From July 16 to 21, the 2018 Advanced Workshop on Modern Catalytic Research Methods has been successfully held at South China University of Technology. The workshop was hosted by the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering of East China University of Science and Technology, and invited 13 experts from domestic top research institutions and universities to lecture. This workshop attracted nearly 300 participants from many scientific research institutions, institutions of higher learning and enterprises. Postdoctor Wei Weng, doctoral candidate Zeyu Fan and doctoral candidate Xiaoqing Kan from our research group participated in this workshop.

At the opening ceremony, Guozheng Zhang, dean of the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering of South China University of Technology, gave a welcome speech on behalf of the organizers. He thanked the teachers for taking time to support the work for the workshop after the busy research work, and hoped that students would gain more from nearly a week of learning. The professor of Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Qin Xin, introduced the history of the workshop and he hoped that the young students would further broaden their horizons, strengthen the cultivation of innovative thinking and their interest in the catalytic discipline through exchanges and learning with experts.

At the workshop, Professor Yingxia Wang from Peking University, Professor Baiqing Xu from Tsinghua University, Professor Qin Xin from Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Professor Lixian Sun from Guilin University of Electronic Technology, Professor Fan Yang from Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Professor Dongping Zhan from Xiamen University, Professor Weixue Li from the University of Science and Technology of China, Professor Mengfei Luo from Zhejiang Normal University, Professor Zhijian Tian from Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Professor Heyong He from Fudan University, Professor Zhaochi Feng from Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, the senior engineer Shishan Sheng, from Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics and Professor Wei Liu from Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics respectively introduced basic principles, applications, and recent advances in modern catalytic research methods of X-ray diffraction analysis, catalytic reaction kinetics, Infrared spectroscopy, Thermal analysis, Scanning probe and tip enhancement spectrum, Electrochemical method, theoretical and computational catalysis, chemical adsorption and temperature programming, catalyst macroscopic measurement method, Nuclear magnetic resonance, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and high resolution analytical electron microscope.

I am very excited to participate in the academic workshop for the first time as a student of Prof. Xiao’s Research Group. We are very grateful to Prof. Xiao for providing us with such a good opportunity to improve our understanding of catalytic research methods. By participating in this workshop, we not only have a more comprehensive understanding of modern catalytic research methods and cutting-edge research, but also we are more aware that “To do a good job, one must first sharpen one’s tools” and a solid theoretical foundation is the most indispensable for scientific research. In addition, some content in the workshop also corrected some of our previous misconceptions. The two books from the workshop can serve as a good reference for our group to study catalytic research methods.

Author: Zeyu Fan