Memorial Hall of Xu Guangxian - “Father of Chinese Rare-Earth Metal” Opened in Shangyu

The opening ceremony of the memorial hall for Xu Guangxian, father of Chinese rare-earth metal and the inauguration of his statue were held in Shangyu District, Shaoxing City. At the ceremony, Ma Weiguang, Secretary of the Shaoxing Municipal Party Committee and Xu Fang jointly unveiled the memorial hall. Academician Xu's student representatives Yan Chunhua and Gao Song jointly unveiled the statue.

Xu Guangxian, chemist, professor of Peking University, member of Chinese Academy of Sciences. He was called the “father of Chinese rare-earth metal”. In 1972, Xu received an important mission from the government - separating praseodymium (Pr) and neodymium (Nd), two of the most inseparable elements.

At that time, China was a low-end resource exporter who didn’t master any technology that can process and produce high purity rare-earth metals. Chinese government and companies had to import fine-processed rare-earth metals with a much higher price - usually dozens or hundreds of times the price they export raw material to foreign companies. By studying the separation of Pr and Nd, China could break the dominance and meet its need for high-quality rare-earth metal resources by ourselves. Xu changed his focus of study again without a second thought.

Separating Pr and Nd was not easy. Most producers at that time were still using the traditional ion exchange method, which was time-consuming and costly. Xu followed the traditional and most-adopted way as well. But in the meantime, he decided to find a new method that can enable systematic extraction. He worked very hard. Finally, a theory called “push and pull system” which “proved to be a failure” by U.S scientists gained Xu’s attention. He tried to figure out the reasons why the theory didn’t work out and managed to build “countercurrent extraction theory” based on their failure.

Xu’s theory increased the purity of rare earth metals to 99.99% and the separation factor between Pr and Nd from less than 2 to 4. But Xu didn’t stop there. Xu and his team continued their study. They came out with a model to simulate the tedious “funnel shaking” process. The method can calculate optimized parameters through computer programing – reducing the time cost of the process from at least 100 days to within one week. This “One-step Enlargement Expert System” helped realize large-scale production of high purity rare-earth metals in factories.

With this model being widely adopted in Chinese factories, China quickly occupied a 90% share of the total world production of high purity rare-earth metals by 1995.

Xu Jun, secretary of the Shangyu District Committee, said that Academician Xu Guangxian is a famous chemist and educator in China, the founder of China's rare earth chemistry, and the winner of the country's highest science and technology award. The opening ceremony of the memorial hall and the inauguration of the statue of Academician Xu Guangxian was held this time. In addition to deeply cherishing the memory of the famous scholar, remembering and learning from his noble spirit of patriotism.

During his lifetime, Academician Xu Guangxian had always been concerned about the development of his hometown. The memorial hall in Shangyu could help to better inherit and carry forward his patriotic and self-reliant spirit in the new era.

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