As a common feature in a majority of malignant tumors, hypoxia has become the Achilles’ heel of photodynamic therapy (PDT). The development of type-I photosensitizers that show hypoxia tolerance PDT efficiency provides a straightforward way to address this issue.

Despite vibrant innovations in bioelectronic devices and their ever advanced applications, integrating bioelectronic devices to the human body still relies on century-old conventional methods such as surgical suturing or physical attachment.

Recently, a research team led by Professor Yonghong Deng (Materials Science and Engineering, SUSTech) propose a viable pathway of realizing high-energy-density and high-stability lithium metal batteries by adopting self-organized core-shell composite anodes. The cutting-edge findings were published in Advance Materials (IF = 27.3), entitled “500 Wh/Kg Class Li Metal Battery Enabled by Self-Organized Core-Shell Composite Anode”.

Quantum relaxation time (τ) is one of the most important physical properties affecting critical electron transport parameters in advanced materials, such as electrical conductivity and carrier mobility in metals and semiconductors.

Developments in thermoelectric energy harvesting techniques have tended to focus on the materials themselves. Many of those developments are centered on simplistic assumptions of the materials or determining thermal exchanges between different parts of the devices. Very few studies have thought to assess those assumptions to improve the efficiency of devices or the fundamentals behind thermoelectric system-level optimization.

On September 14, a research team led by Associate Professor Guixin Li (Materials Science and Engineering) and the Université de Bordeaux Professor Etienne Brasselet published cutting-edge research findings. Their findings provide a novel scheme for generating spin-orbit angular momentum of nonlinear optical waves through a cascade process. Their paper, titled “Harmonic spin-orbit angular momentum cascade in nonlinear optical crystals,” was published in the high-impact academic journal, Nature Photonics (IF = 31.5).

On August 20, Professor Xugang GUO (Materials Science and Engineering) published a Comment in the high-impact academic journal, Nature Materials (IF = 38.663), with the Chief Technology Officer Dr. Antonio Facchetti in Flexterra, Inc. Their Comment, titled “The journey of conducting polymers from discovery to application,” examined the progress of conducting polymers over the 20 years since the groundbreaking accomplishments of Shirakawa, MacDiarmid, and Heeger in 1977. Nature Materials published an Editorial on this topic titled “Conducting polymers forward.”

Harvesting electricity from renewable energy sources is an ongoing goal for the world working to move away from fossil fuels. The ability to use electrons derived from renewable energy to drive chemical transformations offers opportunities for the sustainable production and regeneration of carbon-based chemicals and fuels.

Ground-breaking international research directed by scholars at Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) has demonstrated the first metasurface optical chip for generating cold atomic ensembles. It provides a novel scheme for the realization of a single beam Magneto-Optical Trap (MOT). Their research could have broad applications in quantum metrology, quantum information processing, and atomic physics.

Research led by scholars Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) has taken the first steps towards the potential development of a new platform for high-efficiency nonlinear frequency conversion. It could lead to the miniaturization of nonlinear optical devices that are important for optical information processing and switching.