Lijing Zhang’s research while affiliated with Dalian University of Technology and other places

Since the concept of microreactor was first proposed in the 1980s, it has been entering the chemistry and chemical engineering fields at a high speed and is favored by both scientific and commercial fields. The development of microreactors has been extensively studied in the literature, but less analysis has been carried out from the perspective of industrial technology. This paper aims to identify, analyze, and map the technological profile of microreactors from the perspective of patents. Based on the text mining techniques, a quantitative analysis of 16,327 microreactor‐related patents in the Derwent Innovations Index database was conducted. The analysis reveals a consistent annual increase in the number of microreactor‐related patents from 1982 to 2021. Specifically, China emerges as the leading country in terms of patent disclosures, whereas the United States and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) play a crucial role in knowledge transfer. Moreover, this study identifies the technological evolution path for microreactors and analyzes in detail the key patents along this evolution path. Individuation, modularization, and greening are the developing directions of microreactor technology in the future. This research offers valuable guidance for researchers and industry professionals in decision‐making and driving advancements in microreactor technology.

Artificial intelligence (AI) offers transformative potential for chemical research through its ability to optimize reactions and processes, enhance energy efficiency, and reduce waste. AI-assisted chemical research (AI + chem) has become a global hotspot. To better understand the current research status of "AI + chem", this study conducted a scientific bibliometric investigation using CiteSpace. The web of science core collection was utilized to retrieve original articles related to "AI + chem" published from 2000 to 2024. The obtained data allowed for the visualization of the knowledge background, current research status, and latest knowledge structure of "AI + chem". The "AI + chem" has entered a stage of explosive growth, and the number of papers will maintain long-term high-speed growth. This article systematically analyzes the latest progress in "AI + chem" and objectively predicts future trends, including molecular design, reaction prediction, materials design, drug design, and quantum chemistry. The outcomes of this study will provide readers with a comprehensive understanding of the overall landscape of "AI + chem".

Recently, synthetic photochemistry has seen a remarkable renaissance in academia and industry. This interest was driven by the development of novel synthesis procedures, photoactive materials, light-sources and reactor technologies. Photochemical investigations on laboratory scales are now routinely conducted under continuous-flow conditions in micro- or mesoreactors. Pre-industrial applications on larger scales have likewise been successfully realized. Novel photoactive materials and catalysts that can be readily embedded into flow reactor channels have also been developed. In recognition of these recent advances, the journal Frontiers in Chemistry has published a dedicated special issue on ‘Novel Technologies for Sustainable and Energy-efficient Flow Photochemistry’.

Due to the development of novel light-sources, methodologies and technologies, photochemistry has seen a remarkable renaissance in academia and industry. Many photochemical investigations are now routinely performed under continuous-flow conditions in purpose-designed reactors. Successful examples of pre-industrial applications have subsequently been realized. Likewise, photocalytic materials can be easily incorporated into reactor channels, thus further advancing the potential of flow-photochemistry. This special issue comprises of four submissions and highlights recent achievements in photochemical research.

Microreactors have gained widespread attention from academia and industrial researchers due to their exceptionally fast mass and heat transfer and flexible control. In this work, CiteSpace software was used to systematically analyze the relevant literature to gain a comprehensively understand on the research status of microreactors in various fields. The results show that the research depth and application scope of microreactors are continuing to expand. The top 10 most popular research fields are photochemistry, pharmaceutical intermediates, multistep flow synthesis, mass transfer, computational fluid dynamics, μ‐TAS (micro total analysis system), nanoparticles, biocatalysis, hydrogen production, and solid‐supported reagents. The evolution trends of current focus areas are examined, including photochemistry, mass transfer, biocatalysis and hydrogen production and their milestone literature is analyzed in detail. This article demonstrates the development of different fields of microreactors technology and highlights the unending opportunities and challenges offered by this fascinating technology.

Organic‐inorganic hybrid halide perovskite‐single‐crystalline thin films with high quality are promising for making high‐performance optoelectronic devices, but their fabrication is still challenging, particularly for the top‐down fabrication. Here, a facile centrifugal‐force‐assisted wet‐etching strategy is used in fabricating hybrid perovskite‐single‐crystalline thin film from its single‐crystalline wafer. The film thickness can be reduced to less than 20 micrometres and the film remains high quality and flat surface. Besides, this method can be used to regenerate surface‐metamorphic perovskite single crystals. The present technique may provide an effective strategy for single‐crystalline thin film preparation for demanding device applications and it is expected that this strategy would promise high‐efficient utilization of perovskite single crystals.

Specific surface area and active groups are major concerns in the design and synthesis of metal ion adsorbent. Inspired by coral's high efficiency in preying on tiny plankton in the ocean, we pioneered a simple method for the in situ construction of “nano-tentacles” based on the original porous material skeleton. The introduction of “nano-tentacles” can further redesign and remolding of the existing interconnected pores to increase the specific surface areas and specific chelating sites for target metal ions. Herein, a proof-of-concept design is illustrated by in situ growing (3-aminopropyl)trimethoxysilane (APS) on the inner wall of the porous structure of chitosan/graphene oxide composite gel (CGG). The resulting material (NT-CGG) has a distribution coefficient (Kd) of 1.25 × 10⁸ mL g⁻¹, which exhibits ultrahigh affinity for lead ions, and the uptake capacity can reach 470 mg g⁻¹. More significantly, the NT-CGG can effectively remove lead from 10 ppm to undetectable levels (≤0.02 ppb) with remove efficiency ≥99.9998% in the breakthrough experiment. The method proposed in this paper may be widely applicable to the redesign and remolding of most existing porous materials.