The 11^th lecture of the General Education Elective Course "Opportunities and Challenges in Materials Science"  was held on May 28. Yu Shuhong, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and outstanding chair professor of the University of Science and Technology of China, gave a lecture entitled "Synthetic Chemistry of Inorganic Nanowires and Heterostructures". 

"The diameter of a nanowire is as small as one ten-thousandth of that of our hair." Yu Shuhong used the example of hair to introduce nanowires. He said that nanowire is a one-dimensional material with a high aspect ratio, with many advantages in the production of nano-devices. After micro-nano machining, it can be transformed into field emission displays, field-effect transistors, logic circuits and other micro-nano devices, which are widely applied to manufacturing, information technology, energy,  environment, health care, biotechnology and other fields.

Yu pointed out that nanowire and its devices are the most popular research areas of nanotechnology, and one-dimensional nanomaterials are the material basis of future high-technology. At present, bottlenecks to nanomaterials research mainly exist in three areas: first, how to accurately regulate the shape and size of nanometer crystals; second, how to prepare nanomaterials in large quantities; third, how to prepare macro-scale assemblies.

In order to solve these problems, Yu introduced the general synthesis methods of inorganic nanomaterials. When it comes to the preparation of super-elastic thermal insulating carbon aerogels, he started with the hair of polar bears. "Interestingly, the hair of polar bears is hollow," said Yu Shuhong. Inspired by the hollow structure of polar bear hair, his team developed a hydrothermal reaction method using nanowires as a template, and prepared a lightweight, super-elastic, insulated carbon aerogel with a three-dimensional nanonetwork structure.

Yu said that there is no end to scientific research, and the design of materials can always go better. He encouraged the students to conduct further researches under the scientific research pattern from discovery to invention to creation, and make achievements in frontier fields such as nanomaterials.

(Edited and translated by Nankai News Team)