Functional materials are the core in the field of new materials and play an important role in promoting and supporting the development of high technology. In the field of global new materials research, functional materials account for about 85%. With the advent of the information society, special functional materials play an important role in promoting and supporting the development of high technology. They are key materials in information, biology, energy, environmental protection, space and other high-tech fields in 2 1 century, and become the focus of research and development in the field of new materials in all countries of the world, and also the focus of strategic competition in high-tech development in all countries of the world.
In view of the important position of functional materials, countries all over the world attach great importance to the research of functional materials technology. From 65438 to 0989, more than 200 scientists in the United States wrote the report "Materials Science and Materials Engineering in the 1990s", and proposed that five of the six kinds of materials supported by the government belong to functional materials. From 1995 to 200 1, special functional materials and product technologies account for a large proportion in the biennial report of national key technologies in the United States. In 200 1 year, the seventh research report on technology prediction released by the Institute of Science and Technology Policy of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan listed 100 important topics that affected the future, of which more than half were new materials or topics that depended on the development of new materials, and most of them were functional materials. Both the Sixth Framework Plan of the European Union and the National Plan of Korea list functional materials technology as one of the key technologies supported in their latest scientific and technological development plans. All countries attach great importance to the outstanding role of functional materials in developing national economy, safeguarding national security, improving people's health and improving people's quality of life.
Development status of new functional materials abroad
At present, international functional materials and their application technologies are facing new breakthroughs, such as superconducting materials, microelectronic materials, photonic materials, information materials, energy conversion and energy storage materials, eco-environmental materials, biomedical materials and molecular and atomic design of materials. Developing functional materials technology is becoming an important means for some developed countries to strengthen their economic and military advantages.
Superconducting materials Practical superconducting materials, such as NbTi and Nb3Sn, have been commercialized and applied in many fields, such as nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (NMRI), superconducting magnets, large accelerator magnets and so on. SQUID, as a model of superconducting weak current application, plays an important role in the measurement of weak electromagnetic signals, and its sensitivity is beyond the reach of any other non-superconducting devices. However, due to the low critical temperature of conventional low-temperature superconductors, they must be used in the expensive and complicated liquid helium (4.2K) system, which seriously limits the development of low-temperature superconducting applications.
The appearance of high temperature oxide superconductors has broken through the temperature barrier and raised the application temperature of superconductors from liquid helium (4.2K) to liquid nitrogen (77K). Compared with liquid helium, liquid nitrogen is a very economical refrigerant with high heat capacity, which brings great convenience to engineering application. In addition, all high-temperature superconductors have a relatively high upper critical field [Hc2 (4K) >: 50T], which can be used to generate a strong magnetic field of more than 20T, which just overcomes the shortcomings of conventional low-temperature superconducting materials. It is precisely because of these huge economic and technical potentials brought by the intrinsic characteristics of Tc and Hc2 that a large number of scientific workers have been attracted to use the most advanced technical equipment to conduct extensive and in-depth research on the superconducting mechanism, physical properties, chemical properties, synthesis process and microstructure of high Tc materials. High-temperature oxide superconductors are very complex multi-component systems, and important problems involving many fields will be encountered in the research process, including condensed matter physics, crystal chemistry, process technology and microstructure analysis. Some of the latest technologies and means in the field of materials science research, such as amorphous technology, nano-powder technology, magneto-optical technology, tunnel microscopy, field ion microscopy, etc., have been used to study high-temperature superconductors, many of which involve the frontier issues of materials science. The research work of high temperature superconducting materials has made important progress in single crystals, thin films, bulk materials, wires and applications.
As an important part of high technology, biomedical materials have entered a new stage of rapid development, and their market sales are increasing at an annual rate of 16%. It is predicted that within 20 years, the share of biomedical materials will catch up with the pharmaceutical market and become a pillar industry. Bioactive ceramics have become the main direction of medical bioceramics; Biodegradable polymer materials are an important direction of medical polymer materials; The research focus of medical composite biomaterials is strengthening and toughening biomaterials and functional biomaterials, and the research of HA biomaterials with therapeutic function is also very active.
