Prof. Zheng-Ming Li has devoted to basic research of green pesticide chemistry. He with his colleagues established National Pesticide Engineering Research Center in Nankai University in 1995. He led his team to invent a novel eco-friendly herbicide Monosulfuron with independent intellectual properties has obtained State certificates to apply in millet fields in China. Monosulfuron which has resolved the particular weed problem hitherto unsolved in millet planting. It was recorded as the first commercial herbicide innovated and developed in China. A crystalline complex obtained from the docking of Monosulfuron on target enzyme ALS was firstly structurally elucidated.

Recently he and his students discovered that various substituents on a special position in Sulfonylurea herbicides greatly influence their degradation rates in environment behavior. It firstly indicated a structure / activity / degradation tri-lateral relationship which provides a potential degradation approach for our particular multi-crop rotation planting system in China.