Prof. Ren-Gen Xiong's Group won the First Prize in Natural Science Award of the Ministry of Education of China

Recently, the Ministry of Education of China issued a certificate for the 2022 Annual Outstanding Achievement Award for Scientific Research in Colleges and Universities (Science and Technology). The project “Design of Molecular Piezoelectrics by Ferroelectrochemistry” led by Prof. Ren-Gen Xiong's group in Ordered Matter Science Research Center at Nanchang University won the First Prize of the Natural Science Award.

Nanchang University is the first completion unit of the project, and Southeast University is the second completion unit. The main completion persons include Ren-Gen Xiong, Yu-Meng You, Wei-Qiang Liao, Yuan-Yuan Tang, and Heng-Yun Ye. Piezoelectrics are widely used in daily life, medical treatment, industry and other fields, and are one of the important basic materials for national economic development and national defense construction. Molecular materials have the characteristics of easy synthesis and processing, good flexibility, lightweight, and low acoustic impedance. However, since the discovery of the piezoelectric effect in 1880, the key piezoelectric coefficient d33 of molecular piezoelectrics has always been far away from the inorganic piezoelectric ceramics that dominate the application. With the support of projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Prof. Ren-Gen Xiong's group creatively proposed new ideas for the design of molecular piezoelectrics by ferroelectrochemistry, including quasi-spherical theory, introduction of homochirality and H/F substitution. A series of new molecular piezoelectrics have been precisely synthesized, especially high-performance molecular piezoelectric materials with a piezoelectric coefficient d33 that can be comparable to or even surpass commercial inorganic piezoelectric ceramics. From ferroelectric physics to ferroelectrochemistry, a breakthrough from 0 to 1 has been achieved, which provides an effective method for the rational design of piezoelectric molecular materials. The representative research results of this project were published in international top journals such as Science (3 articles), Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA., Adv. Mater., and some of the results were selected into the "Top Ten Scientific and Technological Progress in Chinese Universities" in 2018. It has had an important international impact and has driven the development of the international field of molecular piezoelectric materials.

The Outstanding Achievement Award for Scientific Research in Colleges and Universities (Science and Technology) was established by the Ministry of Education of China to reward college teachers, scientific and technological workers, and related units who have carried out scientific and technological innovation, transformed achievements, and made outstanding contributions to the cultivation of innovative talents.