An external view of Haihe Laboratory of Sustainable Chemical Transformations

Haihe Laboratory of Sustainable Chemical Transformations 

Haihe Laboratory of Sustainable Chemical Transformations (hereinafter referred to as the “Laboratory”) celebrated its second anniversary of establishment on November 29.

Under the leadership of Jinpei Cheng, the Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the Laboratory has produced significant advances in five core research areas, including catalytic synthesis of new-type carbon-based substances, biosynthesis of functional substances, green manufacturing of high-end chemicals and membrane materials, high-performance new energy materials, and green commercialization and utilization of carbon-based resources, as well as the comprehensive interdisciplinary and intelligent creation platform. In addition, the Laboratory has made remarkable achievement in regulation and institutional development, talent management and development, scientific project management, industry-institutition collaboration, and social volunteering. 

Concentrating on strategic objectives with original innovation and pooled expertise

Noteable accomplishments from the Laboratory

The Laboratory has entered a new stage of tackling tough problems in science and technology as a sound mechanism and system is put in place. The significant research led by Jun Chen and Mingjian Yuan was published online in the journal Nature, which catapulted China to the forefront of the global research on perovskite semiconductor materials. Their findings were globally acknowledged that “it will provide a crucial reference for removing existing bottlenecks in wide bandgap semiconductor materials, and is expected to bring perovskite materials to the display technology revolution.”

The Laboratory is going all out to make scientific and technological breakthroughs in the fields of catalytic conversion, functional materials, biosynthesis, and energy utilization. It is approved as the supporting unit of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, having undertaken and completed two projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China and one applied basic research project of Tianjin. It has published one paper on Nature in the field of display luminescent materials, as well as 28 papers on Angewandte Chemie-International Edition, 17 on JACS, 21 on AM, and 17 on Nature’s subsidiary journals. It won two first prizes of the 2022 Outstanding Scientific Research Achievement Award for Colleges and Universities (Science and Technology), one special prize and seven first prizes of the 2022 Tianjin Science and Technology Award, and one the Excellence Prize of the 24th China Patent Award. 

Promote the commercialization of scientific results and enable Tiankai Higher Education Innovation Park to release its potential

Tiankai Higher Education Innovation Park

On August 3 last year, Academician Jinpei Cheng, head of the Laboratory, visited the Sinopec (Beijing) Research Institute of Chemical Industry to have talks on building an effective platform for communication between basic science and practical applications in industry.

Since the beginning of this year, the Laboratory has advanced the three strategic agreements of cooperation with Sinopec (Beijing) Research Institute of Chemical Industry, Tianjin International Joint Academy of Biomedicine, and Xinchuang Haihe Laboratory. These agreements set up the platform of cooperation and exchanges in the aspects of energy and chemical engineering, chemistry and life, materials and information technology. The Laboratory has established an in-depth cooperative relationship with the Jingjinji National Center of Technology Innovation, which will promote the commercialization of the Laboratory’s scientific findings and infuse fresh vitality into regional economic innovation. A framework agreement has also been reached with Tianjin Kaihua Insulating Materials Co., Ltd. to make joint technical breakthroughs in insulating materials. It has launched two horizontal cooperation projects with Sinopec Tianjin Branch and other enterprises, aiming at solving technical problems in the fields of high-end materials and clean energy. In response to the iterative needs of the energy, materials and pharmaceutical industries, the Laboratory has conducted production-research institute cooperation with 12 enterprises including Sinopec Group, Wanhua Chemical and Tianjin Kaihua, and exploited its advantages of location in the core pilot area of Tiankai Higher Education Innovation Park to carry out innovation, while keeping a foothold in Tianjin and covering Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and the whole country for coordinated development. 

The instrument platform has introduced 17 self-owned equipment such as X-ray photoelectron spectrometer, circularly polarized fluorescence spectrophotometer, and high-resolution glovebox in-situ Raman spectrometer, with a combined value of over 41 million yuan. It now can realize the development and use of 10 instruments and equipment.

The Laboratory will leverage the advantages resulting from production-research collaborative resources to support the construction of Tiankai Higher Education Innovation Park, to contribute to functional positioning of “one base and three zones” in Tianjin, and to promote the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

（Edited and translated by Nankai News Team.)