Stoichiometry has a very important effect on the properties of oxides. Taking vanadium dioxide (VO2) as an example, the increase of oxygen vacancies significantly decreases the phase transition temperature from high-temperature metallic tetragonal R phase to low-temperature insulating monoclinic M1 phase. At the same time, excess oxygen can effectively stabilize two metastable insulating phases, the monoclinic M2 phase and the triclinic T phase. Up to date, there are still many difficulties in the fine regulation of oxygen content in oxides, which is a very important and challenging research topic.

Recently, Professor Hui Li’s group from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, at the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), published a review paper in Nature Energy, entitled “Bridging the gap between highly active oxygen reduction reaction catalysts and effective catalyst layers for proton exchange membrane fuel cells”. This review discusses the performance discrepancy between ex-situ thin-film rotating disk electrode (RDE) and real membrane electrode assembly (MEA). Furthermore, it elucidates various intrinsic limitations that have resulted in a persistent failure to transfer the high RDE activities of catalysts into maximized energy output at the MEA level.

Recently, Professor Hsing-Lin Wang from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Professor Haiping Xia from the Department of Chemistry at the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) made significant progress on the research of cathode interfacial materials (CIL) in perovskite solar cells (PSCs), leading to a publication in the Journal of American Chemical Society (JACS), which was also selected as the front cover.

Superelastic materials capable of recovering large nonlinear strains are ideal for various applications in morphing structures, reconfigurable systems, and robots. However, making oxide materials superelastic has been a long-standing challenge due to their intrinsic brittleness. The only macroscopically brittle oxide recently discovered to be superelastic is ZrO2-based micropillars or particles, which are realized via austenite-martensite phase transformation. Although ultimate strengths approaching the theoretical limit have been demonstrated in nanoscale samples, long fatigue life is elusive, which is arguably more important for most applications. Poor fatigue life has been a long-standing challenge for oxide ceramics in general.

Recently, Professor Weishu Liu’s team from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) published an article in the renowned journal Advanced Science, entitled “Leaf‐Inspired Flexible Thermoelectric Generators with High Temperature Difference Utilization Ratio and Output Power in Ambient Air”.

Recently, Professor Fuzeng Ren’s research group from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) has made significant advances in the field of Orthopedic Biomaterials. These results were published in Advanced Functional Materials, Advanced Healthcare Material, Acta Biomaterialia, Additive Manufacturing, and Journal of Materials Science & Technology.

Recent advances in the science and technology of THz waves show promise for a wide variety of important applications in material inspection, imaging, biomedical science, and so on. However, this promise is impeded by the lack of sufficiently functional THz emitters.

Recently, Professor Meng Gu (Department of Materials Science and Engineering), cooperated with Professor Lang Chen (Department of Physics) at SUSTech and Professor Xueliang Sun at the University of Western Ontario, made a series of research progress in alkali metal-air nanobatteries. Relative results were published by Angewandte Chemie International Edition, ACS Nano, and Energy Storage Materials.

Recently, the Shenzhen Institute for GU’s lab at Southern University of Science and Technology has made significant experimental progress in oxygen evolution reaction. The research team mainly includes Dr. Chao Cai and Dr. Shaobo Han, students of Prof. Gu, Maoyu Wang, student of Prof. Zhenxing Feng (Organ State University), Meng Gu, Professor of the Institute, and their cooperator, Prof. Feng.