Recently, 2020 press conference on statistical results of Chinese sciencepapers announced the Report of China Outstanding Papers and selected the best 100 China academic papers with extensive international influences. 2 papers published by Dr. Zhang Xiaodong from School of Environment and Architecture as the first author were successfully nominated in the list of outstanding papers.
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs), as a major air pollutant, discharged from transportation, industrial production and other activities of humankind. As the main precursors of PM2.5 and O3 formation, VOCs have posed a pernicious threat to human health and the environment. Therefore, many researchers have paid much attention to the effective removal of VOCs. A series of modified metal-organic framework materials (MOFs) were prepared for the adsorption and removal of gaseous toluene by Cui lifeng, Zhang xiaodong et.al who from the School of Environment and Architecture. Adsorption and desorption performance as well as the corresponding kinetics of toluene vapor for UiO-66 and the modified materials were intensively studied. The physical and chemical properties of the sample were obtained by a series of characterization techniques. The results showed that micropore adsorption was the main adsorption process, the larger pores in micro-mesoporous UiO-66 increased molecular diffusion rate and reduced the mass transfer resistance. Furthermore, the presence of the defect sites was served as the main active adsorption sites for efficient toluene vapor adsorption. These results indicated that micro-mesoporous structures and defect sites had a positive effect on toluene molecules capture.

Relevant research papers “Enhanced adsorption performance of gaseous toluene on defective UiO-66 metal organic framework: Equilibrium and kinetic studies” and “Enhanced adsorption performance of gaseous toluene on defective UiO-66 metal organic framework: Equilibrium and kinetic studies” were released in Journal of Hazardous Materials and became highly-cited papers in ESI and top 0.1% popular papers. 
It is reported that after the investigation and analysis, Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China made a first definition of outstanding international papers. Those journals with impact factors and total citations ranking among top 10% of the discipline and with more than 50 academic papers and commentary articles published in each year are selected as representative science journals of all disciplines in the world. Papers published on them were considered as outstanding international paper.