10/6/2025 Taylor Parks
Written by Taylor Parks
MechSE Teaching Assistant Professor Jiajun He recently won first prize in the Microtrac Scientific Challenge 2025.
Launched by the analytical instrument manufacturer Microtrac, the challenge was designed to empower researchers and innovators dedicated to solving pressing environmental issues. This year’s challenge focused on gas adsorption, a topic that has long been among He’s areas of expertise.
“We were truly impressed by the creativity and dedication reflected in the many submissions we received from across the globe,” Microtrac shared in a statement on its challenge website. “Each project highlighted not only the diversity of scientific approaches but also a shared commitment to building a more sustainable future.”
He won the first prize alongside a research team from the CNRS Institut Jean Lamour in France. The first-place winners each received a BELSORP MINI X gas adsorption analyzer—one of the company’s products.
He’s proposed project focuses on designing and fabricating functional porous carbon material from sustainable sources. Porous carbon can be used to adsorb carbon dioxide gas, whether ambient or from direct sources such as combustion exhaust. The saturated material can then be used as a catalyst for converting the adsorbed molecules into usable products, such as formaldehyde or methane, by introducing an energy source like plasma.
“The porous carbon can come from different sustainable sources,” He explained, noting that he has found food waste to be a viable source. “By properly selecting the source material and designing the synthetic processes, we can fine-tune the properties of the porous carbons, such as the surface area, pore size distribution, and surface chemical functionalities.”
The first-prize adsorption analyzer is a welcome addition to He’s lab. With it, he can fill pores, whether on a fruit peel or a polymer-derived synthetic material, with nitrogen gas and then use the volume of gas adsorbed by the material to calculate the amount of viable surface area—in other words, the extent to which the material can accommodate gas adsorption. He can also use it to obtain the pore size distribution of the material.
“I’ve been longing for this type of machine,” he said. “I plan to use it to characterize materials that I will synthesize in the future.”
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Jiajun He is the executive editor for Gas Science and Engineering and a review editor for Frontiers in Energy Research.