The main focus of Chen’s group is on creating advanced soft materials including liquid crystals, 2D porous polymers, biomimetic materials, functional supramolecular polymers, etc., with controlled micro- and macroscopic structures, and exploring their applications in green synthesis (autocatalytic systems), energy store (organic batteries) and membrane engineering (desalination and gas separation), for a sustainable future. Besides, the manipulation of interfacial supramolecular interactions between designed molecules and nanomaterials including 2D nanosheets, cellulose nanocrystals, carbon nanotubes, graphene oxide, clusters and nanoparticles, etc. are of our great interest for the development of functional composites towards the multicomponent co-assembly and 3D printing. Our research projects are listed as follows:

1) Design, construction and applications of supramolecular autocatalytic systems;

2) Development of polymeric membranes and artificial water channels for ion sieving;

3) Development of organic cathode materials for batteries.