"I chose chemistry

No regrets at all

Chemistry is really amazing

brought me

infinite reverie

infinite fantasy

Infinite dreams”

The second season of the documentary short series "Everyone Talks about Innovation" jointly produced by the Propaganda Department of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China, the External Publicity Office of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China, and Wenhui Daily tells the vivid practice of Shanghai accelerating its transformation into a technological innovation center with global influence from an expert perspective. The fifth episode of "Endless Scientific Frontiers" is launched today. Zhao Dongyuan, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, professor of Fudan University, and dean of the School of Chemistry and Materials, will take you to see the world through a "hole" and feel the infiniteness of science in the whimsical ideas of basic research. strength.

Fudan campus in winter is quiet and timeless. The beautiful Jiangwan campus is illuminated by the sun, with luxuriant green grass on the banks of the Sun and Moon Lake. Ding Lingling, a ringing sound passed through his ears, Zhao Dongyuan rode his bicycle and arrived at the Advanced Materials Laboratory Building.

"Chemistry is really amazing." Teacher Zhao said that there are no new substances on earth. Through chemical reactions, design, and experiments, it is really possible to create completely new substances. "I insisted on taking the undergraduate course 'General Chemistry' for 20 years. I won the first prize of the National Natural Science Award that day. In class the next day, everyone was anxious to see the certificate, so I took a bag and rode my bicycle to class. I went there, so they called me 'Academician Butai'."

Simple cloth bags are placed in the specially arranged "Functional Mesoporous Materials" exhibition hall. The exhibition hall displays the introduction, research progress, research results, academic impact, application fields, etc. of new mesoporous materials in the microscopic world, as well as various physical samples, and also preserves notebooks of experimental notes. This is a vivid record of the scientific research team’s hard work for ten years and putting their fantastic ideas into practice.

In more than 20 years, scientists have bravely climbed to scientific peaks, pursued their passion to the extreme, and made original breakthroughs "from 0 to 1" in the field of mesoporous materials. They have created ordered mesoporous polymers and carbon materials, leading the way in the field of mesoporous materials. The team invented more than 20 kinds of mesoporous materials named after Fudan University, and successfully applied mesoporous materials to petrochemical industry, energy and environment and other fields, creating huge value. Zhao Dongyuan said that looking back, the great leap in the preparation of mesoporous materials from inorganic to organic is just a thin piece of paper, and innovation is to pierce this paper.

Persevere because of love, persist because of dreams. Teacher Zhao, who grew up in the 1980s, said that at that time there was a saying, "If you learn mathematics, physics and chemistry, you will not be afraid of traveling all over the world." He chose chemistry and has no regrets at all. "Through basic research, we are still imagining and creating 'holes' as we wish." He said that a hole is a medium and a channel for transmitting matter and energy, including information and electromagnetic waves. In fact, porous materials are everywhere. In the fields of catalysis, energy storage, electronic materials, cosmetics, biomedicine, water treatment, etc., they can be linked to life and AI, and have very broad application prospects.

Schrödinger said that the life process is a negative entropic process. In Zhao Dongyuan's view, the so-called negative entropy process is an entropy-driven process. Without this process, there would be no life. "The same goes for chemistry. Chemistry is a molecular science, a chemistry of weak interactions between molecules and self-assembly of molecules. The process of making pores is a process of molecular self-assembly. So I want to overcome these weak interactions and empower It has some logic and rationality that can really make people understand.”

Trekking on the mountain of science is hard but also cool. Teacher Zhao walked into the laboratory and saw the two sentences on the back of the students' work clothes, "Scientific research is hard, persistence is cool", and gave a thumbs up. "Scientific research is actually fun. Making something is endless fun. If you can't make it, it will be very hard." He said that scientists have no secret to success. He has always warned students to be original and unique scientists. There always has to be something new.

At the first project group meeting in 2024, Teacher Zhao listened attentively to the work reports of the students and interacted with questions from time to time. Finally, he commented, "I think it is very good. It includes many new methods, which are eye-catching. Once it lights up, it is enough to inspire. This is a pursuit of our basic research."

As a tutor, Mr. Zhao believes that teaching is not just about imparting knowledge, but also about imparting scientific spirit, questioning spirit, and thinking spirit to students. He has always encouraged students to be brave enough to ask questions, explore “no man’s land”, and have unique thinking in scientific research.

As a scientist, Zhao Dongyuan believes that science is knowledge and the source that supports technological development. Only when knowledge has been accumulated to a certain level can there be breakthroughs and innovations, especially in basic research. Never imagine how fast it will be. An excellent scientist must persist in having an innovative spirit, profound thinking, and rational thinking, regardless of interests and harms, and only ask right and wrong. He said: "We Chinese people are hard-working and smart, and we must grasp scientific laws and scientific methods. One day we will have great scientists and great achievements, and we will stand tall in the world."