People's Daily Online conversation with Professor Huang Qizhong: Carbon based materials on the "pyramid" foundation
From mobile phone and home appliance parts to ship and airplane accessories, the presence of new materials is everywhere. Carbon based materials, which are based on the "pyramid" foundation, are a "typical family" with a wide variety of varieties, wide applications, and high added value.
As an important base for carbon material resources in China, Hunan is in a leading position in the research and application of carbon based materials. At present, Changsha is breaking through a batch of high-precision and cutting-edge varieties to enhance the industrialization and large-scale application level of new materials, ensure the safety of the industrial chain and supply chain, and lay a solid foundation for Changsha to build a national advanced manufacturing highland.
Recently, People's Daily Hunan Channel invited Huang Qizhong, a member of the National Aerospace Technology Expert Group, Deputy Director of the Joint Research Center for New Aircraft of the Ministry of Education, and Director of the Lightweight and High Temperature Resistant Materials Sub center, as well as a professor from Central South University, to be a guest on "People's Interview" to explore how carbon based materials can promote the high-quality development of advanced manufacturing industry in Changsha.
People's Daily Online: Professor Huang's main research field is the new materials industry, which is known as the "chassis" of the manufacturing industry. Can you introduce this emerging industry to us?
Huang Qizhong: New materials are indeed known as the "chassis" of the manufacturing industry, and are an important foundation for supporting major national projects and strategic emerging industries. Carbon based materials, which are based on the "pyramid" foundation, are a typical family with a wide variety of varieties, wide applications, and high added value. For example, the erosion resistant materials of spacecraft and the brake materials of aircraft are all carbon materials. Chips, hydrogen energy, lithium batteries, nuclear reactors, and wind energy cannot do without carbon materials. Steel, machinery, and electricity also require carbon materials. It can be said that carbon materials have changed the world.
People's Daily Online: What is the carbon material you specifically mentioned? What is its connection to our daily life?
Huang Qizhong: Carbon based materials are relatively unfamiliar and unfamiliar to most ordinary people. But in fact, it is closely related to our production and life. The heat dissipation film of mobile phones and computers, as well as the battery cells of dry batteries, are made of carbon materials. The first material that humans used chemical methods to manufacture was carbon material charcoal. The melting of bronze, iron, and silicon also relies on carbon, so carbon materials are a symbol of human development. Carbon based materials mainly refer to materials with carbon as the main theme. It includes graphite, diamond, graphene, carbon nanotubes, fullerene (C60), carbon isotope C14, carbon fiber and its composite materials, as well as silicon carbide and its composite materials, which are mainly composed of carbon elements. Carbon based materials are widely used in fields such as aerospace, metallurgical machinery, electronic information, and new energy. The development of carbon based materials has brought many revolutionary changes to human society. For example, the industrialization of synthetic diamond has driven significant changes in grinding tools, cutting tools, and other industries, leading to the flourishing development of the mechanical manufacturing industry; The large-scale application of lightweight and high-strength carbon fiber and its composite materials has brought revolutionary changes to the aerospace manufacturing industry, achieving the birth of the American "dream plane" Boeing 787 and making hypersonic flight a reality. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China attaches great importance to the development of carbon fiber, and several national leaders have specifically issued instructions to solve this "bottleneck" key core material related to national defense security. For example, graphene is known as the "king of new materials" and will bring disruptive changes to the development of 5G communication, new energy, and special new materials. In the research field, the research on carbon materials is also highly valued. For example, multiple scientists have made breakthrough progress in the field of carbon materials, making significant contributions to the development of human science and earning the Nobel Prize for this achievement. Including 1906, 1960, 1996, 2010, and 2019, five Nobel Prizes have been awarded for the study of a single carbon element, which fully proves that carbon materials play an extremely important role in the development process of human society. People often say that the 19th century was the century of steel, the 20th century was the century of silicon materials, and the 21st century was the century of carbon materials. Therefore, vigorously promoting the development of carbon materials and their industrial chains and clusters has extremely important strategic significance.
People's Daily Online: Carbon element is crucial for the development of manufacturing industry, both high-end and down-to-earth. So what role does carbon materials play in building an advanced manufacturing highland in Changsha?
