A Visit with Analytical Chemists in the People's

During the first two weeks of June , 1980, I visited the People's Republic of China with a group of administra­tors and faculty from Seton Hall Uni­versity. An invitation to visit China had been extended to Seton Hall by Wuhan University, so tha t the two in­st i tut ions could work out an exchange agreement. Our itinerary, arranged through the Chinese Ministry of Edu­cation, also included an extended stay in Beijing, where several Seton Hall s tudents are studying at the Inst i tute of Foreign Languages. Members of the delegation also visited several other cities, such as Guangzhou (formerly Canton) , Tianjin, Hangzhou, and Shanghai .

During this tr ip, I made a special ef­fort to meet with analytical chemists. I t proved possible for me to visit with the members of the analytical chemis­try groups at Wuhan, Beijing, and Nankai Universities, three of the 11 key universities administered by the federal government in China.

The R E P O R T tha t follows gives my impressions of these three universi­ties, their faculties, s tudents , and in­s t rumentat ion. It cannot provide a complete picture of academic analyti­cal chemistry in the People's Republic since I had no opportuni ty to visit any of the numerous specialized technical insti tutes, many of which have a high s tandard of analytical research, or any of the hundreds of colleges and uni­versities administered at the provin­cial level. It does, however, give an overview of the type of work being done at universities comparable in prestige in China to the best universi­ties in the U.S. In the process of pre­paring this article, I have tried to in­clude specific information about the faculty members I met, their research and teaching interests, and the analyt­ical ins t ruments made in the People's Republic. I hope this will give you a bet ter insight into what some of your counterpar ts in tha t country are doing.

Wuhan

Wuhan is an industrial city of more than three million people. It is located about 750 km west of Shanghai at the

The author and some new aquaintances at Nankai University

confluence of the Chang Jiang (Yangtze River) and the Han Shui (Han River), one of its main tribu­taries, and is the capital of Hubei Province. I t was formed out of three ci t ies—Hankou and Hanyang to the west astr ide the Han, and Wuchang to the east of the Chang Jiang.

Wuhan University (Wuhan Daxue) is located on the Luojia Hill over­looking the East Lake in the Wuchang pa r t of the city. It was founded in 1913, initially to train teachers, but it became a comprehensive university in 1928. I t currently has 15 depar tments , divided between the sciences and arts, 1600 faculty (about 850 with s tatus comparable to the s tandard faculty ranks in the U.S., the rest holding po­sitions as research or teaching assis­tants) , and about 4000 students . Most of the s tudents are undergraduates, graduate work having been resumed only in the past few years following the end of the Cultural Revolution and the rule of the Gang of Four.

T h e chemistry depar tment at Wuhan University has some 300 facul­

ty and staff and 500 students . All of the basic fields of chemistry are of­fered and there are special research groups in areas such as boron chemis­try and electrochemistry.

T h e analytical chemistry section has 50 faculty and staff, including a professor, two associate professors, and 13 lecturers, and 30 undergrad­uate and seven graduate s tudents . Professor Zeng Yun-e is head of this section. His research interests are cen­tered on the lanthanide elements; he is using UV-visible emission and absorp­tion spectroscopy, X-ray spectrome­try, and chemical reagents for the de­terminat ion of these elements in ores and alloys. I should note tha t the lan-thanides are not at all rare in China, and they were the center of substan­tial research programs at all three uni­versities I visited.

The analytical section has particu­larly strong groups in spectroscopy and in electrochemistry. In the former area the emphasis is primarily on atomic spectrometry. I saw several high quality emission spectrometers

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Republic of China

Report

Roland F. Hirsch Chemistry Department Seton Hall University South Orange, N.J. 07079

being used to study lanthanide im­purit ies in ores and alloys. A locally built, inductively coupled plasma (ICP) coupled with a 1-m grating spectrograph made in Beijing was being applied to determinat ion of trace metal impurities in water and aerosol samples. One of the lecturers in this area, Tiang Zhu Tzen, is cur­rently studying with Professor V. Fas-sel a t Iowa State University. There was also an AA spectrometer, model WYZ-401, which was measuring Pb , Cr, and Cd in water a t the 0.1 ppb level using a graphite furnace.

