Invited by Prof. Song Xue, Prof. Dingji Shi paid an academic visit to DICP on September 22-24.
　　During his stay at DICP, Prof. Shi presented a lecture titling “Genetic manipulation of cyanobacteria”. In his lecture, Prof. Shi reviewed the history of cyanobacteria genetic engineering, and analyzed the advantages of gene manipulation of cyanobacteria. He formulated the applications of cyanobacteria in the fields of agriculture, medicine, environment, and energy. After the lecture, Prof. Shi discussed with the staff in G1812 about the controllable microalgal cultivation and photosynthetic physiology of microalgae, and shared his senior scientific experiences with them.
　　Prof. Shi is an expert in algal molecular biology, plant & algal physiology (photosynthesis and respiration), biochemistry (enzymes and proteins), and biotechnology (immobilized cell, cell culture and genetic manipulation). He has expressed 20 genes (15 of which are exogenous) by forward and reversed genetics in cyanobacteria and green algae, which covered the fields of environment, pharmaceutics, energy, and agriculture. He has published more than 200 papers and applied 10 patents.(Text/Changhong Yao,Xupeng Cao;Photo/Weiwei Liu)
　　Visit of Prof. Dingji Shi from Institute of Botany, CAS

　　Prof. Jianbo Wang from Peking University visited DICP on September 25, 2015. He gave a lecture entitled “Transition-Metal-Catalyzed Carbene Coupling Reactions”. Prof. Zhengkun Yu hosted the lecture.
　　In Prof. Wang’s lecture, he addressed several new types of transition-metal-catalyzed reactions of diazo compounds and aryl tosylhydrazones, in which these carbene precursors have been explored as the cross-coupling partners in C-C single bond and C=C bond formations. These transformations can be considered as the insertion of a metal carbene into the catalytic cycle of the classic cross-coupling reactions. The key step in these coupling reactions is the carbene migratory insertion, which is comparable to the insertion of CO into a metal-carbon bond. The similar one-carbon unit insertion of carbene opens up new possibilities in the development of novel transition-metal-catalyzed C-C bond forming reactions. After the lecture, Prof. Wang visited Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, and had in-depth discussions with some organic chemistry professors.
　　Professor Jianbo Wang from Peking University visited DICP (Photo by Ping Wu)
　　Introduction of Prof. Jianbo Wang
　　Jianbo Wang is a Professor of Chemistry in the College of Chemistry, Peking University, China. He received his B.S. degree from Nanjing University of Science and Technology in 1983, and his Ph.D. from Hokkaido University (with Professor Hiroshi Suginome) in 1990. He was postdoctoral associate at the University of Geneva from 1990 to 1993 with Professor Charles W. Jefford, and at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1993 to 1995 with Professor Howard E. Zimmerman and Professor Leonard A. Fahien. He began his independent academic career at Peking University in 1995 as an associate professor, and was promoted to full professor in 1999. His research interests have been focused on catalytic metal carbene transformations. In the past five years, his group has extensively studied the combination of cross-coupling reaction and metal carbene reaction. A series of cross-coupling reactions that involve carbene process have been developed from these investigations. Another recent research topic in his group is the development of basic organic functional group transformations that are practically useful in organic synthesis. In particular, his group has established methods that convert aromatic amino group into boron group and trifluoromethyl group. His group has published over 200 research papers. He has received number of awards, which include National Outstanding Young Investigator Found by Natural Science Foundation of China (2002); Eli Lilly Research Excellence Award in China (ELSEA) (2006); Cheung Kong Scholarship (2006); and Chinese Chemical Society-BASF Award (2008). Professor Jianbo Wang is an associate editor of the Journal of Physical Organic Chemistry (Wiley) and Chinese Journal of Organic Chemistry. He is the editorial advisory board member of Organic Letters, Tetrahedron and Tetrahedron Letters.
　　(Text/Photo, Ping Wu)

　　Hung-wen Liu, the George Hitchings Regent Chair in Drug Design, Professor in the Medicinal Chemistry Division of the College of Pharmacy and the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Texas at Austin, visited DICP on September 20-27. Prof. Liu was invited by Prof. Zongbao K. Zhao as the recipient of the CAS Overseas Expert.
　　Prof. Liu gave two lectures in the conference hall of the Biotechnology Building on September 21 and 25 entitled “Studies of SpnF-catalyzed [4+2]-cycloaddition in the biosynthesis of spinosyn A” and “Biosynthetic studies of thiosugar formation”, respectively. Prof. Zongbao K. Zhao hosted his lectures. Prof. Xueming Yang, the Vice Director of DICP, delivered a welcome speech and awarded the “CAS Overseas Expert” certificate. Faculty and students from Division of Biotechnology, State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, and Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy (DNL) attended the lectures.
　　During the first lecture, Prof. Liu overviewed the biosynthesis of pesticide compound spinosyn A, focused on the mechanism of SpnF, which apparently catalyzes a [4+2]-cycloaddition, and demonstrated solid evidences to support SpnF as a natural Diels-Alderase. The second lecture first summarized strategies for biosynthesis of sulfur-containing metabolites, followed by the mechanism for 2-thiosugar formation. It turned out that the 2-thiosugar synthase BexX uses a unique mechanism including hijacking sulfur-carrier protein from primary metabolism as sulfur source for C-S bond formation. Active discussions were carried out following the lecture.
　　Prof. Liu also visited several groups of Division of Biotechnology, State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, State Key Laboratory of Molecular Reaction Dynamics and Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy. He had in-depth discussions with faculty, staff and students at DICP.
　　 
　　Prof. Liu's research lies at the crossroads of chemistry and biology, and focuses on the elucidation of the chemical mechanisms of enzymes that catalyze mechanistically unusual and physiologically important steps in the biosynthetic pathways of natural products. His outstanding achievements has earned himself many awards including the NIH Research Career Development Award (1990), the Horace S. Isbell Award (1993), the MERIT Award (1999), the Nakanishi Prize (2007), the Repligen Award (2008), the A. I. Scott Medal (2011), the Arthur C. Cope Late Career Scholars Award (2014), and the CAS Overseas Expert (2015). He is an academician of Academia Sinica (2008) and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Microbiology, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, and the American Chemical Society. He was an Honorary Professor of the University of Hong Kong, National Tsing Hua University, and Tunghai University. He serves on many review panels and editorial boards. He has been an Associate Editor of Organic Letters since 2004. He is also an active member in many professional societies, and was the chair of the American Chemical Society Biological Division during 2013-2014. Prof. Liu has published over 240 publications including Science, Nature and its series, PNAS, and JACS.
　　（Text/Wujun Liu, Photo/Xueying Wang）

