On the afternoon of October 10th, Professor Jiang Biao, a distinguished researcher of the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, was invited to visit SUSTech and made an excellent speech on “Blue Sky and Lucid Water @ Chemistry: The Molecular Design and Synthesis of Environmental Fluorine Substances”, the topic of the 22th Science Lecture of the College of Science, for our faculty and students in the Lecture Hall No. 111 of the Library. This lecture was chaired by Professor Xia Haiping, Executive Dean of Grubbs Research Institute.

Professor Jiang Biao is endowed with numerous titles including Distinguished Researcher of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Distinguished Researcher of Shanghai University of Science and Technology, Former Director of Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Former Deputy Dean of Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences as well as Director of Bangkok-based Cooperation and Innovation Center of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

 He has won the first National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, Shanghai Science and Technology Development Funds, and other fund supports from the Major Programs of the Chinese Academy of Sciences during the 9th Five-Year Plan Period, the National Key Technologies R & D Program of China during the 9th Five-Year Plan Period, the Major State Basic Research Development Program of China (973 Program), the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (863 Program), Shanghai Major Program during "10th Five-Year", and the Major Program of COSTIND during 10th Five-Year Plan.

His efforts and contributions in scientific research achievements and industrialized production enabled him to win more than 30 awards and all kinds of honorary titles, including the Organic Chemistry Creation Award of the Chinese Chemical Society, the Outstanding Contribution Award of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the National Science and Technology Progress Award. He has published over 300 professional papers and more than 150 patents.

Prof. Jiang Biao 

During the lecture, Professor Jiang Biao, in the first place, introduced a substitute of Freon (ODS) refrigerant: HFO-1234yf and HFO-1234ze. HFO-1234yf, a refrigerant for automobiles and refrigerators, is also used in many large stationary and commercial refrigeration equipment. HFO-1234ze works as a refrigerant for heating and cooling and a well-performing cleaning agent for cleaning large-scale production assembly lines

He then presented the R&D of extinguishing system by a new clean gas fire: environmentally friendly perfluorohexanone fire-fighting fluid. Synthetic raw materials of perfluorohexanone fire-fighting fluid is easy to obtain, convenient to control, and green in its synthetic route. This kind of fire extinguishing agent is non-conductive, volatile, efficient in fire-extinguishing and lower in toxicity and clean in extinguishing manner. It works in 4% to 6% of fire-extinguishing concentration and leaves little trace residue after fire-extinguishing. As such, it is suitable for museums, libraries and databases, etc. The project has received 23.6 million-yuan grant of the Project to Strengthen Industrial Development at the Grass-roots Level from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

After that, Professor Jiang Biao began to talk about the research on naturally environmental antibacterial agent of stored grain fumigation. His research group synthesized a new compound allicin antibacterial insecticidal fumigant based on the extraordinary antibacterial and anti-inflammatory effect of garlic (sulfur-containing compounds). Compared with ethylene oxide and methyl bromide and other commonly-used fumigants, the allicin compound fumigant has lower dosage, better sterilization and insecticidal effect, and shorter working time. This kind of fumigant bears the least poison with no harm to cultural relics and no residue. Its fumigation technology is convenient to operate and feasible to perform. Its exhaust gas can be easily handled and efficiently decomposed with almost no residue to the environment and harm to human body. So far, it has applied for 5 patents, two of which have been authorized, and one has been filed for PCT applications. It has already been applied in the sterilization and disinfection of cultural relics and warehouses in the May 12 Wenchuan Earthquake Memorial Hall, and the allicin fumigation of specimens of animals and plants of Chongqing Natural History Museum.

Next, Professor Jiang Biao mainly explained the molecular design and synthesis of environmental fluorine-containing substances. Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) is an important type of Perfluoro surfactants. Numerous data manifest that PFOS has become an essential global pollutant, and stirred worldwide concern as a result of its harm to the ecological environment and human health. As such, Professor Jiang Biao's research group proposed that a linear C6 perfluorinated chain can be substituted by a branched C6 perfluorinated chain which is produced with hexafluoropropylene dimer perfluoro 2-methyl-2-pentene, available in scale industrial, as raw material. According to this proposal, they developed a kind of bio- and environment-friendly and high-efficient fluorocarbon surfactants with independent intellectual property rights to replace PFOS / PFOA.

In the end, Professor Jiang Biao talked about the“Jingzhong Method”, a green catalysis process for the preparation of vinyl chloride. The Calcium Carbide Production Process, one of the most basic and significant components of China's polyvinyl chloride industry, accounts for about 60% of the country's total mercury consumption. Based on this, Professor Jiang Biao's research group has developed a new process for the green catalytic preparation of vinyl chloride through the Jiang Zhong Method (without mercury), and has established production lines in Xiamen and Dezhou, Shandong Province. Moreover, the Chinese Academy of Sciences joined with the Royal Thai SCG Group to sign a strategic cooperation agreement for the PVC industry upgrade of Thai SCG Group. Ambassador Lu Jian, Vice Dean Zhang Yaping and the chairman of SCG have witnessed the signing of the agreement. The two parties have established a long-term cooperation to promote the construction of next-generation PVC technology in SCG.

In the Q&A session, Professor Jiang Biao answered questions raised by faculty and students and gave suggestions to them.

After the lecture, Professor Zhang Xumu, Vice Dean of the College of Science of SUSTech, presented a certificate and a souvenir to Professor Jiang Biao. Professor Xia Haiping, Professor Zhang Xumu and Professor Jiang Biao then took a group photo to end the lecture.