A material t ha t is of considerable interest to the Chinese analytical chemists I met is the natural lacquer used on woods and artwork. One of the labs in Wuhan had a Shimadzu UV-300 spectrometer equipped for de­rivative spectrometry. Among the problems being studied with this in­s t rument were the determination of phenols in lacquer and the measure­ment of enzymes present in cured lac­quers.

The electroanalytical group is under

the direction of associate professor Chao tsao-fang. Among his interests is the graphical presentat ion of equilib­rium and quanti ta t ive data, and he gave me some chart papers he had de­signed for plotting equilibrium da ta and for solving s tandard addition problems, as well as articles on the use of Gran 's method for t i trat ions.

The depar tment has several instru­ments for modern voltammetry, in­cluding a pulse polarograph (model JMJ1) made in Wuhan, single sweep oscillographic polarographs (model JP-1A) made in Sichuan province, and a Radiometer P04 Polariter. Many methods have been developed for use by industry, such as for determinat ion of Rh and P t in ores and Co and Cr in water. Using catalytic polarographic methods, the detection limits obtained in this laboratory were about 0.1 ng/mL for P t and Cr and 0.05 ng/mL for Rh and Co.

The analytical section also has sev­eral GC laboratories, with special em­phasis on natural lacquer analysis, an X-ray diffraction laboratory, and a

microscopy laboratory. Lack of t ime prevented me from obtaining more in­formation on the work being done in these labs.

Wuhan University is in the midst of a substantial expansion tha t will bring its s tudent body above 6000 by 1985. The analytical chemistry group will undoubtedly share in this expansion as it is involved in many areas tha t are of great practical importance.

Beijing Beijing, the capital city of the Peo­

ple's Republic, is located in the northeastern par t of China. In addi­tion to being the political center of the country, and a magnet for tourists, Beijing is the home of numerous key universities and insti tutes. The report of the U.S. Pure and Applied Chemis­try Delegation (7) describes a dozen of them. Many are located on large cam­puses in the northwestern par t of Beij­ing, such as Qinghua Daxue, the lead­ing technical university, and Beijing Daxue, the outstanding general uni­versity. I spent an afternoon with the analytical chemists at the latter insti­tution. As in the U.S., Chinese univer­sities often have shortened names or nicknames, and so I will refer to Beij­ing University as "Be Da."

The university is more than 80 years old and has long been a source of trained persons for leadership in Chi­nese life. T h e chemistry depar tment is one of the largest at the university, with 800 s tudents (about 70 of them at the graduate level) and some 300 fac­ulty and staff. The nine sections of the depa r tmen t are inorganic, organic, an­alytical, physical, high polymers, ca­talysis, stable isotopes, colloids, and structural chemistry (especially X-ray crystallography). They are spread over four buildings.

The analytical chemistry section at Be Da was founded in 1952 and is one of the older specialties in the depart­ment . It has 40 faculty and staff, five of whom are at the rank of professor or associate professor, and about 120

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Wuhan University campus. Chemistry building is at center of photo

Professor Yan Du (center) with two graduate students in the atomic absorption laboratory at Beijing University

Wuhan University lecturer with Zeiss grating spectrometer

s tudents , 10 of whom are graduate s tudents . Prior to 1966 the main em­phasis in research was on classical techniques, such as emission spectros­copy, electroanalytical methods, and theory of coprecipitation. Since 1974 most of the modern techniques have been added.

Graduate s tudents are trained for teaching and research positions in a three-year program. The first three se­mesters are devoted to courses; the re­mainder of the time is spent on thesis research. T h e graduates do not receive a degree such as the P h D but receive a certificate on completion of the pro­gram. This seems to be the s tandard practice in the People's Republic. An­alytical s tudents take several courses outside the specialty, including élec­

tives such as quan tum chemistry and computer programming. The latter course teaches "6912," a Chinese-de­veloped language similar to BASIC and usable on all Chinese-built computers.