Energy material solar cell material is a hot spot in the research and development of new energy materials. The conversion rate of multilayer composite solar cells developed by IBM is as high as 40%. About 50% of the US Department of Energy's total funds for hydrogen energy research are used for hydrogen storage technology. The research of solid oxide fuel cells is very active, focusing on battery materials, such as solid electrolyte membrane and cathode materials, and organic proton exchange membrane used in proton exchange membrane fuel cells. These are the current research hotspots.
Eco-environmental materials Eco-environmental materials are a new field formed in the research of international high-tech new materials in the 1990s. Their research and development are very active in developed countries such as Japan, the United States and Germany. The main research directions are as follows: ① Material technologies directly related to environmental problems, such as biodegradable materials technology, CO 2 gas curing technology, SOx and NOx catalytic conversion technology, waste recycling technology, environmental pollution remediation technology and cleaning in material preparation and processing. (2) Developing environmentally compatible materials that can make the economy sustainable, such as bionic materials, environmental protection materials, substitute materials for harmful substances such as freon and asbestos, and green new materials; ③ Environmental coordination evaluation of materials.
Intelligent materials Intelligent materials are the fourth generation of materials after natural materials, synthetic polymer materials and artificial design materials, and are one of the important directions for the development of modern high-tech new materials, which will support the future high-tech development, make the boundary between functional materials and structural materials gradually disappear in the traditional sense, and realize structural functionalization and functional diversification. Scientists predict that the development and large-scale application of intelligent materials will lead to a major revolution in the development of materials science. Many technological breakthroughs have been made in the research and development of smart materials abroad, such as British Aerospace's steel wire sensor, which is used to test the strain and temperature on the aircraft skin; Britain has developed a shape memory alloy with fast response, which has a life of one million cycles and high output power. When it is used as a brake, the reaction time is only 10 minute. The application of intelligent materials such as piezoelectric materials, magnetostrictive materials, conductive polymer materials, electrorheological fluids and magnetorheological fluids in the aviation field has achieved a large number of innovative results.
Present situation and gap of functional materials development in China
China attaches great importance to the development of functional materials, which account for a large proportion in national key projects, "863", "973" and national natural science foundation. In the Ninth Five-Year Plan and the Tenth Five-Year Plan, special functional materials are also listed as "cutting-edge materials for national defense". The implementation of these scientific and technological actions has made China achieve fruitful results in the field of functional materials. With the support of the "863" program, new fields such as superconducting materials, flat panel display materials, rare earth functional materials, biomedical materials, hydrogen storage materials, diamond films, high-performance solid propellant materials, infrared stealth materials, material design and performance prediction have been opened up, and a number of research achievements close to or reaching the international advanced level have been achieved, occupying a place in the world. The main performance indexes and production technology of Ni-MH battery and Li-ion battery have reached the advanced level abroad, which has promoted the industrialization of Ni-MH battery. Significant progress has been made in the research and development of functional ceramic materials. For chip electronic components, China has made a breakthrough in the research of high-performance porcelain materials, formed its own characteristics on low-burning porcelain materials and base metal electrodes and realized industrialization, making chip capacitor materials and components enter the world's advanced ranks; Remarkable progress has been made in the research and development and industrialization of high-grade NdFeB products, and some components and related technologies have obtained independent intellectual property rights; Functional materials have also made decisive contributions to national defense projects such as "two bombs and one satellite", "four major equipments and four satellites".
At present, the international research on functional materials is very active, full of opportunities and challenges, and new technologies and patents emerge one after another. Developed countries try to form a technical monopoly in the field of special functional materials through intellectual property rights, and try to occupy the vast market of China. This situation has aroused great concern in China. In recent years, China has strengthened patent protection in the fields of new rare earth permanent magnets, biomedicine, eco-friendly materials, catalytic materials and technologies. However, we should see that the innovative research on functional materials in China is not enough at present, and the number of patent applications, especially the number of international original patents, is still far from commensurate with China's status. The functional materials in China also have shortcomings in system integration, which need to be improved and developed.
