They used 20 years to propose the original concept of catalytic innovation
——Remember the first prize of the National Natural Science Award for Nano-limited Catalysis
"I've been thinking about how to make our research clear to everyone." Before being interviewed by the media, Bao Xin and the academician still seemed a little distressed, and the great scientist specially instructed the reporters: "I may not be good at speaking, and if there is something unclear later, you can ask." ”
This time, the team of dalian institute of chemical physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, with academician Bao Xinhe of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and others as the main completers, won the first prize of the 2020 National Natural Science Award for nano-limited catalysis.
It's a journey of scientific inquiry that lasts more than two decades. One of the keys to success, Bao Xin and said plainly: you have to work hard, and you have to think about it all the time.
An original concept A new path for coal chemical industry
Nano-limited catalysis, at first glance, is indeed difficult and obscure.
Wrapped up the letter and showed two pictures. A picture of a beast in a cage. "Where there is oppression, there is resistance." The beasts that are locked up will always be more grumpy.
The second picture is table tennis. Press the ping-pong racket against the table, and as your racket is pressed lower and lower, the frequency of the ping-pong ball bouncing up and down will also become faster and faster.
"Restrictions can change a lot of things." Bao Xinhe said, in a more academic term, called "limit field".
Catalysis, which can change the speed of chemical reactions. To do catalysis, the pursuit is high activity and high selectivity. However, the two are coupled together in many reactions – when the conversion rate is high, the selectivity is low, and it is often a pair of contradictions.
In the 1990s, Bao Xinhe returned to the Dalian Institute of Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences from the Max Planck Institute in Germany, and has been leading the team to engage in basic and applied research on nano-catalysis, pursuing an accurate understanding of the catalytic process and rational design of catalysts.
The team first discovered the unique limiting characteristics of carbon nanotubes - the catalytic conversion of synthetic gas into carbon dioxide-containing compounds such as ethanol by rhodium-manganese catalysts inside carbon nanotubes is more active than outside the tube.
Excavating the essence of the phenomenon, the team found that in addition to carbon nanotubes, the metal-oxide interface can also stabilize the coordination of unsaturated active centers. This is a generalized limit, and the limit is an electronic state that keeps the catalyst in a "starved" state and allows the catalytic reaction to continue — this is called the nanointerfacial limit.
Based on the concept of nano-limited catalysis, the team applied the design of the catalyst for direct conversion of coal through syngas, and realized the highly selective one-step reaction to obtain low-carbon olefins.
Once upon a time, the "Fischer-Tropsch synthesis" process was enshrined as the "bible" of coal chemical industry. To convert coal into liquid fuels and other chemicals, the Fischer-Tropsch reaction is the only option. This reaction involves, in principle, a water cycle: a large amount of water is used to produce more hydrogen, and the reaction also produces wastewater.
Moreover, the selectivity of low carbon hydrocarbons in traditional Fischer-Tropsch synthesis is up to 58%, which means that it is difficult to obtain low-carbon olefin products with high selectivity.
Most of the areas rich in coal resources in China are arid or semi-arid areas. Water consumption is a major problem restricting the development of coal chemical industry.
Bao Xinhe and his team took a different approach, using the nano-interface limiting concept to stabilize the oxygen defective activity center of unsaturated on the surface of the oxide catalyst, improve the activity of carbon monoxide dissociation and hydrogenation in syngas to form intermediates; and then use the nanoporous confinement effect to modulate the selectivity of the coupling of small molecules in the molecular sieve of intermediates, so as to accurately regulate the selectivity of the target product.
This catalysis achieves a "win-win" with high activity and high selectivity.
What is even more exciting is that the transformation path based on the new concept can realize coal conversion with low water consumption and provide support for China's energy revolution.
Based on this innovative achievement, through cooperation with the team of academician Liu Zhongmin of Dalian Institute of Chemicals and Shaanxi Yanchang Petroleum (Group) Co., Ltd., the world's first set of 1,000-ton coal direct production of low-carbon olefins industrial test equipment through syngas has been completed, and successfully completed the industrial whole process test in 2020, verifying the feasibility and advanced nature of the technology.
Twenty years of perseverance, they enjoyed putting the cold bench in the heat
More than 20 years have passed, from discovering phenomena to proposing concepts to putting them into practice.
Bao Xin and the team always insisted. "For example, the efficient direct conversion technology of syngas is indeed more difficult. But we want someone to do it. "For a while, there were hundreds of research teams at home and abroad doing related research.
This direction has been lively and cold. Bao Xinhe has a famous saying - as long as the direction is right, even the cold bench can be hot.
How to stick to it?
Bao Xinhe downplayed: "Anyway, we are doing this, and in the process of doing it, there are constantly new results that will come out, and it is also fun." ”
Talking to your team members can also feel this pure love.
Deng Dehui, a researcher at the Dalian Institute of Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told the Science and Technology Daily reporter that when you are pursuing scientific truth and seeking solutions to problems, you do not feel that you are "insisting" at all. "It's hard for outsiders to see us, but we're happy." He laughed.
For research, they often took a taxi home from the house in the early hours of the morning, and even taxi drivers lamented that they were working too late. "But in our opinion, it's not called 'overtime.'" Fu Qiang, a researcher at the Dalian Institute of Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that it was just a matter of full devotion and forgot the time.
Bao Xin and the team are not known for being "productive". His requirement is that the experimental process must be rigorous and the conclusions must stand up to scrutiny. They verify it repeatedly before publishing. The team does not seek quantity, but seeks quality; it does not seek speed, but it seeks to be loud.
Nano-limited catalysis is an original concept proposed by Chinese scientists. It has been successfully practiced and has established a theoretical basis for catalyst design to be precise. To be able to have this breakthrough at the level of basic research, to cover up the letter and admit it - you need to think about it all the time.
Team members and researchers of the Dalian Institute of Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Pan Xiulian and Bao Xinhe have worked together for many years. She lamented that Teacher Bao was a pure, humble and hard-working person, and his greatest hobby was scientific research. Bao Xinhe is currently the president of the University of Science and Technology of China, but he always finds time and the team to discuss scientific research.
Sometimes, the newly discovered "fuse" does come from the so-called flash of inspiration. But the premise is that there is science in the brain, and there are not so many distractions.
"To have original discovery, you have to set the goal of 'from 0 to 1' at the beginning, to have 'poetry and distance'. Moreover, researchers must work hard, be on the front line of research, be with the team, and be with the students. Bao Xinhe once found clues in the PPT report that students quickly turned the page, opening up a new world for research. If you have not been pondering, always worrying, many times, the phenomenon of flashing by, may not be able to grasp; for sudden abnormal values, may not be able to have sensitivity.
"You have to have this in your head." Bao Xinhe said, "For example, now, I even think when I sleep, how can I make nano-limited catalysis more popular." ”
Can a concept be elevated to a theory, can it be expressed in a more concise and beautiful mathematical formula, can it be verified in industrial applications... There is still a long way ahead. Bao Xinhe said sincerely: "We are now studying to this extent, and we should not exaggerate." (Reporter Zhang Galen)
Source: Science and Technology Daily