Undergraduate s tudents take a quant i ta t ive analysis course in their th i rd semester and an instrumental analysis course in the third year. The former includes gravimetric, volumet­ric, and photometric methods, with 60 hours of lecture and 140 hours of labo­ratory. It is taken by s tudents in other majors such as biology, geology, and medicine, while the instrumental course is only for chemistry majors. The undergraduates also all do a re­search project in their final semester of study; I spoke with a number of these s tudents and have a good im­

pression of the caliber of research in which they are participating.

Since 1976, Be Da also has had a program of courses for industrial em­ployees. These persons come to the university for six-week full-time peri­ods of study. Analytical chemistry is among the areas included in this pro­gram.

During my visit I met all the senior analytical faculty except Professor Gao Xiao-Xia. She had met with the Pure and Applied Chemistry delega­tion in 1978. She was ill, and I regret I could not meet her.

Professors Cheng Yung-hsi and Yan Du specialize in spectroscopy. Major emphasis in Professor Cheng's re­search (he also teaches a course in ap­plied statistics) is placed on the lan-

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thanides and their determination as major and also trace components. The lab has up-to-date instrumentation, including a Shimadzu UV-300 spec­trometer purchased in 1980, a Jarrell-Ash grating emission spectrometer purchased in 1976, and several atomic absorption instruments. In the latter group were a Perkin-Elmer 403 with a specially constructed quartz-tube fur­nace, an East German (Zeiss) instru­ment and two made in China—the model GGX-1 made in the Beijing Geological Instrument Company and an instrument constructed at the uni­versity. Professor Yan is in charge of this area.

Several laboratories are devoted to electroanalytical chemistry. In the area of ion sensitive electrode poten-tiometry, projects involve, among oth­ers, measurement of fluoride in heavy water and determination of gold in mineral samples using a locally devel­oped gold selective electrode. The electrode sensor is a hydrophobic solu­tion of tetraphenylarsonium tetrachlo-roaurate immobilized in PVC, and the research is studying the effect of vary­ing the electrode composition on sen­sitivity and stability of the electrode. The instruments being used included the PHS-2 analog pH meter from the Second Analytical Instrument Factory in Shanghai and the PXJ-1 digital readout meter which has 0.1 mV read­ability.

Voltammetry is used for measure­ment of traces of the lanthanides. For example, oscillographic polarography of catalytic waves allows determina­tion of europium at the ΙΟ - 6 Μ level, using xylenol orange as the reagent, as well as scandium and yttr ium. Among the instruments in this lab were the model 883 polargraphic analyzer made in China and the LKB Polarolyzer.

Professors Sun and Kuan both are specialists in gas chromatography. Re­search projects are in progress involv­ing both applied problems and funda­mental principles. Methods are being developed for residual dibromochloro-propane in peanuts and for organo­phosphorous pesticides. The latter project involves elimination of residu­al adsorption sites on the packings in order to reduce peak asymmetry. The relationship between peak width and retention time is being investigated using the multicomponent theory of chromatography. The question is whether a homologous series is re­quired for this relationship to be lin­ear. Among the gas chromatographs I saw was the SP2305, made in the Beij­ing Analytical Instrument Factory, which has TCD, FID, and ECD. I am told that more than 2000 of these in­struments are made each year. A re­cent purchase by this group was the LC-SY-01 liquid chromatograph, also

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Time was not sufficient for me to see much of the rest of the depart­ment, but I was shown an environ­mental analysis lab where chromium, arsenic, mercury, cyanide, and total phenols in wastewater and ground water were being determined, and a thermal analysis lab with differential thermal analyzers made in Shanghai and Beijing.

