Just after New Year's Day, the new area enterprises Auberwind Environmental Technology (Nanjing) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Auberwind") of the security products production base, a busy scene. Put into production before the finishing work is still in progress, the market orders have arrived first.

On the one hand is the construction of "sprint run", on the other hand is the order "in advance". This slightly "super-speed" rhythm, can not help but let a person curious: the establishment of this young enterprise only more than a year, what kind of "trump card", can let the market so favorable, can not wait to cast a vote of confidence?

The answer to this story lies in a miraculous material known as "solid smoke" and in the return of a scientist's dream that spanned three decades.

01 What can aerogels do?

If Oberwind's entrepreneurial journey is made into a movie, then "aerogel" is undoubtedly the main character throughout. This material has the double halo of "the world's lightest solid" and "the strongest heat-insulating material", and has already made its mark in aerospace, industry and other high-end fields.

However, the Oberwind team has assigned an unprecedented role to this "star of the material world":air purifierThey have expanded the application boundary of aerogel from the vast starry sky to every breath in people's daily life."We are the first in the world to industrialize the use of aerogel to remove gaseous pollutants."Hang Bo, chairman of the company, said.

For example, formaldehyde and second-hand smoke, which are well-known in our daily life, are all gaseous pollutants. With the core technology of self-research, the team transformed the aerogel material and developed a variety of air purification products, which can firmly capture the harmful gases in the environment like a "smart magnet".

You may ask, there are already a variety of air purification technologies on the market, such as activated carbon and photocatalysis, why do we need to find another way to develop aerogel?

Hang Bo laughs as he unveils that the modified aerogel, theNot only is the surface area larger, can adsorb impurities far more than ordinary materials; its pore size can also be "free to stretch", the size of the pollutants have nowhere to go.

More importantly, the teamIn the process of aerogel generation, specific chemical components are injected into the aerogel through the core technology, so that it can change from passively waiting for rabbits to actively and accurately pursuing pollutants as "hunters".In this way, the air is purified with much greater precision and speed.

Based on this cutting-edge technology, Oberwind quickly developed, in just one year, theTwo "fist products". One for emergency protection, specialty industrial environmentsHigh Performance Protective MaskIts innovative product design has recently been assessed by a panel of experts to have reached the international leading level; the other one is suitable for home and office scenarios.Air Purifier, aiming to remove indoor air pollution at source.

02 From "academic mecca" to "entrepreneurial hotbed"

There is no precedent to refer to, the road of new material research and development is much more difficult, talk about why we still want to insist on doing industry, Hang Bo slowly said to us a "scientist's dream".

A native of Nanjing and an internationally renowned biomedical expert, Hang Bo left his hometown in 1988 to further his studies in the United States, where he graduated from his doctoral program and joined the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where he later served as the Laboratory's Chief Scientist.

You know, this laboratory has more than 4,000 employees, the birth of 17 Nobel Prize winners, more than 80 members of the U.S. Academy of Sciences, is a veritable "academic mecca".

Here, his group focused on a concept that was little known at the time:third-hand smokeThe term "smoke" does not refer to the smoke that fills the air. This "smoke" does not refer to the smoke that permeates the air, but rather to the invisible tobacco residue that adheres to walls, carpets, clothing, and even human hair and skin and continues to release toxicity after smoking. In addition, some of the ingredients react with other pollutants in the air to create even more toxic compounds.

"Even when the smoke clears, the hazards stay in the home for a long time, and are especially dangerous for crawling infants and toddlers." Hangbo said. The research, which was later classified asOne of the "35 Breakthroughs" and "90 Achievements" since the establishment of the LaboratoryThe

Recognition of scientific research results brings academic satisfaction, but Hang Bo's heart is gradually rising another layer of desire. "As a scientist, the greatest fulfillment should not stop at papers, but lies in transforming knowledge into tangible social benefits." Hang Bo recalls that since 2010, he has been actively promoting "social transformation" by publicizing the dangers of third-hand smoke in the U.S. and China, and his work has even directly contributed to the legislative process in two U.S. states.

However, after the warning, where is the action? When the public began to realize the seriousness of the problem, Hang Bo thought further ahead: it is not enough to tell people that there is a danger, we should go one step further and develop "tools" that can remove the harm.

In the process of searching for "tools", he got the support of an old friend, Chinese material scientist, Prof. Shen Jun of Tongji University. Prof. Shen Jun has been working in the field of aerogel for many years, and when Hang Bo put forward the bold idea of "whether this new material can be used to capture gaseous pollutants", the two of them hit it off and immediately began to explore the aerogel material in the adsorption of tobacco smoke.

scientific conception

Needs industrial soil to take root

May 2024

As the new zone and the Yangtze River Delta National Innovation Center/Jiangsu Industrial Research Institute

advancedFirst batch of "allocation and investment" projects

Oberwind landed in the central business district of the new district

Starting a new journey of industrialization

"The innovative atmosphere and pragmatic policies of the new district are important reasons why we chose this place." Hang Bo lamented.Only a few months after landing, R&D was accelerated and the first product prototype was launched while the first social capital was successfully injected., validating the market's confidence in the technology.

Today, Oberwind has grown from two scientists hand in hand, into a team of dozens of people, is located in the new area of the construction of the production base is also countdown, is expected to be completed and put into production in the first half of the year.

In the future, when the first gaseous pollutant removal products developed by virtue of aerogel materials go from the new district to the world, the big proposition about the environmental industry will also be here, turning a new page of development.