At present, the global annual demand for ethylene glycol reaches tens of millions of tons, mainly from the petrochemical industry. In order to reduce the dependence of ethylene glycol on foreign countries, scientific research institutions represented by the Chinese Academy of Sciences Fujian Institute of Physical Structure cooperated with enterprises to develop a full set of 10000 ton non oil route technologies from coal or syngas to ethylene glycol through ester hydrogenation in 2009. However, there are safety hazards and unstable purity and quality of ethylene glycol products in this technological route. Xie Suyuan’s team and Yuan Youzhu’s team from Xiamen University, together with researchers from the Fujian Institute of Material Structure of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Xiamen Funa New Material Technology Co., Ltd., used fullerene C60 as an “electronic buffer” to modify copper silica catalysts, developed fullerene copper silica catalysts that stabilized copper sulfite with C60 electronic buffer, and realized the synthesis of several kilograms of ethylene glycol from dimethyl oxalate catalyzed by fullerene buffered copper under mild pressure conditions, which is expected to reduce dependence on petroleum technology routes.
Discovery of a new mechanism for femtosecond laser-induced complex system micro/nanostructures
When femtosecond laser is focused inside the material, various highly nonlinear effects are generated, and under these extreme conditions, the interaction between light and matter is full of unknowns and challenges. The team led by Qiu Jianrong and his collaborators from Zhejiang University have discovered a new mechanism for the formation of micro and nanostructures in complex systems induced by femtosecond lasers. Taking the oxide glass system containing chloride, bromine, and iodine ions as an example, 3D direct lithography of perovskite nanocrystals with controllable composition and band gap in the glass was achieved, presenting different colors of luminescence such as red, orange, yellow, green, and blue. The formed nanocrystals exhibit significant stability under UV irradiation, organic solution immersion, and high temperature environments of 250 ℃. And further demonstrated this 3D micro nano structure in a micro LED array with ultra large capacity and long lifespan information storage, high stability, and a minimum pixel size of micrometers, achieving 1080p level dynamic stereoscopic color holographic display. This achievement reveals the law of spatially selective mesoscale phase separation and ion exchange induced by femtosecond laser, and opens up new technological principles for femtosecond laser three-dimensional extreme manufacturing.
