Profile

Developer of ultrafine-grinding pretreatment and countercurrent ultrasonic gum-extraction equipment for Eucommia rubber.

Story

Xin Zhenxiang has taught at Qingdao University of Science and Technology since 1987 and formerly served as Dean of the School of Polymer Science and Engineering. He has long worked on rubber processing optimization and Eucommia rubber extraction and modification. To address the problems of low rubber content, heavy pollution and abundant residue in Eucommia rubber extraction, he proposed ultrafine-grinding pretreatment technology and integrated supercritical CO2, ultrasound assistance and countercurrent extraction processes, co-developing with enterprises an efficient, energy-saving, safe and environmentally friendly equipment set for natural Eucommia rubber extraction that achieves zero-emission cyclic extraction with a single solvent.

On the application side, he advocates that Eucommia rubber should not follow the old path of substituting natural rubber. He led his team to pre-disperse graphene and carbon nanotubes in Eucommia rubber to prepare high-value functional composites, and conducted research on foamed Eucommia rubber shape-memory composites, advancing Eucommia rubber toward high-end and functional specialty applications such as high-performance green tires, medical splints and damping products.

Milestones

• In 2012, reported new progress in natural Eucommia rubber extraction processes and equipment at the 2012 China Eucommia Industry Development Forum
• In December 2018, delivered the report 'Extraction and modification of Eucommia rubber and its application in functional materials' at the 2018 China Eucommia Industry Development Summit Forum in Xianyang

Key Contributions

• Proposed ultrafine-grinding pretreatment technology that severs the Eucommia vascular system to concentrate rubber filaments; co-developed with Henan Hengruiyuan a continuous countercurrent ultrasonic gum-extraction equipment set, achieving extraction rates of 8% from leaves and 11% from bark
• Leads the National Natural Science Foundation of China project 51273098 and the National Key R&D Program topic 2022YFD2301202, conducting research on Eucommia rubber shape-memory materials
• In 2018, published research on foamed CaCO3/Eucommia rubber shape-memory composites in Acta Materiae Compositae Sinica
• Holds patents including 'A washing device for separating Eucommia rubber from Eucommia bark'; published over 120 papers with 16 granted invention patents
• Led the completion of research on two-phase extraction of Eucommia rubber and equipment design