Published by: WUST News Edited by: Wang Xiangyu

WUST News - On the morning of July 23, the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Wuhan University of Science and Technology (WUST) hosted the 31st session of the Tao Zhu Lecture Series in the conference room on the 5th floor of Teaching Building 4 at the Qingshan Campus. Professor Germán Sastre from the Instituto de Tecnología Química (ITQ-CSIC) in Spain was invited to the WUST for academic exchange. During his visit, Professor Germán Sastre toured the experimental platform of the Interdisciplinary Institute of NMR and Molecular Sciences (NMR-X), WUST, and delivered an academic lecture titled Why Some Zeolites Cannot Be Obtained as Aluminosilicates? The lecture was chaired by Professor Zheng Anmin, Dean of the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. More than 40 participants attended the event, including research team leaders, early-career faculty members, and graduate students.

In his presentation, Professor Sastre emphasized that the use of organic structure-directing agents (OSDAs) has played a crucial role in synthesizing new molecular sieves, laying important groundwork for molecular sieve catalysis. Early computational studies often described OSDA stability within zeolites based on van der Waals interactions, though these were typically limited to pure silica zeolites and could not be directly extended to aluminosilicate zeolites. Professor Germán Sastre introduced a thermodynamic parameter closely related to the enthalpy of formation. By incorporating the energy contribution of the synthesis gel into the overall equation, he improved the treatment of van der Waals interactions between the zeolite and OSDA and the total energy of the system. This approach enables the comparison of zeolite stability across varying silicon-to-aluminum ratios, including pure silicon. The lecture was both innovative and accessible, sparking considerable interest among the audience.

At the conclusion of the event, Professor Germán Sastre wrote an inspirational message in Chinese for the graduate students, which translates to: "to open a new chapter, first light the lamp of the heart". Dean Zheng Anmin presented him with a Tao Zhu Lecture Series commemorative certificate. The occasion was commemorated with a group photo involving faculty and students.

Speaker biography:

Germán Sastre is a Research Scientist at ITQ (Valencia). He completed a postdoctoral research with Sir Richard Catlow at the Royal Institution of Great Britain in 1995–1996. Since then, at ITQ, he has employed computational chemistry methods to simulate zeolite synthesis, catalytic processes, adsorption/diffusion phenomena, and the physicochemical properties of microporous materials—including zeolites and metal-organic frameworks, and emerging materials such as MXenes—employing big-data screening algorithms. Since 2013, he has been a member of the Structure Commission of the International Zeolite Association and has served as a scientific chair and evaluator for research funding agencies including FWO, NCN, GACR, and EPSRC.

For more information, visit his website

https://gsastre.webs.upv.es