[The pictures and texts are original by the official account of "Chinese Scientists" (ID: Chinses_Scientises). Please apply for authorization for forwarding.

[The pictures and texts are original by the official account of "Chinese Scientists" (ID: Chinses_Scientises). Please apply for authorization for forwarding. 】

2019 marks the 15th anniversary of the entry into force of the Stockholm Convention in China. On November 6, the Foreign Cooperation and Exchange Center of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment held a relevant commemorative meeting in Beijing. The reason why China was able to successfully become a party to the Stockholm Convention was that there was an indelible contribution to a heroine. She is Xu Xiaobai, one of the founders of the discipline of environmental chemistry in my country and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

(Photo by Xu Xiaobai, picture from Chinese scientists)

Stockholm Convention As a global action to protect human health and the environment from persistent organic pollutant (POPs), it is the third international convention that human society has mandatory emission reduction requirements to protect the global environment after the Convention on the Protection of the Ozone Layer and the Framework Convention on Climate Change.

POPs refer to chemical substances synthesized by humans that can last forever in the environment, accumulate through the biological food chain (network), and have harmful effects on human health. It has the characteristics of high toxicity, durability, bioaccumulation, and long-distance migration.

As a developing country, the implementation of the Stockholm Convention means that China can take advantage of the international opportunity to pay attention to the POPs issue and make full use of the financial mechanisms (i.e., the Global Environment Facility) and technical assistance mechanism stipulated in the Convention, greatly reducing the huge investment required by my country in the work of phase-out and reducing POPs and eliminating POPs pollution. In 1995, Xu Xiaobai, commissioned by the State Environmental Protection Administration, carried out preliminary investigations on persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in China and a series of research work, providing important scientific information for the Chinese delegation to participate in international conventions on persistent organic pollutants.

Based on the research results of years of working on persistent organic pollutants and the current status of environmental pollution and ecological impacts of persistent organic pollutants in China, she organized industry experts to jointly submit a letter to the government, calling on China to join the Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants as soon as possible. Then, the Stockholm Convention officially came into force for China on November 11, 2004.

Strict self-discipline in the road to study

1928, Xu Xiaobai was born in a scholarly family in Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province. Her father, Xu Zufan, was talented and had strict requirements on the children at home. This also allowed her to develop a personality that was smart, good at learning, pursue truth, resolute and hardworking, and strict in self-discipline in a good family cultural atmosphere since childhood.

In 1936, Xu Xiaobai moved to Shanghai with his parents. In the turbulent era, Shanghai was controlled by the Japanese and puppet governments. His father was unwilling to work for the Japanese and puppet regime, so he resigned and stayed at home with his idle taxes. What was accompanied by the family's financial difficulties.

(Xu Xiaobai in childhood, the picture comes from the Chinese Scientist Museum)

1

1941, she studied at Nanyang Model Middle School . In order to go to school, she worked part-time to study and worked as a tutor to maintain her life and study. In 1944, she graduated with the second place in the school and was admitted to National Jiaotong University . As a girl who prefers science, she chose to study chemistry.

In June 1944, the first graduate of Nanyang model female high school took a group photo (the first on the left in the third row is Xu Xiaobai)

During her studies, she adopted the method of " to complete the one-day goal to arrange sleeping ", which often studied hard all night long. At that time, even her roommate laughed at: Xu Xiaobai was very hard-working in his study. No matter when, even when he woke up at night, she would grab the book and read it. It is precisely because of this that her grades have always been among the best in the class.

Xu Xiaobai has regarded Madam Curie as a spiritual idol for women who pursue science and independent spirit, hoping to make achievements in the future like Madam Curie on the road of science.

embarked on the road of chemistry research in 1948, and then she worked as an assistant at the Institute of Chemistry in the Central Research Institute of China in Shanghai. The director of the then director Wu Xuezhou wanted her to work with Liu Dagang , but Liu Dagang was still in the United States at that time, so she asked her to study with analytical chemist Liang Shuquan . At the beginning, she was engaged in research on the determination methods of tungsten, molybdenum, sulfur, etc. Under Mr. Liang's teaching, she mastered the basic methods of chemistry research and laid a solid foundation, and benefited a lot.

