On January 10, 2020, 2020 National Science and Technology Awards Conference was held in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Professor Gong, as the first person, won second prize of the State Natural Science Award for “Research on the Method and Mechanism of Heterogeneous Catalyst Structure Defect Regulation”.
The State Science and Technology Prizes are the highest honors conferred by the national government of the People’s Republic of China in science and technology, in order to recognize citizens and organizations who have made remarkable contributions to scientific and technological progress, and to promote the development of science and technology.
The Catalysis process has been a research hotspot and difficulty in chemical industry for a long time, which has driven trillions of dollars of related industries. Professor Gong focused on the micro issues in the catalytic process, and systematically studied the effects of electronic structure, defect structures, and spatial confined structure on the catalytic process in the surface/interface. A coordinated control strategy for the electronic structure and catalytic activity of the catalyst surface/interface was proposed; a method for controlling the defect position of the catalyst was established, and the mechanism for the formation of the catalytic defect structure was revealed. The above results provide an important scientific basis and new directions for the design, development and application research of efficient catalytic systems.