Recently, Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) received confirmation that it will receive funding for its first national-level major scientific research instrument development project from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) under the Special Fund for Research on National Major Research Instruments in 2019. The SUSTech project is titled “Development of Microfluidic Digital Droplet Central Processor Chip and Platform System,” and will be led by Professor Xing Cheng from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering.

Ammonia is an ideal carbon-free energy storage material owing to its high energy density (4.32 kWh/L), high weight fraction of hydrogen (17.65%), ease of liquefaction under mild conditions, and inexpensive transportation. Industrially, ammonia synthesis is realized by the energy intensive Haber-Bosch process, where nitrogen and hydrogen are reacted at high temperatures (~450 °C) and pressures (10,000 kPa) over an iron-based catalyst.

Wrinkles are widely observed, from the landforms of the earth crust, to human skin, and to flexible electronics. A stiff-soft bilayer wrinkles at a tiny compressive strain, which is almost inevitable in real world applications. Flexible transparent electrodes, a key element in flexible electronics, often consist of stiff-soft bilayers, which tend to wrinkle under mechanical loads. Surfaces wrinkles dramatically increase roughness and reduce optical transmittance, and may also deteriorate interfacial strength. Wrinkles have become a plague to flexible transparent electrodes and related devices.

Radicals are inevitable intermediates during the charging and discharging of organic redox electrodes. The increase of the reactivity of the radical intermediates is desirable to maximize the capacity and enhance the rate capability but is detrimental to cycling stability. Therefore it is a great challenge to controllably balance the redox reactivity and stability of radical intermediates to optimize the electrochemical properties with a good combination of high specific capacity, excellent rate capability and long-term cycle life.

With the development of miniaturized devices, there grows an urgent demand for microactuators that can be integrated into microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and miniature robotics. The microactuators that convert other kinds of energy to mechanical energy are responsible for the moving and controlling operations in these microsystems. The microactuators have attracted increasing attention and are expected to obtain convincing advances in areas including controllable displacement, large force, high speed, high work power, multiple-stimuli response, good compatibility, and high durability in harsh conditions. The importance of mechanical manipulation or positioning with extreme precision has also been gradually recognized in sophisticated MEMS or ultraprecision microrobotics.

The transfer of graphene from one substrate to another requires a transfer agent that usually needs to be removed by washing with an organic solvent. These solvents are harmful to the structural integrity and intrinsic property of a graphene film. There has been considerable research into finding an alternative approach to this.

In the majority of solid matter are crystals: atoms are organized in an ordered pattern. Physicists long believed that the structures of all crystals consisted of patterns that repeated over and over again.

For years, organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) have attracted considerable attention as a potential next-generation solid-state lighting source. However, white OLEDs have shown problems with color instability, high cost of materials and a complex fabrication process.

Organic flexible thermoelectric films have received increasing attentions due to their ability to generate power for use in vigorous wearable electronics and internet of things (IoT) sensors. However, only high thermoelectric performance is not enough to manufacture flexible devices using organic thermoelectric materials. The practical flexibility of thermoelectric organic films has not yet received enough attention, with their degree of flexibility and tensile performances not yet adequately investigated.

Organic chemistry is not restricted to the chemistry laboratory. Material scientists are investigating the benefits of polymers for semiconductors, in order to expand the options for commercial and industrial applications. Researchers have particularly focused on the photoelectric properties of certain organic compounds that can be used in solar cells.