When lunar soil samples brought back by Chang'e-5 were spun into continuous fibers, it was more than a lab spectacle—it signaled the potential for 'in-situ resource utilization' in future lunar base construction. Academician Zhu Meifang's team at Donghua University achieved the world's first continuous melt-spinning of simulated Chang'e-5 lunar soil, opening new avenues for extreme-environment materials. Behind this breakthrough lies a four-decade transformation of China's fiber industry from follower to leader.
From Civilian Fibers to Strategic Materials
In the 1970s, China's chemical fiber industry was technologically weak, and ordinary people could only dream of wearing a crisp, durable shirt. In 1984, Zhu Meifang began with fine-denier polypropylene fiber 'Montese', leading her team to tackle fundamental molecular structure theories and gradually solve 'bottleneck' problems in civilian textiles. Today, China accounts for over 70% of global synthetic fiber production, achieving a leap from low-end to high-end, from large to strong.
A key driver was the 'organic/inorganic hybrid fiber concept'. By fusing different materials at the nanoscale, the team achieved '1+1>2' multifunctional transmission, pushing fibers towards functional, intelligent, and green development. Related technologies have been fully industrialized in leading enterprises such as Hengyi, Defulen, and Hengan, developing 15 categories of products including general-purpose fibers, smart fibers, protective materials, and high-performance carbon fibers, breaking foreign barriers and driving nearly 100 billion yuan in new output value.
Frontier Breakthroughs and Industrialization
Targeting international frontiers in brain science and intelligent interaction, the team developed an integrated dynamic polymerization spinning process, building the world's first continuous production line for hydrogel optical fibers. This enables precise control over fiber diameter, mechanical properties, and optical performance, yielding new fibers with excellent biocompatibility and light-guiding properties. This innovation promises more flexible and safer base materials for smart wearables and biomedical sensing.
Following a post-Spring Festival inspection by Shanghai's top leaders, the team leveraged Songjiang District's 100-billion-yuan advanced materials industrial cluster to establish the Songjiang Sci-Tech Innovation Base of the State Key Laboratory for Advanced Fiber Materials. Focusing on AI, biomedicine, and extreme-environment materials, the base employs a 'open competition' mechanism. To date, 47 projects are undergoing concept validation and pilot-scale amplification, injecting new momentum into Shanghai's advanced materials sector.
Industrial Impact and Insights
Zhu's team's practice demonstrates that lab results only create value when transferred to production lines. For chemical fiber enterprises, this means deep industry-academia collaboration is no longer a slogan but a core path to competitiveness. Fiber innovation is shifting from 'import substitution' to 'original leadership'; companies that fail to integrate frontier technologies risk falling behind in the next industrial upgrade.
Meanwhile, extreme-environment materials like lunar soil fibers, though not immediately commercializable, provide technical reserves for niche segments such as specialty fibers and high-performance composites, potentially spawning new markets in the long run.