A list of Hangzhou Municipal Engineering Research Centers to be established in 2021 has been announced, and Hangzhou Engineering Research Center for Smart Design and Manufacturing of Chemical Functional Materials, mainly established by ZJU-Hangzhou Global Scientific and Technological Innovation Center, was approved as a municipal engineering research center.

Organized scientific research to address “Bottleneck” problems!

Chemical functional materials are the indispensable materials to support social economy, national defense and strategic emerging industries, and also the key to guarantee high-end manufacturing and industrial transformation. Therefore, its core technology has become the focus of competition among different nations.

Organized scientific research to address “Bottleneck” problems!

The 14th Five-Year Plan of Zhejiang Petrochemical Industry proposed to build high value-added industrial chains and improve the manufacturing of new chemical materials, specialty chemicals and traditional fine chemical industries. The newly-approved Hangzhou Engineering Research Center for smart Design and Manufacturing of Chemical Functional Materials aims at key common technical problems such as variable application scenarios and complex structure types of chemical functional materials. It is expected that the Research Center will tackle the “bottleneck” technological problems in petrochemicals, auxiliaries, dyestuffs and special polymers by exercising the interdisciplinary advantages of ZJU-Hangzhou Global Scientific and Technological Innovation Center, forming research teams and creating new research paradigms with some companies, e.g. Transfar Fine Chemicals and Chuanying New Material.

The integration of “Industry-academia-research-application” leading the transformation and upgrading of industry!

The integration of “Industry-academia-research-application” leading the transformation and upgrading of industry! The Engineering Research Center will build a hub connecting academic research and findings application, establish a pilot base linking laboratory research and factory production.

Applying self-developed automation equipment and AI technology, the Engineering Research Center will research on precise and smart manufacturing of chemical functional materials, build an automated, high-throughput and smart technical system for the design and manufacturing of chemical functional materials, promote the leapfrog upgrading of green chemicals, precise synthesis and functional materials industries, and enhance the independent guarantee capability of the core industrial chain.

Relying on Research Institute of Biological and Molecular Smart Manufacturing and led by Prof. Xing Huabin, President of the Institute, the Research Center has pooled a research team composed of some recipients of National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars. After making some breakthroughs in AI-driven automated high-throughput synthesis, smart design and green and efficient synthesis of functional chemicals, and smart construction and application of catalytic separation materials in the early stage, the team has been granted 2 national awards and over 120 patents. Besides, about 20 research achievements have been applied into industry. In the future, based on industrial needs, the Research Center will carry out innovative research, address common problems in key areas, and lead industrial transformation and upgrading.