Tianjin: Nankai University

Tianjin (formerly spelled Tientsin! is a city of 4.5 million people located 100 km southeast of Beijing. It is a major industrial and port city and the home of several colleges and universi­ties, of which Nankai University is the most important. The city and univer­sity had suffered considerable damage in the earthquake that struck Tang-shan, 75 km to the east in 1976, and I saw several buildings being recon­structed or strengthened.

Nankai University was founded in 1919 (the late Premier Zhou Enlai was a member of the first class). It has an enrollment of more than 4000 stu­dents (5% at the graduate level) and 1500 faculty and staff. The chemistry department is one of the largest in the university, with more than 250 faculty and staff. It is divided into sections of inorganic, organic, physical, analyti­cal, environmental, and high polymer chemistry, with specialized institutes for areas such as organic structural theory, catalysis, and ion exchange resins.

During my stay in Tianjin I met with members of the analytical and environmental sections and visited their labs, as well as those in several related areas. I also had the opportu­nity to visit an ion exchange resin fac­

tory located on the campus. My hosts were Professor Dai Shugui of the envi­ronmental section and Engineer Cheng Guang Zhong, manager of the ion exchanger factory (his wife Wang XiaoLan is an organic chemist on leave at Seton Hall University), as well as Professor Gao Zhen Heng, chairman of the chemistry department and a theoretical organic chemist. Professor Shi Hwi Ming, head of the analytical section, was away at a con­ference in Xian during my visit, so I was unable to talk with her.

The analytical and environmental labs are well-equipped for teaching and research. Each has about 30 facul­ty and staff (some of the environmen­tal scientists are from other depart­ments such as physics and biology) and a like number of students in the analytical courses. The vice-director of the analytical section, Lu Shu Yin, has as her primary assignment the su­pervision of teaching. The instrumen­tal analysis course uses a text written by members of the Nankai University faculty and published in Beijing in 1978; the book seems comparable in level to Ewing's "Instrumental Meth­ods of Chemical Analysis."

The facilities for chromatographic research and analysis are found in sev­eral of the sections. The Elemento-organic Institute, for example, empha­sizes pesticide synthesis and uses gas chromatography for residue determi­nations. It has recently purchased a Shimadzu CS910 TLC scanner, along with the university's NMR, ORD, and IR instruments (the latter includes a microsampling device for 10-Mg quan­tities). Professor Yu Zhong Jian heads a GC and LC research group with a large variety of instruments, some adapted for capillary columns. The environmental section also is active in

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GC and LC, with a Perkin-Elmer Sigma 2GC with Sigma 10 data system used for pesticides measurements and a Carlo Erba 2101 Fractovap GC adapted for determination of orga-nomercurials, and the Chinese SY-01 LC for reverse-phase separation and determination of phenols.

There are extensive spectroscopic laboratories, primarily for elemental analysis. The emission spectroscopy labs have instruments imported from Germany and some made in China, such as the WSP-1 2-m monochroma-tor made at the Beijing Optical Instru­ment Factory, which is used for lan-thanide analysis. An ICP source, GP3.5-D1, made at the Singxian In­strument Factory in Shanghai will be used with the WSP-1 for environmen­tal analysis. Mr. Chen Xin Kun has written a book in Chinese, entitled "Principles and Applications of ICP Spectrometry," for use at the universi­ty. Many of the 280 references are to 1979 publications.

The atomic absorption instrumen­tation includes a Varian Techtron AA-6 used to determine heavy metals such as cadmium in seawater at the 0.1 ppb level (with electrochemical preconcentration onto a tungsten elec­trode followed by electrothermal at-omization). The WFD-Y2 AA from the Second Optical Instrument Facto­ry in Beijing is for flame-only opera­tion, while a modified WFD-Y2 is used to determine arsenic and antimo­ny by the vapor generation method (the WFD-Y3 AA includes a furnace atomizer). The analytical section also has a WYX-401 AA made in Shenyang, which is used to determine heavy metals in wastewater. The envi­ronmental section uses a model 590AA made in Shanghai for the determina­tion of mercury in environmental sam­ples.

