Media

HKU led project "Excited States of Metal Complexes:
Basic and Practical Researches" awarded
State National Basic Research Program funding

05 Feb 2013

A research project led by Professor Chi-Ming Che, Director of State Key Laboratory of Synthetic Chemistry at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) to investigate the excited states of metal complexes has been awarded a grant of RMB 34million from the National Basic Research Program (973 Program), organized and implemented by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China.

The project is the second one that the HKU Shenzhen Institute of Research and Innovation ("HKU-SIRI") has successfully applied from the Central Government since its establishment in March 2011.  Professor Che is the project’s Chief Scientist. He will lead a team of about 100 scientists and engineers from Hong Kong and the Mainland on the project entitled "Excited States of Metal Complexes: Basic and Practical Researches", which aims to tackle the critical problems on 'The Relationship between Molecular and Electronic Structures and Excited-State Properties of New Functional Materials', and develops application-oriented frontier basic researches on 'Clean Energy, Environmental Protection and Resource Utilization'.

A kick-off meeting of the project was held today (February 5) in Shenzhen. Professor Che, and Academicians and experts of the Advisory Group for the National Basic Research Program Professor Tong Zhenhe and Professor Chen Xiaoming attended the meeting.

The main purpose of this 973 project is to use excited states of metal complex materials to solve two major issues faced in China’s sustainable economic development: energy shortage and environmental pollution.  The long lived excited states of metal complex materials have played an important role in the fields of solar energy utilization (clean energy), carbon dioxide reduction (resources utilization), phosphorescent OLED (energy saving and environmental protection), which is closely related to our daily life.  With the applications in these important areas, metal complex materials have huge development opportunities and business prospects in basic sciences and industrial applications.  The project enables the development of cheaper metal complex materials, breaks the blockade of foreign patents, and enhances the international competitiveness in the fields of emissive materials, photovoltaic materials and photocatalytic materials.  These provide a solid foundation material for the independent development of China's related industries.

Last year, the research project led by Professor Li-Hai Tan, Director of State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science at HKU to investigate the neurophysiological basis of Chinese language users was awarded under the program, which is also the first 973 program grant awarded to a Hong Kong tertiary institution and led by a Hong Kong scientist since the 973 Program was launched in 1997.

For the abstract of "Excited States of Metal Complexes: Basic and Practical Researches", please visit: http://www.cpao.hku.hk/media/abstract.doc

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 A kick-off meeting of the 973 project is held in Shenzhen

Professor Chi-Ming Che, Director of State Key Laboratory of Synthetic Chemistry at HKU

Professor Chi-Ming Che, Director of State Key Laboratory of Synthetic Chemistry at HKU