On October 28, 2023, the Third Workshop on Frontiers of Applied Surface and Colloid Chemistry was held in the lecture hall of the Institute of New Concept Sensors and Molecular Materials at Shaanxi Normal University. More than 100 experts and scholars from China, UK, Australia, Singapore and Russia, INCSMM faculty members, graduate students and foreign students participated in the workshop.

At the opening ceremony anchored by INCSMM vice dean Prof. Ding Liping, INCSMM dean Prof. Fang Yu, and Prof. Xue Dong, director of SNNU Department of Science and Technology and dean of the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, delivered speeches respectively, welcoming the guests, teachers and students, and wishing the workshop success.

The presentations were divided into two sessions. In the first session in the morning, Prof. Tony D. James from Department of Chemistry, University of Bath, UK, Prof. Wai-Yeung Wong of Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Prof. Chuan Zhao of University of New South Wales, Australia, and Prof. Xiaogang Liu of Singapore University of Technology and Design, presented reports on Fluorescent Chemosensors: The Past, Present and Future; Recent Advances of 2D metal-complex Nanosheets; Single-Atom Catalysts for Electroreduction of Metal CO2 and Descriptors for Intramolecular Bending and Hydrogen Bonding-Induced Quenching in Functional Fluorescent Materials, respectively. The reports cover the development and development of fluorescence chemical sensors, new research progress of two-dimensional metal graphite deficiency, single atom catalysis and its application, and non-covalent bond effect of functional fluorescent materials, etc. The speakers interacted with the teachers, students present after the reports. Finally, ACS Publications editor Dr. Meng Li gave a presentation titled Mastering the Art of Scholarly Publishing with ACS Journals, explaining the key points to pay attention to when writing English manuscripts. She also provided practical skills for manuscript processing, dealing with editors and reviewers, and answered questions about novelty and appeals, and put forward suggestions. The first session of the presentation was moderated by Prof. Ding Liping and Prof. Peng Haonan.

For the second session of the afternoon, Prof. Nugzar Mamardashvili of Russian Academy of Sciences; Prof. Mikhail K. Beklemishev of Moscow State University; Senior Researcher Antina Lyubov Anatolevna of Krystov Institute of Solution Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, and Prof. Usacheva Tatyana and Dr. George Gamov of Ivanovo State University of Chemical Technology presented reports on Design of Tetrapyrrole Architectures with Well-Defined Geomctries and Optimization of the Process of Thin-Film Structures Formation by Them; Reaction-Based Optical Sensing Strategy: Use of Aggregation and Redox Reactions of Carbocyanine Dyes; BODIPY-Based Fluorescence Materials; Selective Host-Guest Complex Formations of Crown Ethers and Cyclodextrins with Biologically Important Molecules and Ions in Mixed Solvents; and Fluorescence of Pyridoxal 5’-Phosphate Hydrazones in Solid Phase: Shedding Light on the Differences in Emission of Substituted Heterocyclic Derivatives. Their reports focus on molecular assembly and its fluorescence sensing behavior. The second session was moderated by Prof. Liu Kaiqiang and Assoc. Prof. Liu Taihong.

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 Overseas Expertise Introduction Center in Applied Surface and Colloid Chemistry, the Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Applied Surface and Colloid Chemistry, the Institute of New Concept Sensors and Molecular Materials and the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering of Shaanxi Normal University.