Beijing

Ma Tao Zhang Xiaowen

Graphene, an emerging material known so far as the thinnest, lightest, strongest, most conductive and thermally conductive, and with high light transmittance, is hailed as the "king of new materials" by the industry.

Henan, a major industrial province, has a complete industrial foundation and a broad application market in the field of new materials, and is moving towards building a trillion-level industrial cluster.

What kind of "nuclear fusion" will occur when the two meet and join hands?

"Hot players" in new materials

In today's world, waves of scientific and technological innovation are rising, and the research and application of new materials have become a key force in promoting national scientific and technological progress and industrial upgrading. Among them, graphene, with its excellent optical, electrical, mechanical, and thermal properties, has huge application potential and development prospects in many fields such as electronic devices, biomedicine, aerospace, and energy storage, and is a "hot player" in the field of new materials.

At present, graphene has become a "must-fight place" for many developed countries. In 2013, the European Union took the lead in launching the Graphene Flagship Program, spending 1 billion euros to promote the industrialization of graphene materials; the United Kingdom has successively established the National Graphene Institute and the National Graphene Engineering Innovation Center, striving to seize the position of "leader" in the industry; international companies such as IBM, Hitachi, and Samsung are investing large-scale scientific research forces in the research and development of graphene and have formed a relatively complete industrial chain.

As a country with abundant graphite resources, China's industrial chain covers all links from raw material research and development, preparation to application, and its industrialization process is in an international leading position. The number of graphene papers published and patent applications accounts for three-quarters of the global total, and the number of related companies exceeds 50,000. Many provinces and regions have "taken the lead" in this track.

The graphene industry has a bright future and great potential. Henan must seize the opportunity to accelerate and create new advantages on this new track.

The underlying logic of Henan's layout

Deploy the innovation chain around the industrial chain, and layout the industrial chain around the innovation chain. This is the underlying logic for Henan to build a modern industrial system and achieve overtaking on the curve and leading the way.

Xiao Jinsong, director of the Materials Industry Research Institute of CCID Research Institute, once said that the immaturity of material application engineering technology and the difficulty in making breakthroughs in mass production of preparation processes are still the main factors that plague the development of the graphene industry.

These shackles are expected to be solved in the Zhongyuan Graphene Laboratory.

On the one hand, one of the leading units of the laboratory, Beijing Graphene Research Institute and Beijing Graphene Research Institute Co., Ltd., is a new type of R&D institution with a large-scale R&D and industrialization team, internationally leading material preparation technology and large-scale process equipment R&D and manufacturing capabilities, and plays an important role in the domestic graphene field.

On the other hand, in recent years, our province has proposed to build a "7+28+N" industrial chain group, among which the new material industry cluster ranks first among the seven advanced manufacturing industry clusters, and has received much attention and support. At the same time, as a major province of carbon materials, Henan has a good industrial foundation in the fields of artificial graphite, diamond, high-purity graphite, etc.

One is the "flagship" representative in the field of graphene research in China, and the other is a major material province with a trillion-level industrial cluster. The strong combination will surely ignite new "graphene" hopes and help Henan reach new heights.

"In addition to carrying out scientific research activities, we will also focus on industrial production and build a graphene production line." A relevant person in charge of the Central Plains Graphene Laboratory said, "In the next three years, we will launch three large-scale products such as monene glass fiber, glass fiber, and graphene heat dissipation film to the market to create a complete industrial chain, so that the graphene "industrial tree" will flourish in Henan."

The construction of the provincial laboratory system is in full swing

New research and development institutions represented by provincial laboratories are important carriers of scientific and technological innovation and industrial development, and play a strong supporting and traction role in the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries and the high-quality development of strategic emerging industries.

From the unveiling of the first provincial laboratory, Songshan Laboratory, in 2021, to the establishment of the Central Plains Graphene Laboratory, as of now, our province has established 27 provincial laboratories. As the "first echelon" of Henan's high-level innovation platform, the Provincial Laboratory aims at the development direction of Henan's key industrial chains, focusing on multiple frontier fields such as new generation information technology, new materials, and new energy, basically covering 28 key industrial chains in our province, and connecting the entire chain of production, education, research, and application.

Over the past three years, the Provincial Laboratory has continuously deepened institutional and mechanism innovation, and has successively established an innovative model of "driven by major needs, industrial chain questions, and laboratory answers". As of the end of September this year, the Provincial Laboratory (Industrial Technology Research Institute) has established nearly 200 scientific research teams and introduced more than 200 high-level talents; it has undertaken a total of 36 national-level projects, independently implemented 107 scientific research projects, published more than 600 representative papers, and related scientific research results have been published in many top international journals such as Science.

Standing tall and upright, it will surely become a great thing. Practice has fully proved that the construction of Henan's provincial laboratory system is not a simple accumulation of numbers, but a 30-year look ahead. Our province has actively connected with the national strategic scientific and technological forces, built a first-class innovation platform, and accelerated its efforts to become a test field for institutional reform and a core pole for leading development in building a national innovation highland and an important talent center. Looking to the future, these "innovation groups" will play a key role, injecting strong momentum and providing strategic support for our province to seize the historical opportunities of a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation and seize the commanding heights of future development.