Huang Qizhong: Changsha has great advantages in carbon based materials, and attaches great importance to the development of carbon based materials. The deputy mayor in charge of industry serves as the industry chain leader and has held multiple meetings with carbon material enterprises and experts. Changsha City has obvious advantages in the carbon based materials industry chain, including artificial graphite manufacturing, lithium battery carbon negative electrode, graphene, carbon/carbon composite materials, carbon material thermal engineering, and third-generation semiconductor silicon carbide. It also has academic leaders such as Academician Huang Boyun. For example, a lead-acid battery electric bicycle enterprise in Jiangsu Province uses graphene prepared by Hunan Jinyang Graphene Carbon Materials Co., Ltd. located in Liuyang. The graphene third-generation battery prepared can maintain stable and continuous discharge in an environment of -20 ℃~55 ℃. And it increases the capacity by 20% to 25%, shortens the charging time from 8 hours to 1 hour, and has a service life three times that of ordinary lead-acid batteries. Due to different manufacturing methods and processes, the performance of graphene varies greatly. Graphene prepared by Hunan Jinyangene Carbon Materials Company has a complete carbon atom network and good electrical and thermal conductivity. Therefore, Changsha graphene has a leading position in terms of performance. Currently, the production capacity is 1000 tons of graphene per year, and the mainstream product price has dropped to below 1 million yuan per ton. It also has good applications in lithium batteries, anti-corrosion materials, and other fields. For example, Hunan Dingli Technology Co., Ltd. is a leading enterprise in thermal equipment in China, exporting its products to developed countries such as Europe, the United States, and Japan. The company's carbon materials division has an annual output value of over 200 million yuan and has developed equipment such as chemical vapor deposition furnaces, graphitization furnaces, and purification furnaces for carbon materials. These equipment have been widely used in industries such as aerospace, photovoltaics, lithium-ion anodes, and semiconductors, solving the equipment problems of China's national defense and civilian carbon materials and making important contributions to the development of China's carbon materials. Hunan Zhongke Xingcheng Graphite is a high-tech enterprise specializing in the research and production of lithium battery negative electrode materials, with a focus on new energy vehicle power lithium battery negative electrode materials. It also covers fields such as mobile phones, tablets, and communication base station energy storage, manufacturing new negative electrode materials including natural graphite, artificial graphite, and silicon carbon, silicon oxygen, soft carbon, hard carbon, etc. It has a leading advantage in the market of negative electrode materials for power batteries and ranks among the top three in terms of scale in China. Our products are in short supply and we strive to achieve a production value of over 10 billion yuan by 2025. Hunan Boyun New Materials Co., Ltd. and Jinbo New Materials Co., Ltd., both from the Powder Metallurgy Research Institute of Central South University, have conducted extensive research in the fields of carbon/carbon composite materials for aerospace and thermal field materials for solar monocrystalline silicon. Their products have excellent performance and are well-known enterprises in the same industry in China. Hunan Dongying Carbon Materials Technology Co., Ltd. is a company with technology sourced from Hunan University, dedicated to the research and industrialization of high thermal conductivity carbon fibers. Its products are widely used in high-tech fields such as aerospace, 5G communication, and cutting-edge manufacturing. It has won the second prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award in 2020 and has been listed as one of the "Top Ten Technology Research Projects" in Hunan Province in 2021. The National University of Defense Technology has conducted nearly 40 years of research and development in the field of silicon carbide precursors, and the derived Boxiang New Materials and Hunan Precursor New Materials have achieved practical results in polycarbosilane and polymethylsilane, laying the foundation for high-performance and low-cost silicon carbide materials. Precursors will further expand the application scope and improve the service life of carbon based materials. From all of these, it can be seen that Changsha occupies an important strategic position in the development pattern of carbon based materials industry. At present, Changsha is making great efforts to break through a batch of high-precision and cutting-edge varieties, which can significantly improve the independent guarantee ability of key materials, enhance the industrialization and large-scale application level of new materials, ensure the safety of the industrial chain and supply chain, and lay a solid foundation for Changsha to build a national advanced manufacturing highland.