(Xu Xiaobai is doing experiments, the picture comes from the Chinese Scientists Museum)

In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, all walks of life were in trouble, and the path of scientific research was even more so. Since 1950, she officially joined the chemist Mr. Liu Dagang and is engaged in research on inorganic chemistry and physical chemistry. Later, her research direction changed many times due to the needs of the country. She had never complained. It can be said that she would go wherever the country needed it.

At that time, the country has the need to quickly develop luminescent materials independently. Liu Dagang led young scholars such as Xu Xiaobai to trial the X-ray fluorescent materials based on zinc sulfide and cadmium. After systematically examining the dependence of fluorescent materials on their composition and preparation conditions, as well as the law of fluorescent spectral distribution and parasitol antimony and manganese, the research team developed a new fluorescent material of calcium halogen phosphate for the first time, and successfully promoted it to Nanjing Light Bulb Factory, making outstanding contributions to the development of my country's fluorescent lighting industry.

1956, Xu Xiaobai took a photo with colleagues from the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The second right of the second row is Xu Xiaobai

1958, in order to develop and utilize the resources of rare earth , she developed a systematic study of binary high-temperature compounds of rare earth elements, and completed the preparation, reaction mechanism, processing of finished components, physical and chemical properties, and their chemical behaviors of a series of rare earth borides and several rare earth sulfides. In the early 1960s, she studied some chemical problems in nuclear fuel pretreatment and post-treatment in order to meet the needs of the national atomic energy mission.

Xu Xiaobai

Her work was recognized by the state. In 1959, she was awarded the honorable title of "National March 8th Red Flag Bearer" as one of the representatives of the "Heroes Association". Later in 1978, she became one of the winners of the Major Technical Achievement Award of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Transformation and Circulation Institute, ushering in a turning point in scientific research

1

1975, and she just resumed her work from the "Cultural Revolution". She hopes that she can go to the Shanghai Institute of Silicate to continue her inorganic chemistry research. However, the state transferred her to the newly established Institute of Environmental Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Even though she was middle-aged at that time, even though everything needed to start over, she still joined the work without hesitation.

Before the new work arrangement, she did not waste any time and began to translate the book "Solid Quantum Chemistry" written by A.A.Levin according to her own arrangement. Most of this book is about physics knowledge and has little to do with her work, but she is still immersed in the translation world of this book. During this period, she not only refers to the English translation and Russian originals of the book, but also invites colleagues from the academic circle.

(Xu Xiaobai is in the laboratory of the University of California, Berkeley, the picture comes from the Chinese Museum of Scientists)

1

1982 was officially published, which not only means that Xu Xiaobai has officially bid farewell to the research on physical chemistry and -free mechanization , but also shows that she has officially started a new journey of environmental chemistry.

In the process of professional conversion, she strives for all opportunities to learn. There was a rare opportunity in 1980. She knew her destiny and resolutely embarked on the journey to the University of California, Berkeley as a visiting scholar, and studying in the United States was also something she dreamed of in her youth.

At the University of California, she cooperated with a professor at the University of California to address the question of whether diesel engine exhaust emissions will have an adverse impact on human health. She separated thousands of fractions from organic solvent extracts from a large number of particulate matter emitted by diesel engines under the guidance of biotoxicity tests through four chromatographic columns, and selected active fractions in Ames tests, and identified the compounds they contained using various advanced chromatographic and mass spectrometry methods.

After more than two years of hard work, she first reported in 1981 that the known 2- nitro fluorenocarcinogens were detected from diesel engine particulate matter, and then reported in detail more than 50 direct conjugates such as nitro polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (NO2-PAHs) and oxygen-containing NO2-PAHs, which may be greater than polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. This is a major breakthrough in the research on particulate matter emissions from diesel engines. It was one of the important basis for relevant U.S. departments at that time to decide whether to implement diesel engineization, and it also has important reference value for air pollution research in other countries.

