From August 25th to 28th, 2025, the Fourth Workshop on Frontier of Applied Surface and Colloid Chemistry was held at Shaanxi Normal University.

On the morning of August 26th, about 100 experts and scholars from China, the United Kingdom, Australia, Russia and Japan, as well as teachers and graduate students and international students from Shaanxi Normal University and Xi’an Jiaotong University, attended the opening ceremony held in the lecture hall of the Institute of New Concept Sensors and Molecular Materials, which was presided over by INCSMM vice dean Prof. Ding Liping.

At the opening ceremony, Prof. Liu Chenghui, dean of the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, delivered a speech welcoming the guests, teachers and students, and wishing the workshop success.

The workshop presentations were divided into two sessions each in the morning and afternoon. In the first morning session, Prof. Atsuhiro Osuka from Kyoto University, Japan/Hunan Normal University. China and Prof. Chuan Zhao from the University of New South Wales, Australia presented reports titled Synthetic Porphyrinoid Chemistry and Capture and Mitigate the Degradation of Non-Platinum Catalysts in Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells, respectively. The session was chaired by Prof. Liu Feng from Xi’an Jiaotong University.

In the second session of the morning, Prof. Hongbo Zeng from the University of Alberta, Canada, Prof. Tony David James from the University of Bath, UK, and Prof. Ma Jiani from Shaanxi Normal University presented reports titled Advancing Soft Materials and Interfaces through Reversible and Tunable Molecular Interactions, Fluorescent Chemosensors and Imaging Agents, and Photochemical Reaction Mechanism Studies on Selected Organic Molecules, respectively. The session was chaired by Prof. Peng Junxia from Shaanxi Normal University.

In the first afternoon session, Prof. Nugzar Zhoraevich Mamardashvili from the Russian Academy of Sciences, Prof. Usacheva Tatyana from Ivanovo State University of Chemistry and Technology, Russia and Prof. He Gang from Xi’an Jiaotong University presented reports titled “Design and Sensor Properties of Langmuir-Blodgett Porphyrin Films for Substrates with Different Properties”, “Inclusion Complex Formation of Crown Esters and Cyclodextrins in Aqueous Phase: Thermodynamic Description and Application Prospects”, and “Photofunctional Colloids and Interfaces Based on Chalcogenyl Pyrrolidones,” respectively. The session was chaired by Prof. Peng Haonan from Shaanxi Normal University.

In the second afternoon session, Prof. Qichun Zhang from the City University of Hong Kong, Prof. Xue Dongxu and Assoc. Prof. Liu Taihong from Shaanxi Normal University presented reports titled “Roadmap Towards Single Crystals of Covalent Organic Polymers/Frameworks”, “Gas Storage and Separation-Driven Controllable Synthesis of Metal-Organic Frameworks”, and “NIR Two-Photon Absorption and Ultrafast Excited State Dynamics of Quadrupolar Photosensitizers”, respectively. The session was chaired by Prof. Liu Kaiqiang from Shaanxi Normal University.

In the end, Prof. Fang Yu delivered a concluding speech, reflecting on the international academic exchanges and advancements since the inaugural Frontier Forum on Applied Surface and Colloid Chemistry in 2014, and hoped that “May there be forever friendship and no distance between friends. Take good care and never forget to meet as often as you can.”

After the reports, the participating experts and scholars also engaged in academic activities such as free discussion and exchange, and visited the INCSMM laboratories and SNNU campus.

The workshop was jointly sponsored by the Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Applied Surface and Colloid Chemistry, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of New Concept Sensors and Molecular Materials, Xi’an Key Laboratory of CBRN Smart Sensing, SNNU School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering and XJTU Institute of New Concept Sensors and Molecular Materials.