(Reporter: Cheng Ran) Recently, Professor Cheng Xinjian's team from the School of Chemistry and Environmental Engineering at our university has made significant progress in the fields of functional materials, chemical sensing, and engineering applications. They have published a series of high-impact research papers consecutively in internationally renowned journals: Advanced Functional Materials, Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, and Chemical Engineering Journal. These achievements collectively demonstrate the team's systematic innovations in intelligent responsive materials, information encryption, and functional material design, marking a new milestone in their related research.
Chen Junyu, a Ph.D. student from the School of Chemistry and Environmental Engineering, is the first author, and Professor Cheng Xinjian is the sole corresponding author. They published a research paper titled "Force-Modulated Luminescent Film: Micro-Newton-Level Stress Sensing by Force-Induced Regulation of Donor–Acceptor Electron Coupling" in Advanced Functional Materials (IF = 19.0, CAS Q1 Top Journal). The team fabricated a self-supporting luminescent film based on modified chitosan (CS-HBAGE-TPA-NDI film) using RAFT polymerization, providing a new model for understanding intermolecular electronic behavior in force-modulated luminescence. This CS-HBAGE-TPA-NDI film not only exhibits an elongation at break of up to 180% and unique rubbery state behavior (glass transition temperature of -8°C), but also achieves sensitive force detection as low as 10.8 μN. Based on this film, the team further designed a conceptual wearable pulse monitoring device, demonstrating its good potential for converting physiological micro-forces into optical signals.
Furthermore, Xu Li, a Ph.D. student from the School of Chemistry and Environmental Engineering, is the first author, and Professor Cheng Xinjian is the sole corresponding author. They published a research paper titled "Symmetry Breaking Promoting Intersystem Crossing for Room Temperature Phosphorescence" in Chemical Engineering Journal (IF = 13.2, CAS Q1 Top Journal). The team proposed using a symmetry-breaking strategy to promote intersystem crossing for achieving room temperature phosphorescence, and subsequently constructed room temperature phosphorescent materials with asymmetric structures. Compared to symmetric structures, the phosphorescence lifetime was extended by five orders of magnitude, and the luminescence efficiency was increased by 7.6 times. This phosphorescent material shows promising application prospects in advanced anti-counterfeiting and editable information encryption.
In another study, Zhao Bo, a Ph.D. student from the School of Chemistry and Environmental Engineering, is the first author, and Professor Cheng Xinjian is the sole corresponding author. They published a research paper titled "Construction of Chitosan-Based Multimodal Near-Infrared Nanoprobes for Integrated Tumor Phototheranostics" in Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical (IF = 7.7, CAS Q1 Top Journal). The team utilized small molecule near-infrared fluorescent probes and the chitosan retention effect to construct multimodal bionanomaterials for near-infrared fluorescence imaging, photodynamic anti-tumor therapy, and photothermal anti-tumor therapy. This nanomaterial exhibits excellent application effects in integrated cancer diagnosis and therapy.
The first affiliation for this series of high-level papers is all Wuhan Institute of Technology. The research work received strong support from the university's Analysis and Testing Center and the Provincial Key Laboratory. These achievements not only reflect our university's disciplinary advantages in the interdisciplinary fields of chemistry, materials, and biology but also demonstrate our university's determination to advance from fundamental research to engineering applications.
Reviewed by Chen Yunfeng