The sections also have several labs for electrochemical analysis. Among the research instruments designed at Nankai University are a pulse polaro-graph and a microcoulometer. The lat­ter is now produced at the Tianjin In­strument Factory and is used for cou-lometric titrations, for example, for the determination of cyanide in water. The teaching labs have a wide range of instruments, such as oscillographic and DC polarographs and pX meters.

The ion exchange resin factory was built in 1958. It is a part of the univer­sity and is used for training advanced students. About a thousand metric tons of resins are sold each year. The staff has recently built and installed an automated control system for the plant. The research lab is investigat­ing areas such as polymer synthesis, substitutes for chloromethyl ether, and waste treatment for the factory. An applications lab works closely with industries in the region, with special

emphasis on wastewater treatment using ion exchangers, for example, in the electroplating industry. The facto­ry uses quite a variety of analytical techniques for quality control, re­search, and applications testing.

It was interesting to visit the Quan Ye Chang, the main department store in Tianjin, and find numerous elec­tronic instruments for sale as well as pH meters and gas chromatographs. I doubt that many American analytical chemists could go to their local de­partment store for similar service!

Conclusion

A few days is too short a visit to get an accurate picture of the overall state of analytical chemistry in the People's Republic of China. However, my im­pression is that our field is strong and that the Chinese are making rapid progress in catching up to the current state of the art in most key specialties. The faculty and students with whom I spoke are aware of current develop­ments in instrumentation and the practice of analytical chemistry, and are eager to learn.

Facilities are improving, and instru­mentation is good and available in in­creasing amounts at the universities. It should be noted that there are very few large instruments (NMR, mass spectrometers) in even the best uni­versities and institutes and that the use of such equipment is limited to a very few staff members. Also, small computers are very rare in the chemis­try departments, and few of the facul­ty and students have any opportunity to learn computer interfacing. This will undoubtedly change over the next few years.

It is a rewarding experience to visit the People's Republic. The people are unfailingly courteous, generous in the time they spend with you, eager to lis­ten to what you have to say. If you should travel to China, try to arrange

in advance to visit some chemists in your specialty. When you are there, by all means talk about your own work, but do make a special effort to learn about what your counterparts are doing. In this way you will start some warm friendships—and you will find it hard to take leave of your new friends at the end of your stay.

Perhaps you will also then recognize that while the laws of nature may be the same everywhere—a commonplace among scientists and laypeople alike—our body of scientific knowl­edge has been shaped by the cultures of the people who have built it. Al­though scientific facts know no na­tional boundaries, scientific under­standing is influenced by the language and culture of each practicing scien­tist. Hence, I think contact between Western and Eastern scientists is bound to lead to the improvement of science and technology in both cul­tures. We can gain from the perspec­tive of the Chinese scientists as much as they can gain from us.

In Wuhan, President Larry Murphy of Seton Hall University told our hosts that our mission was much like the building of the great bridge over the Chang Jiang at Wuhan, linking north­ern and southern China: to build bridges of understanding of each oth­er's cultures despite the distance that separates us. I am glad to have had the opportunity to work toward this goal through my visit and through this ar­ticle.

Acknowledgment

The author appreciates the assis­tance of Wang Xiao Lan and Yang Xiucen in the preparation of this ar­ticle.

References

(1) "Chemistry and Chemical Engineering in the People's Republic of China"; Bal-deschwieler, J., Ed.; American Chemical Society: Washington, D.C., 1979.

Roland F. Hirsch, associate professor of chemistry at Seton Hall University, is a graduate of Oberlin College and the University of Michigan. His research in­terests include gas and liquid chromatography, ion sensitive electrodes, and statistics. He is currently secretary of the Analytical Division of the American Chemical Society. In this photo, Dr. Hirsch stands before the Yangtze River Bridge in Wuhan.

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