In the next five to ten years, China's economy, society and national security will have a huge demand for functional materials, and functional materials are the key new materials related to whether China can successfully achieve the third-step strategic goal.
Development focus
Preparation and application technology of high temperature superconducting materials
Rare earth functional materials
New energy conversion materials and technologies (energy materials)
Biomedical materials
Green Olympic Engineering Materials and Technologies
Material and technology of separation membrane (seawater, chlor-alkali membrane)
Printing (plate making, photosensitive) and display (organic light emitting diode) materials
High-tech transformation of traditional industrial technology
Key technology selection
Energy materials
① Solid oxide fuel cell:
Solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) is a new type of green energy device, which has higher conversion efficiency and energy-saving effect than proton exchange membrane fuel cell, can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 50% without producing nitrogen oxides, and has become a key new energy technology in developed countries. However, the working temperature of the solid oxide fuel cell studied at present reaches 800 ~ 900℃, and the material preparation of its key components has always been a bottleneck restricting the development of the solid oxide fuel cell. The key technologies to be broken through are: a) high-performance electrode materials and their preparation technology; B) Preparation technology of novel electrolyte materials and electrode-supported electrolyte membranes; C) Optimal design of battery structure and its preparation process; D) Study the structure, performance and characteristics of the battery.
② Commercialization of silicon-based solar cells with photoelectric conversion efficiency greater than 18%;
A low-cost, large-area and commercialized silicon-based solar cell and its components have been developed, and the photoelectric conversion efficiency is greater than 18%.
③ Comprehensive utilization of solar energy (photoelectric, thermoelectric and heat exchange) and its coupling technology with wind power generation; Establish and implement a back-end focused solar photovoltaic, thermoelectric and heat exchange system with the overall utilization efficiency of 15%, and establish a practical distributed ground power station coupled with solar comprehensive utilization and wind power generation, which can be connected to the grid for power supply.
Rare earth materials
① Rare earth catalytic materials
② Rare earth permanent magnet materials
Breakthrough the key industrialization technologies of sintered rare earth permanent magnet materials with high performance (N50), high uniformity, high working temperature and low temperature coefficient and bonded rare earth permanent magnet materials with high performance (magnetic energy product of 20MGOe).
③ White LED energy-saving lighting system with high brightness and long service life.
Low-cost, high-brightness and long-life white LED energy-saving lighting system has been industrialized and entered the homes of ordinary people.
Biomedical materials
① biochip;
② Biocompatible, degradable or renewable substitute materials for human soft and hard tissues;
③ Blood purification materials and devices with molecular recognition and specific immunity.
Eco-environmental materials
① Organic membrane separation technology: application and industrialization of organic membrane with desalination efficiency of 50% in seawater (or saline-alkali water).
② Material and technology of sand-fixing vegetation;
③ Energy-saving and environment-friendly building materials and their key technologies:
Breaking through the fluidized cement firing technology with a daily output of 2000 tons, its unit energy consumption and dust emission are lower than those of the current new dry method; Realize the industrialization of producing float architectural glass by pure oxygen combustion.
Special functional material
① Inorganic separation catalytic membrane: break through the key preparation technologies of inorganic separation catalytic membrane (oxygen permeable membrane, molecular sieve membrane and hydrogen permeable membrane), and establish demonstration production devices such as catalytic conversion of natural gas to synthesis gas and liquid fuel, direct conversion of natural gas to ethylene, ethanol from biomass raw materials and hydrogen production from natural gas.
② Large-size optical diamond films;
③ Organic magnetic materials: the key technology to break through the intrinsic organic magnetic materials.
④ Sensitive materials and sensors.