In 1984, Xu Xiaobai and others also detected carcinogens such as nitrofluoranthracene and nitropyrene in the atmospheric dust in Beijing, providing the content of NO2-PAHs in the winter and summer dust in several sampling points in Beijing, and also detected NO2-PAHs in the China Industrial carbon black , including the strong carcinogen dinitropyrene. This proposed improvement suggestions for carbon black process conditions and pointed out that coal-fired smoke exhaust is also an important source of NO2-PAHs pollution.

(2005 "Environmental Process Mechanism of Typical Chemical Pollutants" won the second prize of the National Natural Science Award, the picture comes from the Chinese Scientist Museum)

In terms of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, she studied the distribution and change patterns of PAHs in atmospheric dust in different regions of Beijing, and the research results of the relationship between PAHs emissions and coal-fired furnace types and coal types: household small coal furnaces are the main pollution source of PAHs and the most harmful. Coal is a good energy-saving and pollution-reducing measure at present.

In addition, she also evaluated the PAHs sewage discharge of diesel water blending and oxidized asphalt exhaust gas treatment.

environmental chemistry has accumulated

Faced with the prosperity of the country's economy and the deepening of reform and opening up, the relationship between people and the environment has become increasingly prominent. Out of scientists' sense of responsibility and morality and learning from existing experiences and lessons from abroad, Xu Xiaobai believes that if we do not pay attention to environmental protection, our country will repeat the detour of "pollution first, then governance" experienced by developed countries, so environmental protection is urgent in our country.

Since the late 1980s, Xu Xiaobai has been engaged in interdisciplinary research on environmental chemical behavior, ecological toxicology and distribution surveys of toxic organic compounds. He has achieved a series of results in the management and control of environmental toxicants, filling the gaps in my country.

1991, the "Eighth Five-Year National Major Fund Project" led by her, "The Changes and Ecological Effects of Typical Chemical Pollutants in the Environment" was studied, and various reactions of some typical chemical pollutants in the environment and their impact on the structure and function of the ecosystem, bringing important practical value to the national environmental decision-making departments, environmental supervision departments, etc. This project won the first prize in the Natural Science Award of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1999, and she was the first winner.

Xu Xiaobai was presenting a report

In view of her breakthrough in environmental estrogen research, she was hired as a member of the National Technology Coordination Group for Persistent Organic Pollutants in 1999. Not only that, she has done a lot of work in air pollution, water pollution, etc., and has also proposed practical and effective prevention and control plans. Her scientific research results have played an important role in environmental protection and other aspects.

The candle is still unsatisfied with the desire to turn into ashes

"A person who strives towards his goal, the world will also give in to him " is her life motto, and it is also a portrayal of her struggle for the rest of her life.

(Academician Xu Xiaobai’s 80th birthday, the picture comes from the Chinese Scientist Museum)

00 years are unforgivable. From the time of her youth to her twilight years, she has been working hard. In her eyes, being elected as an academician is to keep working, and work is to be a pastime. She worked until the moment when her body did not allow herself to work harder, and died on March 27, 2014.

Reference materials:

[1] Hu Xiaojing, Huang Shaokai, Huang Yanhong. Love Chemistry Return to the Nature - Xu Xiaobai's Biography [M]. Beijing: China Science and Technology Press, Shanghai: Shanghai Jiaotong University Press, 2018.

[2] Environmental Chunxiao Analysis Begins White Congratulations to Academician Xu Xiaobai's 80th birthday [J]. Environmental Chemistry, 2007(03): 271-274.

[3] Excellent achievements The heroines - warmly congratulate Academician Xu Xiaobai, a famous chemist in my country, on the 80th anniversary of his birth [J]. Analytical Chemistry, 2007(05):615-616+621-622.

[4] Yan Hongfei, Jie Zhitao. Female chemist who creates a beautiful environment - a record of Academician Xu Xiaobai, the Center for Ecological Environment Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences [J]. China Science and Technology Award, 2006(08):30-34.

[5] Hu Xiaojing, Huang Yanhong - Recalling Academician Xu Xiaobai and her Chemistry Life (Chinese Scientists Museum)