Abstract: The speaker will use two examples of industrialized technology inventions to describe how to effectively combine and apply the two different disciplines of material chemistry and civil engineering, and talk about the stories of commercializing the research products. (1) Mixing cement with ice water to mass produce nanoparticles (size <5 nm), which could be used to prepare a series of hydrogels with super elasticity, adsorption and water swelling properties, applied in electronics, biological materials, agriculture, and civil engineering. (2) Low-cost, nanoparticle-stabilized foam that can keep stable for years, which could be used to mix with cement paste to prepare lightweight, high-strength, fire-resistant and thermally insulated foam concrete. The “nano-foam concrete” has been widely used in prefabricated building materials and cast-in-place construction projects.

Biography: Prof. Guoxing SUN received his Ph.D. degree in civil engineering from The Hongkong University of Science and Technology in 2015, and then worked for Nano and Advanced Materials Institute (NAMI), Hongkong. In 2017, he joined University of Macau, where he developed his career starting from assistant professor to associate professor, and was responsible for the industrialization of the new materials. He has conducted 20+ research grants of more than 4 million USD, and led a research group of more than 50 PhD students and Postdoctoral fellows, some of whom have been full professors in well-recognized universities.

Prof. Sun’s research focuses on polymer nanocomposites and construction materials. He discovered a simple way for mass producing 5 nanometer particles by just using normal cement and ice water, and designed a series of high-performance polymer nanocomposite hydrogels enhanced by these cement-released nanoparticles. In 2024, the research work was personally awarded the First-Class Prize in Technological Invention by Mr. Sam Hou Fai, Chief Executive of the Macao SAR.

Contributed to industrialization, Prof. Sun invented a nanoparticle-stabilized foam, which can be simply mixed with cement slurry to fabricate strong light-weight foam concrete. The nano-foam concrete can be 2-5 times stronger or 40% lighter than the relevant market products. It has been widely used and saved 15-40% of cement usage in various construction projects of 15 cities all around the world, such as the largest land port of China, Zhuhai-Macao Hengqin Port Comprehensive Transportation Hub, and Macau Cross-Sea Bridge.

Prof. Sun was reported by China Central Television (CCTV-1, CCTV-4 and CCTV-13) for several times. He is also the recipient of the China National Excellent Young Scientists Fund (2021), Macau Science and Technology Award (2024 and 2022), Building Science and Technology Award issued by China Building Materials Federation (2018). He published over 150 papers in referred journals with total cited times over 7000, and was recognized as World’s Top 2% Scientists in the past two years.