A prestigious award for Prof. Bao-Lian SU

Prof. Bao-Lian Su will assume the presidency of the International Mesostructured Materials Association (IMMA) for the second consecutive term (each term lasting 2 years). The congress brought together several hundred scientists from over 20 different countries. Prof. Bao-Lian Su had already been elected President of the IMMA Association in 2021 at the 11th International Congress on Structured Materials. He was the first Belgian to receive this honor. He received the prestigious "IMMA Award" for his significant contribution to the development of mesostructured materials. He is the first Belgian to have received this honor. This new term as IMMA President ends in 2026.

The congress focused on applications such as energy storage and conversion, biotechnology, applications in catalysis, environmental aspects such as adsorption/separation and gas purification.

Birth of the International Mesostructured Materials Association (IMMA)

Depuis la découverte d'une famille de matériaux mésoporeux : MCM-41, MCM-48 et MCM-50 par les scientifiques de Mobil en 1992, un énorme effort de recherche a été généré. Les matériaux mésoporeux ont immédiatement constitué un domaine d’intérêt important. Une structure mésoporeuse réduit sensiblement le nombre de mailles cristallines du matériau, ce qui modifie significativement ses propriétés chimiques. Vu cette importante avancée dans le domaine, il devenait primordial de créer une organisation rassemblant tous les chercheurs de ce domaine afin d'établir une nouvelle plateforme et de promouvoir les échanges scientifiques dans le domaine. C’est ainsi que l’IMMA a été créée en 2000.

Prof. Su has created a new family of mesoporous materials recognized by the scientific community under the name "CMI". This is a family of mesoporous materials based on silica and metal oxides synthesized from a highly innovative "polyoxyethylene alkyl ether" surfactant under very mild conditions.

Prof. Su's team was the first to use this type of surfactant as a mesoporous structure-directing agent. The team also pioneered the field of hierarchical porous materials by discovering the formation phenomenon that led to the creation of a new family of hierarchical porous materials with three or four different porosities of interconnected sizes incorporated into a single solid material. Currently, this new family of materials constitutes a new area of research of great interest in the field of energy conversion and storage (batteries and photocatalysis) but also in the field of CO2 capture and recovery by catalysis.

Prof. Bao-Lian Su is a member of the Functional Structured Materials (FSM) cluster of the Namur Institute of Structured Matter (NISM) and the Chemistry of Nanomaterials Unit (UCNano) of the Department of Chemistry, which brings together the Chemistry of Inorganic Materials (CMI) and Chemistry of Applied Materials (CMA) laboratories.

BatFactory - Towards the batteries of the future

Recently, Prof. Bao-Lian Su organized the launch of the new BatFactory project portfolio, funded under the Walloon Recovery Plan.

BatFactory aims to produce batteries and battery components for stationary electrical energy storage and collective applications. The project aims to leverage the Walloon region's R&I expertise to support the development of local companies. At the same time, it aims to produce high-performance materials for instrumented storage batteries using intelligent, environmentally-friendly processes that enhance circularity. The project is part of the stimulus package and reflects the researcher's commitment to innovation and sustainable energy solutions.