On October 16, 2021, at the 20th National Congress on Catalysis of China (NCC), the winners of the 8th China Catalysis Award were announced. Professor Youchang Xie from the College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering (CCME) of Peking University (PKU) was awarded the 8th National Catalysis Lifetime Achievement Award of China (named “Zhang Dayu Award”) for his original discovery of spontaneous monolayer dispersion theory and its significant contribution to industrial applications. Professor Youchang Xie was invited to the award ceremony and gave a keynote speech entitled “From Basic Research to Industrial Applications of Spontaneous Monolayer Dispersion Theory”.
The Catalysis Committee of the Chinese Chemical Society awarded a medal to Professor Youchang Xie (the second from left)
Research Associate Professor Meng Wang from CCME of PKU, Professor Dagang Yu from the College of Chemistry of Sichuan University, graduating from CCME of PKU with a PhD degree in 2007, and Professor Lili Lin from the College of Chemical Engineering of Zhejiang University of Technology, getting a PhD degree from CCME of PKU in 2012, won the Rising Star Award by The Catalysis Society of China for their outstanding achievements in their own research fields. The award is presented to potential young Chinese catalytic scientists who have independently made highly visible or creative achievements in catalytic science and technology research.
Winners of the 8th China Catalysis Award for Rising Star (Research Associate Professor Meng Wang, the fourth from left; Professor Lili Lin, the fifth from left; and Professor Dagang Yu, the second from right).
Professor Youchang Xie:
Professor Youchang Xie was born in Guangzhou in 1934. After graduating from CCME, Peking University in 1957, he stayed on as a teacher. He has long devoted himself to teaching physical chemistry, structural chemistry and solid surface chemistry, as well as developing catalysts, adsorbents and nanomaterials. In 1973, during his research on polyethylene high efficiency catalyst and oxychlorination catalyst in collaboration with Professor Youqi Tang at Beijing Research Institute of Chemical Technology, he found that the active components were monolayer dispersed on the surface of the carrier and the catalytic activity reached the maximum. In July 1979, the related paper “A Study on Structure and Mechanism of High Activity Catalyst for Polyethylene” was published in Science China. In 1990, he and Academician Youqi Tang were invited to publish a summary paper of spontaneous monolayer dispersion in Advances in Catalysis which was cited more than 800 times and was the most cited scientific paper in China that year. The basic research result won the first prize of Science and Technology Progress Award of the State Education Commission in 1986, and has had an important influence in the field of surface chemistry and catalysis in China. After more than 30 years of exploration and development, spontaneous monolayer dispersion has now become a widely used theory for the application of catalytic materials. The technology formed by the principle of spontaneous monolayer dispersion has been applied to many fields of catalysis and adsorption.
Professor Youchang Xie giving keynote speech
Professor Youchang Xie has developed a highly efficient adsorbent with high adsorption capacity and selectivity for carbon monoxide by using the principle of monolayer dispersion, which has solved the problem of separating high purity carbon monoxide from semi-water gas and other raw materials at low cost and provided an important technical basis for the development of coal chemical industry in China. Based on the principle of spontaneous monolayer dispersion, carbon monoxide separation by pressure swing adsorption (PSA) has been developed and world advanced large-scale PSA industrial equipments have been built. In 2005, Professor Xie won the first prize of the Invention Award of the Ministry of Education and was selected as one of the ten major scientific and technological progress of China’s colleges and Universities. In 2006, he won the second prize of National Technological Invention Award. High-efficiency carbon monoxide separation technology has been widely applied, opening up an innovative business model for the efficient utilization of industrial emission - boosting co-production of steel and chemical industry and realizing industrial coupling. At present, more than 70 large-scale PSA-CO industrial plants have been built across the country to separate high-purity carbon monoxide products from industrial gases such as blast furnace gas, converter gas, calcium carbide tail gas, and water gas, which are used to synthesize ethylene glycol, acetic acid, TDI, etc. Compared the process index with other similar technologies, PSA-CO plants could separate carbon monoxide in a larger yield, with higher purity, and more efficiently under the same working conditions. The advantages are extremely evident. This technology has been recognized by the industry and has obtained huge market opportunities.
