The Mineral-based Energy and Environment Materials Group/Laboratory of China University of Mining and Technology (ME2 Group/Lab), is based on the unique advantages of our university in the fields of mining, resources, energy, and environment, and the discipline of materials science and engineering. It has evolved from the Mineral Materials Group(2012-2020) and the Mineral Nanomaterials Group (2020-2025). The team has been recognized by the School of Materials and Physics of China University of Mining and Technology (CUMT[2020] No. 31), and has a Mineral Materials Testing Center (SMSP [2023] No. 18). It is also an important part of the Research Center of Mineral Materials and Solid Waste Utilization of China University of Mining and Technology (CUMT[2019] No. 7).
The team currently has 5 teachers, all of whom have doctoral degrees and overseas visiting experience. They are mainly engaged in research on mineral energy and environmental materials development, special mineral synthesis, and solid waste resource utilization. It has undertaken a number of projects including the National Natural Science Foundation, the Jiangsu Natural Science Foundation, the Key Laboratory Open Fund, and has published more than 300 high-level papers in well-known journals such as Advanced Functional Materials, Journal of Power Sources, Applied Clay Science, and Acta Physico-Chimica Sinica.
The team currently has a number of equipment including infrared spectrometers, differential thermal-thermogravimetric analyzers, specific surface area aperture analyzers, atomic absorption spectrometers, gas chromatographs, UV-visible photometers, Zeta potential meters, and mineral photocatalytic analysis systems. Combined with the college's electronic universal testing machine, injection molding machine, field emission scanning electron microscope, X-ray diffractometer, etc., and the university's modern analysis and computing center's field emission transmission electron microscope, nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer, X-ray photoelectron spectrometer, focused ion/electron beam dual beam microscopy system (FIB), field emission electron probe microanalyzer (EPMA), laser ablation-plasma mass spectrometer (LA-ICP-MS), Raman spectrometer, high-performance computing cluster and other large-scale equipment, it can meet most of the structure, performance testing and calculation in the process of mineral materialization and application.
The team currently undertakes "Basics of Materials Science", "Physical Chemistry of Materials", "Mineral Materials and Processing", "Computational Materials and Materials Simulation Technology", "Polymer Materials Physics", "Engineering Materials", "Electronic Materials", "Mechanical Properties of Materials", "Introduction of Materials" and other professional basic courses, presided over a number of school-level and college-level teaching reform projects, guided a number of national and school-level college student innovation plan projects, materials science and engineering professional recognition internship, production internship, graduation thesis, course design, guided undergraduate graduation design many times won provincial and school-level excellence.
The team has established close ties with the Polytechnic University of Valencia in Spain, Griffith University in Australia, University of British Columbia in Canada, Pennsylvania State University in the United States, Luleå University of Technology in Sweden, as well as the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Nanjing University, Central South University, China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing), China University of Geosciences, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Zhengzhou Institute of Mineral Resources, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences and other institutions.
Looking to the future, the team will closely combine the characteristics and advantages of China University of Mining and Technology, actively strengthen cooperation with sister units, focus on the key issues of materialization of minerals in energy and environmental applications, and carry out traditional development such as mineral identification, mineral purification, and mineral compounding, to create a distinctive teaching and scientific research integrated team.
