New Breakthrough in Ordered Mesoporous Material Synthesis Achieved by Doctor Huang Kuan of School of Resources Environmental & Chemical Engi

Recently, Doctor Huang Kuan of School of Resources Environmental & Chemical Engineering of this university, in cooperation with Professor Dai Sheng of Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Associate Professor Liu Fujian of Shaoxing University, developed an innovative scheme of rapidly preparing ordered mesoporous polymer in large scale by means of solvent-free self-assembly, which produces polymers with promising performance in CO2 capture and conversion. The achievement has been publicized in Advanced Materials (DOI: 10.1002/adma.201700445), with Doctor Huang Kuan of this university and Professor Dai Sheng of Oak Ridge National Laboratory being equally correspondence authors. Being one of the most influential journals in materials sector, Advanced Materials has achieved an impact factor of 19.791 in 2016.

As research hotspot in the field of material science in recent years, ordered mesoporous polymer enjoys extensive application prospect in such sectors as gas storage and separation, water treatment, and heterogeneous catalysis. Synthesis of the polymer is generally realized by self assembly of polymer precursors with block copolymer templates under hydrothermal, solvothermal, or ionothermal condition, which requires large amount of solvents, poses negative environmental impact and process safety concerns, demands great energy consumption and cost for preparation, significantly limits industrial application of ordered mesoporous polymer. In view of the abovementioned deficiencies, Doctor Huang Kuan of this university developed an innovative solvent-free solid phase synthesis which directly realizes rapid and large-scale preparation of polymers of highly-ordered mesoporous structure and abundant nitrogenous functional groups through self assembly of small molecules aminophenol, hexamethylenetetramine and block copolymer templates. The key of this synthesis lies in aminophenol’s in-situ crosslinking induced by ammonia and methanol produced from thermal decomposition of hexamethylenetetramine, followed by its self assembly with block copolymer templates through hydrogen bonding. Further research showed that the mesoporous polymer synthesized through this approach boasts high absorption capacity for CO2, and its absorption of CO2 is highly selective, the CO2 absorbed can be catalyzed and converted to fine chemicals of high added value in a rapid manner under mild condition. Considering that this solvent-free solid phase synthesis can be further adopted for synthesizing new materials like mesoporous silica, mesoporous titania, and complex substance of mesoporous polymer and silica, it shares certain universality.

Illustration of Solvent-free Induced Self Assembly Synthesis of Mesoporous Polymer and Its Application

       Doctor Huang Kuan is advanced talent newly-recruited by School of Resources Environmental & Chemical Engineering of this university, constantly dedicating to research of green process of chemical engineering. Having obtained the doctor’s degree from Nanjing University in Nov. 2015, engaged in postdoctoral research as visiting scholar at the University of Tennessee in the United States from Sept. 2014 to Nov. 2016, he has been serving as professor of Nanchang University since Nov. 2016, and up to present has publicized more than twenty papers in topnotch international academic journals in chemistry and chemical engineering fields including Adv Mater, Angew Chem Int Ed, AIChE J, Chem Eng Sci, J Membr Sci, Chem Commun, Green Chem, J Mater Chem A, ChemSusChem, Chem Eng J as first author or corresponding author.



Copyright (c) 2022 Nanchang University. All Rights Reserved.

赣B2-20050168号

网备36011002000011

  • 0791-83969196

  • newncu@ncu.edu.cn