Adsorbent products developed by Professor Youchang Xie’s team
In addition, Youchang Xie and his team produced a efficient oxygen selective adsorbent, and successfully developed the high-efficiency efficient VPSA-O2 technology. According to the latest statistics, the output value of this technology has exceeded 1.3 billion yuan in 2021, and nearly 300 sets of large and medium-sized oxygen plants have been built at home and abroad. The largest oxygen plant has reached 87,500 m3/h, which is also the largest one in operation in our country. This achievement is unprecedented in China, even in the whole field of PSA. It provides an economic and reliable oxygen process for oxygen-enriched air melting and combustion-supporting of steel, nonferrous metal, glass and fiber. It generates indirect economic benefits of tens of billions of yuan.
Absorption tower using the separation technology of Professor Youchang Xie’s team
Can Li, director of the Catalysis Committee of the Chinese Chemical Society and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, gave high praise of Professor Youchang Xie’s scientific achievements: “The PSA-CO and VPSA-O2 technology are one of the most successful projects in the industrial application of scientific achievements in the School of Chemistry of Peking University. It is also one of the rare examples in the catalytic field in China in the 1980s and 1990s that moving from basic research to large-scale industrial application. This is a typical example of writing a paper on the earth. I am gratified that the Chinese catalysis community has not forgotten Professor Xie’s contribution. This belated honor has made up for one of the pity of the Chinese catalysis community.”
Beijing Peking University Pioneer Technology Co., Ltd (PKU Pioneer) was founded based on PSA-CO and VPSA-O2 technology on. While the company has been growing rapidly, it also repays the college and contributes to the advancement of teachers and the growth of students. Since March 2012, PKU Pioneer has established “PKU Pioneer Scholarship” and “PKU Pioneer Physical Chemistry Scholarship” in the School of Chemistry of Peking University to continuously support the cultivation of talents. In 2018, on the occasion of the 120th anniversary of Peking University, PKU Pioneer again signed a donation agreement with PKUEF and donated a total of 5 million RMB to the School of Chemistry for the Pioneer Scholarship, which will be used to reward outstanding teachers and students of the School of Chemistry with good qualities. Professor Youchang Xie attended the signing ceremony in person.
Professor Youchang Xie attended the donation ceremony of Peking University Pioneer Scholarship
Professor Xie once wrote the sentiment “I am glad to see the future generations build up their career, and the pioneers are still making effort in their field” when he was 70 years old. Now he is nearly 90 years old. He is still hale and hearty, and has been invited to various exchange activities. He inspires young students to concentrate on academics and innovation, and actively contribute to our countries’ development of science and technology.
Meng Wang, Research Associate Professor:
Meng Wang, a Research Associate Professor at CCME, Peking University, is dedicated to studying catalytic reaction mechanisms by combining in situ spectroscopy, reaction kinetics and isotopic labeling, so as to generate better catalysts or new reaction processes. He has systematically studied the way and mechanism of metal-catalyzed aromatic ether carbon-oxygen bond breaking, discovered and interpreted the reaction route of aromatic ether reductive hydrolysis. He used solid-state NMR spectroscopy to distinguish oxygen species in different chemical environments on the surface of cerium oxide nanoparticles, captured the process of Brönsted acid free to solvent in molecular sieve and resolved the structure and properties of hydrated protons.
Professor Dagang Yu:
Dagang Yu is a professor at the College of Chemistry of Sichuan University, an alumnus graduating with a PhD degree from CCME of PKU in 2007. He proposed the concept CO2=CO+[O]. Using CO2 instead of CO and oxidants involved in catalytic carbonylation, he developed a visible light-catalyzed CO2 single-electron activation strategy, generated a radical-based CO2 catalytic conversion model and efficiently constructed drug and material molecules under mild conditions.
Professor Lili Lin:
Lili Lin is a professor of College of Chemical Engineering, Zhejiang University of Technology, an alumnus graduating with a PhD degree from CCME of PKU in 2012. She focused on the basic catalysis issues related to the efficient hydrogen production and storage based on methanol and the industrial application of hydrogen, and completed a series of studies on the catalytic conversion of the three core molecules of H2-CO2-CH3OH. She has developed a series of highly efficient single-atom loaded catalysts based on cubic phase alpha molybdenum carbide, solved the problem of mismatched activation rates of C-H/O-H bonds in methanol reforming with noble metal catalysts, and achieved magnitude improvement in low-temperature hydrogen production activity. She resolved the interfacial structure and electronic properties of molybdenum carbide loaded metal catalysts, and achieved a breakthrough in catalytic hydrogenation under room temperature with Pt-based catalysts with resistance to CO poisoning.
