SICCAS Delegates Attend the 9th International Symposium on Ecomaterials Processing & Design

Seven researchers in our institute attended the International Symposium on Ecomaterials Processing & Design (ISEPD 2008) on Jan. 7-9 in Changwon, Korea. The symposium was organized by the Kyungnan University. A total of 500 representatives attended the symposium, which provided the forum to discuss the latest progress regarding eco-related materials. The symposium consisted of five sessions, including photocatalysts, nano structured materials, hybrid materials, recycling/substitute of hazardous materials and ecomaterials. Four plenary lectures were arranged by the symposium. After the symposium, the representatives visited the Jinhae Energy Exhibition Center which exhibited large-scale solar cells providing energy for buildings, water treatment instruments and vehicles.

At the symposium, Professor Lian Gao gave an invited oral report titled “Fabrication of hollow hybrid microsphere silica/titania via sol-gel process and enhanced photocatalytic activities”. Associate professors Qinghong Zhang, Xihai Jin, Yangqiao Liu and Ph. D student Zhijian Yin gave oral reports titled “Preparation of nanocrystalline TiO2 powders with a high efficiency for the photocatalytic oxidation of phenol”, “Mechanical performances of ZTM/SiC nanocomposite optimized through composition and microstructure tailoring”, “Functionalization of carbon nanotubes for nanoparticle attachment” and “Effects of Al addition on the mechanical properties of plasma sprayed Al2O3-Al composite coatings”, respectively. Miss Yan Wang and Dr. Yaran Niu gave poster presentations titled “Synthesis and characterization of FePt nanoparticles and multi walled carbon nanotubes composites” and “Light-emitting characterization of plasma sprayed silicon coatings”, respectively. Miss Yan Wang won the Best Poster Award in ISEPD 2008 for her outstanding work. She is among the six winners of this Award at the symposium.

Our country is facing the problems of ever increasing environmental pollution and energy crisis. Ecomaterials play an important role in solving these problems. In fact, many ecomaterials are inorganic materials. The delegates in our institute learned about the latest advances in related fields and discussed actively with other representatives regarding the interested issues.