On December 3-4, 2020, the 112th Forum on Science and Technology Frontiers of Academic Divisions of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) with the theme of Ionic Liquid Science and Engineering was held in Beijing. The forum was sponsored by the Academic Divisions of CAS, organized by the Division of Chemistry, CAS and Academic Works and Publications Committee, CAS, and co-organized by Institute of Process Engineering, CAS, Innovation Academy for Green Manufacture, CAS, Science China Press, the Ionic Liquid Committee of the Chemical Industry and Engineering Society of China，and Green Energy and Environment (GEE). Academician Zhang Suojiang, the director of Institute of Process Engineering, CAS, serves as the executive chairman of the forum. Academician Zhang Yukui from Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, CAS, academician Han Buxing from Institute of Chemistry, CAS, academician Xu Chunming from China University of Petroleum (Beijing), academician Li Jinghong from Tsinghua University, Prof. Wang Jianji from Henan Normal University, Hua Wei, vice chairman and secretary-general of the Chemical Industry and Engineering Society of China, Bai Yi, vice president of China National Petroleum & Chemical Planning Institute, and more than 100 experts and scholars from over 50 universities, institutes and enterprises in China attended the forum.
　　At the beginning, academician Zhang Suojiang warmly welcomed the participating experts and expressed his gratitude for their coming. He pointed out that ionic liquids, as a new generation of green media and functional materials, provided a major opportunity for novel green reaction/separation system of the material transformation. It has attracted great attention from both academia and industry, and become a research hotspot for current international scientific frontier and engineering. Therefore, he hoped that the integration of the ionic liquids with other disciplines can be promoted via this forum, together with the development of cutting-edge scientific theories and major technological changes in ionic liquid disciplines.
　　During the forum, both conference reports and panel dialogues were hold for communication, including 14 plenaries, 14 theme reports and 5 theme dialogues. The participating experts discussed the latest achievements and cutting-edge scientific progress of ionic liquids in the fields of energy, materials, biomass, simulations, green reaction/separation processes, etc. from various perspectives including fundamental research, technological innovation and industrial applications. With novel format, active atmosphere, and in-depth discussion, the forum has brought experts from both the field of ionic liquids and crossing fields and industries to exchange ideas, which fully highlighted the characteristics of interdisciplinary and integration of industries, universities and institutes. At the same time, the book compilation of "Ionic Liquid Series" was also discussed during the meeting.
　　Finally, academician Zhang Suojiang concluded that the forum provided a platform for both academia and industries to exchange ideas and learn from each other, presenting the flourished development of ionic liquid field and in-depth collaboration across multiple disciplines. It is placed great expectations that the innovation of academic research and conference exchanges should be further strengthened to cooperate with the government, enterprises and scientific research institutes to jointly promote the construction of a national platform for ionic liquids, and accelerate the innovation and development of ionic liquid fundamentals and advanced engineering technologies!

Forum on Ionic Liquids Science and Engineering

Some photos of the conference report

Part of the dialogue and discussion photos