A research group led by Chair Professor Bin TAN, of the Department of Chemistry at the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), published a groundbreaking study in the top international academic journal Science, titled “A relay energy transfer paradigm for asymmetric photocatalyzed [4+2] cycloadditions.” This study introduces a new paradigm in photocatalysis, Relay Energy Transfer (Relay EnT).

Liu Leo LIU’s team at Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) has made a breakthrough in carbene chemistry, uncovering an unprecedented mechanism for carbene-mediated hydrogen activation. Their finding, titled “A Neutral σ0π2 Carbene Enabling Hydrogen Activation via a σ-Face Pathway,” was published in Nature Chemistry. By regulating the electronic structure of carbenes, the team achieved the stable synthesis of a neutral σ0π2 carbene and applied it to hydrogen activation, revealing a novel reaction path distinct from conventional paradigms. This research not only deepens our understanding of the electronic structure and reactivity of carbenes but also provides new insights for future developments in related fields.

A research team led by Chair Professor Jiaqing HE from the Department of Physics at Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) made significant progress in the study of superionic conductors. The team discovered that in the superionic conductor AgCrSe2, Ag+ ions (previously believed to be nearly randomly distributed during fast diffusion) can dynamically form locally ordered structures with short-range correlations. This finding challenges the conventional understanding of ionic structures in superionic conductors and provides a new perspective on the mechanism of ultrafast ion diffusion. The work was published in the flagship journal Physical Review X under the title “Tracking ultrafast ion diffusion dynamics in AgCrSe2 superionic conductor.”

A collaborative research team from SUSTech and partner institutions has made an important breakthrough in the study of infinite-layer nickelate superconductors. The team of Qikun XUE and Zhuoyu CHEN from the State Key Laboratory of Quantum Functional Materials and the Department of Physics at Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), the Quantum Science Center of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (QSC-GBA), and Tsinghua University, in collaboration with the Danfeng LI team from the Department of Physics at City University of Hong Kong (CityU), the High Magnetic Field Laboratory at the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the National Pulsed High Magnetic Field Science Center at Huazhong University of Science and Technology and others, discovered a novel reentrant superconducting state in infinite-layer nickelates under high magnetic fields. The findings were published in the academic journal Nature under the title “Field re-entrant superconductivity in Eu-doped infinite-layer nickelates.”

The team led by Qikun XUE and Shuoying YANG from the State Key Laboratory of Quantum Functional Materials and the Department of Physics at Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) and the Quantum Science Center of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (QSC-GBA) made progress in the intrinsic superconducting interference of two-dimensional superconductors. The research team observed, for the first time, periodic magnetoresistance oscillations, superconducting interference phenomena, and superconducting diode effects in the superconducting fluctuation regime of few-layer niobium diselenide (NbSe2). The related results were published under the title “Magnetoresistance Oscillations in Few-Layer NbSe2 in Superconducting Fluctuation Regime” in the physics journal Physical Review Letters and were selected as an “Editor’s Suggestion.”

Professor Qihang LIU’s research group from the State Key Laboratory of Quantum Functional Materials and Department of Physics, Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) has made progress in the fundamental theory of symmetry-based magnetic classification. Their work has been published in the academic journal Nature under the title “Symmetry Classification of Magnetic Orders using Oriented Spin Space Groups”.