Bao Xinhe (second left) discusses an experiment with colleagues in a lab in Liaoning province. XIE ZHENLIN/FOR CHINA DAILY
　　Original breakthroughs in chemistry and materials science have taken the first prizes of the 2020 State Natural Science Award, the nation's highest academic accolade for basic sciences.
　　The winning teams come from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Liaoning province, and Fudan University in Shanghai.
　　The Dalian scientists founded a new concept, "nano-confined catalysis", while the Fudan team developed a new type of mesoporous material, a substance that contains pores with diameters of between 2 and 50 nanometers.
　　Experts said the two feats have not only cemented China's position as one of the world's front-runners in chemistry and materials science, but they have also led to promising industrial applications in the fields of energy, oil refining, advanced materials, chemical manufacturing and environmental protection, along with other sectors.
　　Passion, communication, unyielding curiosity, a keen eye for detail and decades of rigorous work are some of the secrets to making major breakthroughs in basic sciences, according to members of the Dalian team.
　　Bao Xinhe, a researcher with the institute in Dalian and president of the University of Science and Technology of China, said the creation of their new concept is based on more than 20 years of hard work. Meanwhile, the concept itself provides important guidance in the design of highly efficient catalysts－substances that can facilitate chemical reactions without undergoing any permanent chemical changes themselves.
　　"The key to making efficient chemical reactions with less environmental and energy impact lies in a deep understanding of reaction mechanisms," Bao said.
　　"However, we don't always know how the reactants are converted into products, and what will come out in the end. It functions like a black box. The nano-confined catalysis concept can shed some light on this, leading to more precise and controllable chemical reactions."
　　For example, chemical engineers typically use a process known as the Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis to convert coal-derived syngas (a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen) into light olefins－substances that can be converted into key raw materials for the production of fuels, additives, plastics, paints, medicines and other items.
　　However, the process is water and energy intensive, and it can release carbon dioxide as a byproduct.
　　One major application of the nano-confined catalysis concept is the creation of a new type of catalyst that can directly convert carbon monoxide and hydrogen into light olefins without using a lot of water and energy, Bao said. This creates a new path to the efficient industrial development of water－and energy-saving coal chemicals.
　　In 2016, the journal Science published an article on this work titled "Surprised by Selectivity", which said the new process could become a serious competitor to traditional industrial processes.
　　Another application of the concept is as a catalyst designed to clean traces of carbon monoxide from hydrogen at room temperature, thus preventing the gas from deactivating the precious metal catalysts found in hydrogen-oxygen fuel cells, Bao said.
　　"People think that breakthroughs are made by a sudden stroke of genius, but in reality, making discoveries requires the long-term accumulation of knowledge and sharp intuition, so you can spot the tiniest anomalies and design the right experiments to rigorously probe the mechanisms behind them," he added.
　　Fu Qiang, one of the key researchers behind the project, said dedication and communication are also important for making discoveries. For example, Bao's colleagues and students often contact him late at night to discuss the details of experiments and their results.
　　With a strong emphasis on attention to detail, basic sciences and communication, Bao's lab has become a cradle of quality chemist, training 125 PhD students and more than 40 post-doctorate researchers.
　　"China is rich in coal but lacking in petroleum, so the effective and clean conversion of coal and natural gas into chemicals and other products is a matter of national importance," Bao said. "Basic research should target key scientific questions that affect socioeconomic issues." (Text by China Daily)

The Chinese Ministry of Public Security has passed an appraisal of a hand-held drug detector developed by researchers of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).The device can give quick test results to identify morphine, methamphetamine and ketamine and assess the quantity.Independently developed by scientists with the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics affiliated to the CAS, the portable device is fitted with a small fluorescence detection module and uses a fluorescence labeling reagent to show the test results.The device is able to detect as little as one nanogram of morphine in one milliliter of substance. It takes just over five minutes to analyze a sample, and the device has a 96 percent accuracy rate.According to the researchers, the drug detector is cost-effective and can be used for the rapid detection of drugs on the anti-drug frontlines in border areas. (by Xinhua)

Chinese researchers have developed a new set of security check equipment that can be used at subway stations, railway stations and airports, with quick response and high accuracy.One of these equipment, invented by the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is a portable explosive trace detector capable of detecting as many as 21 risky items, such as black powder and firecrackers, within three seconds.It has been tested in many drills for suspected explosive disposal in Dalian subways in northeast China's Liaoning Province, an institute statement said. The other inventions include an automatic luggage scanner, which will replace time-consuming hand searches by security personnel. (by Xinhua)

Chinese researchers have discovered a group of new serum metabolite biomarkers with high sensitivity in early-stage detection of diabetic retinopathy (DR).DR is one of the common and severe microvascular complications in diabetes that can cause loss of vision or blindness among adults.The lack of effective diagnostic biomarkers for DR leads to unsatisfactory curative treatments.Researchers from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, recruited a total of 905 diabetic patients as subjects, with and without DR, at different clinical stages and used multi-platform metabolomics to define potential metabolite biomarkers for DR diagnosis.They found that 290 metabolites were significantly associated with the pathogenesis of early DR. The newly-found biomarker panel exhibited better diagnostic performance with up to 93.3 percent specificity and almost 93 percent sensitivity in early‐stage DR detection.The study provided reliable and efficient method for blood detection of early-stage DR. Enditem. (By Xinhua) 

Chinese scientists announced Wednesday that they had developed a portable mass spectrometer for rapid on-site detection of drug mixtures.The 13-kg gadget is 32 cm long, 32 cm wide and 24 cm tall, and has built-in batteries which can be used for three hours of field operation.It was developed by the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with the Yunnan Police College and a laboratory of the Ministry of Public Security.In mixtures, boiling points of different drugs vary greatly. The volatile ones have low sensitivity and may disappear at any time in the detection, making it difficult to detect components of drug mixtures.The research team reports a synchronized flash-thermal-desorption purging and ion injection method to increase the sensitive and rapid screening of volatile and nonvolatile illegal drugs for miniature ion tap mass spectrometry.The flash-thermal desorption could reach 290-degrees centigrade in 2.5 seconds, which could achieve efficient vaporization of nonvolatile noscapine with a boiling point of 565-degrees centigrade.According to the team, ten kinds of mixing drugs with a boiling point difference of 300-degrees centigrade can be simultaneously identified within three seconds under a single analysis.The gadget successfully identified 37 kinds of drugs during tests in southwest China's Yunnan Province.The study has been published on the recent issue of the American Journal of Analytical Chemistry. (By Xinhua)

Chinese scientists have developed a new technique to make high-safety and scalable planar microbatteries.The scientists of the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences developed a low-cost and highly efficient scalable screen printing technique that can help make the high-safety and scalable planar Zn//MnO2 microbatteries.More and more electronic devices are becoming more lightweight, flexible and wearable, thus greatly boosting the demand for miniature energy storage devices.Scientists have focused on the research of the safe flat microbattery for a period of time. In order to improve safety, the researchers developed high-safety aqueous electrolytes to replace flammable organic electrolytes to produce high-safety microbatteries.Prof. Wu Zhongshuai, the chief scientist leading the research, found that the new batteries are not only more environmentally friendly and safe but more durable.The microbattery has corrected the shortcomings of traditional batteries such as bulkiness, poor mechanical flexibility and easy separation of the interface under the bending state, said Wu.The research result was published in the latest issue of the National Science Review. (By Xinhua)