October 21, 2016 | Qingdao, China                                                                          

On October 21, 2016, the Chinese Materials Conference 2016, hosted by the Chinese Materials Research Society and co-organized by the Chinese Society for Materials Science, was grandly opened at the Qingdao International Convention Center. Concurrently, the 17th Asian Materials Conference was also held. Over 3,000 experts, scholars, and corporate representatives from renowned universities and enterprises worldwide gathered in Qingdao to discuss the latest developments in materials technology and industry.

The Chinese Materials Conference is the most important series of conferences organized by the Chinese Materials Research Society, having been successfully held 14 times since its inception in 1992. This three-day conference featured plenary sessions and 27 symposiums, covering five major topics: energy and environmental materials, advanced structural materials, functional materials, biomaterials, and materials modeling, computation, and design.

As the foundation and forerunner of modern high-tech, new materials have become significant markers of economic development and technological progress. In his opening speech, Academician Li Yuanyuan highlighted the new breakthroughs required in R&D, the continuous emergence of new materials and structures, and the rapid development of materials technology and industry as part of a global industrial transformation. He also predicted trends such as the integration of structure and function in new materials, the integration of materials and devices, and the green preparation and application of materials. Lastly, Academician Li Yuanyuan expressed his heartfelt thanks to the Qingdao municipal government, the International Advisory Committee, the Organizing Committee, and the Project Committee for their strong support.

Following the opening ceremony, Dr. Martin L. Green from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the United States, Professor Katsuhiko Ariga from Japan, and Professor Zou Zhigang from Nanjing University delivered captivating plenary reports. Dr. Martin L. Green discussed the background and significance of the Materials Genome Initiative (MGI), which aims to halve the time from material discovery to commercial productization (from 10-20 years to 5-10 years) and reduce the overall process cost. MGI has made significant progress in areas such as computational simulation, modeling, and property prediction. However, a substantial amount of experimental data is still needed to validate these models, making high-throughput (combinatorial) experimental methods indispensable for quickly processing and generating high-quality data. Dr. Green also discussed the challenges that must be overcome to broaden the applicability of these models in materials.

In the functional preparation of molecules, composites, nanostructures, and functional materials, spatial bottom-up construction has been successfully achieved. Professor Katsuhiko Ariga introduced his team's "hand-operational nanotechnology," a new method that allows macroscopic (hand) manipulation to control molecular orientation, organization, and even nanoscale functions.

Professor Zou Zhigang discussed the pressing need for alternative energy sources in light of the severe environmental pollution indicated by the increase in global CO2 concentration from 280 ppm in 2006 to 381 ppm (an increase of 36%), with a projected rise to 500 ppm by 2030. He introduced a method of semiconductor photocatalysis under natural light to produce solar fuels, achieving hydrogen production from water and hydrocarbon production from CO2, akin to the photosynthesis process in plants. This method has garnered widespread attention in the industry. Professor Zou's team also developed a series of photoelectrochemical cells with semiconductor heterojunction electrodes, which showed significantly enhanced photocurrents and incident photon-to-electron conversion efficiencies (IPCE) compared to homogeneous semiconductors, indicating the potential application of heterojunction semiconductors in hydrogen production and CO2 reduction under natural light.

Additionally, the conference hosted the "2016 International Materials Processing Equipment, Scientific Instruments, and Laboratory Equipment Exhibition," attracting nearly 100 manufacturers of materials testing instruments and equipment.