gating technology does not require the consumption of electrical energy, which can save the huge energy consumption required by traditional technologies.

According to reports, the research of liquid gating technology led by Professor Hou Xu's research group has also been widely used in many other fields, such as chemical sensing inspection, biological 3D printing and microfluidic chips. Although liquid gating technology is an emerging technology, it has been considered a transformative technology that is expected to expand rapidly and be adopted by leading international chemical companies.

(Reporter She Zheng Correspondent Ouyang Guilian)

【Noun】

Liquid gating technology

In 2015, inspired by biological gastric mucosa, alveoli, etc., Hou Xu and others first proposed the new concept of bionic "liquid gating". Liquid gating, different from the traditional concept of solid door, the liquid as a dynamic "gate", that is, the functional liquid is stabilized in the elastomer porous membrane, to achieve controllable transport and separation of substances.

Through the dynamic reconstruction and reversible recovery of the liquid, the liquid gating system can realize the opening and closing function of the pore channel and the adjustable pressure control performance; through the modification of the membrane pore channel and the selection of the gated liquid, the physical or chemical response of the gating system to the transmitted substance can be realized. Combining the above two characteristics, liquid gating technology enables dynamic separation of the substances passed including gases, liquids and multiphase mixed liquids.

(Compiled from the network data)