The 2^nd International Conference on MXenes was held on 10-12 May, in Beijing University of Chemical Technology (BUCT), organized by State Key Laboratory of Organic-Inorganic Composites, College of Materials Science and Engineering, and Beijing Key Laboratory of Electrochemical Materials Process and Technology for Materials. The conference was chaired by Prof. Yury Gogotsi of Drexel University and Prof. Bin Xu from College of Materials Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology. More than 450 representatives from 14 countries including China, the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Iran, Qatar, Israel, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan attended the conference.

President Tianwei Tan was delivering an opening speech

The opening ceremony was held in the Science Hall of BUCT, on the morning of May 11^th. Prof. Liqun Zhang, Dean of College of Materials Science and Engineering, BUCT presided at the opening ceremony. President of BUCT, Prof. Tianwei Tan, an academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering, delivered an opening speech with warm welcome to all the national and international delegates on behalf of the university. He briefly introduced the history and academic characteristics of the university, and emphasized that the conference will be helpful for promoting communication and cooperation between the faculty and students at BUCT and the scholars at home and abroad. This will enhance the level of talent cultivation and scientific research, as well as facilitate promoting the internationalization of the university. He finally wished the conference a great success and all of the guests a pleasant stay in Beijing.

Prof. Yury Gogotsi, the chair of the conference, introduced the background and significance of the conference. Prof. Bin Xu, the host and co-chair of the conference, introduced the overall preparations for the event. Prof. Lixin Mao, Director of the International Exchange and Cooperation Department, Prof. Jing Zhao, Chair of the College Affairs Committee of the college of Materials Science and Engineering, Prof. Jieshan Qiu, Dean of College of Chemical Engineering, and Prof. Guangqing Liu, Dean of the College of International Education also attended the opening ceremony.

Photos of opening ceremony

Two-dimensional transition metal carbides (MXenes) are new 2D materials which combined the characteristics of both graphene oxide and graphene, and were first reported by Drexel University in the United States in 2011. Today, MXenes is under spotlight due to their superior properties in metallic conductivity, hydrophilicity and mechanical properties, and their applications are expanding day-to-day with most recognition achieved in energy, environment, catalysis, and biomedicine sciences. The 1^st International Conference on MXenes for Energy was organized by Jilin University in 2018, attracting more than 200 researchers. This 2^nd International Conference on MXenes was extended to all topics associated with MXenes research, including synthesis, characterization, structure and performance of MXenes, and their applications in energy storage and generation, electromagnetic interference shielding, antennas, transparent conductors, gas and pressure sensors, water purification, gas separation membranes, photo- and electrocatalysis, medicine, plasmonics and other fields. The conference invited Prof. Yury Gogotsi from Drexel University, Prof. Chong Min Koo from the Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Associate Prof. Masashi Okubo from the University of Tokyo, and Prof. Jieshan Qiu from BUCT to give plenary lectures. The conference had 4 forums covering the topic of Synthesis and Structure of MXenes, MXenes for Energy and Conversion, MXenes for Catalysis and Biomedicine, and MXenes for Environment, Optics and Electronics. The conference invited 12 keynote lectures, 24 invited lectures and 26 oral talks, and exhibited 142 posters. In order to provide more opportunities for young scientists and graduate students for academic exchange, the conference also arranged 21 One-Minute Presentation. Among many fabulous presentations, the conference bestowed 3 best 1-Minute Presentation awards and 10 outstanding poster awards.

Live photos of the conference

As a pre-conference activity, an editorial workshop was held with the theme of "High-end Publications and Illustrations in Scientific World" on the afternoon of 10^th May. The associate chief editors and editors of famous domestic and international journals, such as ACS Nano, Journal of Materials Chemistry A, Wiley, Nano-Micro Letters, were invited to present their multi-dimensional and multi-perspective opinions and suggestion on the methodological skills of writing a paper with logical structure, ideological elaboration, self-explanatory tables and figures, vivid graphs and diagrams, and concise language expression. Prof. Jing Zhao, Chair of the College Affairs Committee of the college of Materials Science and Engineering chaired the workshop and about 400 people from BUCT and delegates of the conference participated the workshop.

Photos of International Editorial Session

On the afternoon of 12th May, Prof. Zhongzhen Yu, associate Dean of the College of Materials Science and Engineering, presided the closing ceremony. Prof. Bin Xu, co-chair of the conference, announced the winners of the One-Minute Presentation Excellence Awards and the Excellent Poster Awards, then Prof. Yury Gogotsi was invited to join him to present the awardees. The chair of the conference, Prof. Yury Gogotsi gave concluding remarks and announced the host of the 3rd conference on MXenes. Finally, the conference ended with warm applause.

 

Photos of closing ceremony

The conference received a lot of attention from academic and many media platforms. The Nature website posted the notice of the meeting (https://www.nature.com/natureevents/science/events/881712nd_International_Conference_on_MXenes). Wiley website, Fresh Power, Energy Scholars and other media publicized and reported this conference. The domestic English SCI journal, Chinese Chemical Letters, will publish a special issue for this conference, and Nano-Micro Letters welcomes the conference to recommend excellent papers to be published in their journal.

The organization of the 2^nd International Conference on MXenes received utmost praise from both Chinese and foreign delegates. The conference, being proved to be a good academic exchange platform for scholars, would not only facilitate exchange and collaboration between colleagues at home and overseas but also promote the development and construction of material discipline.

Conference group photo