　　Prof. Jian Chen’s group (Advanced Secondary Batteries Laboratory) recently made important achievements in Li-S battery R&D. They developed high-performance S/C composite nano-materials, cathodes with high sulfur loading, and technologies for large-capacity Li-S batteries. The batteries were tested by Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the results indicate that the single battery with rated capacity of 30 Ah exhibits an energy density of 520 Wh/kg. This is also the Li-S battery with the highest values of capacity and specific energy density reported worldwide. Meanwhile, significant progress has also been made in Li-S battery pack technology. The developed 1 kWh Li-S battery pack tested by the third party has an energy density of 330Wh/kg.
　　 
　　New Achievements in Li-S Batteries R&D at Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (Photo by LIU Yingjia)
　　Li-S battery receives wide attentions due to its high theoretical energy density of 2600Wh/kg (calculated based on the active materials). Although much effort has been made for its improvements, data on the large-scale Li-S batteries are still rarely reported. The rechargeable batteries with higher energy density are urgent for electric vehicles, scale energy storage, aerospace industry, robotics, etc. The specific energy density of the Li-S batteries can reach 3-4 times of those in the commercial Li-ion batteries with further developments on the key materials and manufacture technologies. The achievements in Prof. Chen’s group demonstrate the promising perspective of Li-S batteries as the next-generation energy storage system. However, the challenges in cycle life, power density and safety issue need to be addressed before the practical application of Li-S batteries.
　　The work reported here is supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the National High-tech R&D Program (863 Program).
　　(Text & Photo by LIU Yingjia)
　　Contact: Prof. CHEN Jian
　　Email: chenjian@dicp.ac.cn
　　

　　Recently, silicon-based solar cell research group leaded by LIU Shengzhong professor of Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy Lab, has developed a facile but fast growth method to prepare large single crystalline perovskite CH3NH3PbI3 up to >2 inches. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time to report the perovskite with crystal dimension exceeded half inch. The related results were published online in the journal of advanced materials (Adv. Mater. 2015, 27 (35), 5176-5183. doi:10.1002/adma.201502597).The Advanced Materials editor gave the article highly evaluation and wrote a highlight comments, and the comment has been published online at the MaterialViews web site (http://www.materialsviews.com/supersize-single-crystalline-perovskite-crystals-adma-201502597/).
　　Semiconductor materials with a perfectly aligned lattice structure offer the best performance, not only in integrated circuits but also in photovoltaics and opto- electronics, etc. It is the invention of growth techniques for large-sized single crystals that has led to the birth of modern electronics, solar cells, solid-state lasers, light emitting diodes (LEDs), and so on. The organic–inorganic hybrid perovskite CH3NH3PbX3 (X =Cl, Br, I) has emerged as a strong competitor in photovoltaic and general optoelectronic applications due to its superior characteristics including high absorption coefficient, direct band gap, long carrier life time, and high balanced hole and electron mobility, etc. In fact, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) certificated power conversion efficiency for the perovskite solar cell has reached 20.1%. However, until now, all perovskite solar cells have been based on microcrystalline and amorphous components, limited by the unavailability of large, single-crystalline material. As there are plenty of grains, boundaries, voids, and surface defects within the perovskite material, it is expected that significant efficiency losses will be seen, caused by these recombination sites. So the research team developed a facial but fast growth method to prepare large single crystalline perovskite CH3NH3PbI3 up to more than 100 mm. The powder XRD analyses confirrm the formation at room temperature. Optical-absorption measurements reveal that all three perovskite crystals show broader absorption, compared to their microcrystalline counterparts. In addition, we have observed the PL emission at 402 nm from CH3NH3PbCl3 for the first time. Both the TGA and the DSC show that the large CH3NH3PbCl3 crystals are more stable at much higher temperature compared to their thin-film material counterpart. The low trap density and high carrier mobility indicate that the present large, single-crystalline CH3NH3PbX3 (X = Cl, Br, I) is a promising material for high performance optoelectronic devices.
　　This work acknowledge support from the National University Research Fund (GK261001009), the Chang jiang Scholar and Innovative Research Team(IRT_14R33), the 111Project (B14041).(Article /Figure Doudou Zhang)

　　Recently, Thomson Reuters released the Highly Cited Researchers 2015, Prof. Keli Han from our institute are on the list.
　　Highly Cited Researchers 2015 represents some of world’s most influential scientific minds. The data used in the analysis and selection of the new highly cited researchers came from Essential Science Indicators (ESI), 2003-2013, which then included 120,793 Highly Cited Papers. Each of these papers ranked in the top 1% by total citations according to their ESI field assignment and year of publication. The final new list contains about 3,000 highly cited researchers in 21 fields of the sciences and social sciences.(Text by Junxia Ding)