People's Daily Online: The carbon based materials industry has great potential for development, and the new materials industry represented by carbon based materials is playing an increasingly important leading role in economic development. Professor Huang, may I ask about the current development of the carbon based materials industry in Changsha?
Huang Qizhong: Firstly, Changsha is the cradle of talent cultivation for carbon based materials in China. In 1962, Hunan University established China's first carbon materials major, known as the "Huangpu Military Academy" in the field of carbon materials in China. In the 1980s, the National University of Defense Technology was the first research and development unit for silicon carbide fibers in China, making outstanding contributions to the development of silicon carbide fibers and their composite materials. Central South University has broken the technological blockade of foreign countries in the field of carbon/carbon composite materials, providing a guarantee for the national aerospace strategic needs. Meanwhile, Central South University also holds a leading position in the research and application of carbon materials for lithium batteries nationwide. Based on the above three universities, Hunan has trained and delivered a large number of outstanding high-level talents for the national carbon materials industry. Secondly, Hunan is an important base for carbon material resources in China, with world-class quality microcrystalline graphite ore. Its "Lutang" brand microcrystalline graphite enjoys a high reputation worldwide, with reserves ranking first in the country. It is widely used in fields such as nuclear graphite, isostatic pressed graphite, and graphene. Ningxiang Changning Carbon Company uses it to manufacture more than 80% of the world's battery carbon rods. Moreover, what is even more proud is that Changsha is at the forefront of carbon based material research and application in the country.
People's Daily Online: Professor Huang, what factors do you think have contributed to the achievements in the development of carbon based materials in Changsha? What measures are key?
Huang Qizhong: I think Changsha has laid out early and achieved great success here. Changsha has the advantage of an innovative platform. Changsha has multiple excellent platforms related to carbon materials, including: the National University of Defense Technology has the Key Laboratory of Ceramic Fiber and Composite Materials for National Defense Science and Technology; Central South University has the Key Laboratory of National Defense Science and Technology for Lightweight and High Strength Structural Materials and the National Engineering Technology Research Center for Carbon/Carbon Composite Materials. Moreover, Hunan has the National Graphite Product Quality Supervision and Testing Center, which has laid a solid research and application foundation for the clustering of the carbon based industry chain in Changsha.
People's Daily Online: What do you think are the development prospects and key directions for the carbon based materials industry in Changsha during the 14th Five Year Plan period? What suggestions do you have?
Huang Qizhong: Carbon based materials are key materials for national defense security and economic construction, with extremely broad downstream application fields and huge market space. Among them, carbon fiber and its composite materials, as well as silicon carbide materials, belong to the key materials of "neck jamming". To achieve the growth and strengthening of the carbon based materials industry cluster in Changsha, it is necessary to focus on industries that are already in a leading position in the country, build their leading capabilities, strengthen the integration of industry, academia, and research, consolidate and enhance their development advantages, and move the industry from a national leader to a world leader; Secondly, for industries with high development potential, it is necessary to enhance their competitiveness, expand the scale of the industry, promote the extension, supplementation, and strengthening of the industry chain, and transform the industry from small and refined to large and strong; I also believe that we should fully leverage the educational, resource, and platform advantages of carbon based materials in Changsha, and strengthen talent cultivation and base construction; Strengthening technological innovation is particularly important. In the late 1980s to early 1990s, the metallurgical discipline of Changsha Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, the carbon discipline of Hunan University, and the powder metallurgy discipline of Central South University were combined to promote the development of the artificial diamond industry. Its output and product level ranked first in the country for many years. Due to issues such as intellectual property protection, government attention, and the integration of scientific research and production workers at that time, many enterprises lacked core technology and scale advantages, resulting in disorderly competition and gradual loss of advantages. Currently, the diamond industry in Hunan Province and Changsha City has been basically eliminated. This' Changsha Diamond Phenomenon 'has taught us a great lesson about carbon based materials. Therefore, it is necessary to continuously enhance the innovation capability of the carbon based materials industry cluster, break through key technologies, and promote the cluster, high-end, and healthy development of the carbon based materials industry in Hunan Province, in order to better and comprehensively implement the strategic positioning and mission of "three highs and four new".
Article source: People's Daily Online
