On the afternoon of January 30, 2024, PPM INSTITUTE OF FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS invited Professor Zhang Xuetong①, a second-level researcher of the Advanced Materials Department of Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and a doctoral supervisor of the University of Science and Technology of China, to give an academic report on the design, preparation and application of aerogel fibers to all researchers of the institute in the 805 staircase room of the company's office building. Lv Weibang, director of the Advanced Materials Department of Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wang Jupeng, deputy director of the Technology Transfer Center, Ji Shunjun, dean of PPM INSTITUTE OF FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS, and Yang Junhui, deputy dean, attended the report meeting.

The report meeting officially started at 13:30 in the afternoon. Professor Zhang Xuetong first gave a brief introduction to aerogel and aerogel fibers. As an international cutting-edge material, aerogel is a nanomaterial that can meet the country's major strategic needs. Because it has excellent performance in thermal, electrical, optical, acoustic, adsorption and catalysis, it has broad application prospects in military, aerospace, industrial, civil, biomedicine, and other fields. Secondly, Professor Zhang showed us the research results of polyimide aerogel fiber, aramid aerogel fiber, cellulose aerogel fiber and silica aerogel fiber designed and prepared by his research group, and shared the confined functionalization strategy of aerogel fiber. In the final discussion session, participants actively asked questions and the atmosphere was lively. Vice President Yang expressed his great interest in aerogel fiber, especially super-tough cellulose aerogel fiber, and hoped to have in-depth discussions and cooperation with Professor Zhang in the future to realize the industrialization of aerogel fiber as soon as possible.

  (PPM INSTITUTE OF FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS )

① Zhang Xuetong, PhD, researcher of the “Hundred Talents Program” of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, doctoral supervisor of the University of Science and Technology of China, visiting professor of University College London (UCL), Newton Advanced Fellow of the Royal Society, Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC), project leader of the National Key R&D Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology, and talent introduced by the “Double Creation Program” of Jiangsu Province, mainly engaged in the structural design, controlled synthesis and application research of aerogel materials. As the first author or corresponding author, he has published more than 100 academic papers in well-known journals in related fields such as Science, Nature Communications, Advanced Materials, Advanced Functional Materials, Advanced Fiber Materials, Advanced Healthcare Materials, Advanced Science, ACS Nano, Energy & Environmental Science, Nano Energy, Materials Horizons, Small, Small Methods, etc. His research results have been widely reported by ACS News Service Weekly Press Pac, Phys.Org, Chemical & Engineering News, Science Daily, Optics & Photonics News, Asian Scientist, Xinhua News Agency, People's Daily Online, China Science and Technology Net, National Natural Science Foundation of China website, China Government Network, China Youth Online, Phoenix Net, China Daily and other news media.