Guangfeng Liu

1 Education

• Ph.D. degree: Sept. 2011 – June 2015, Ph.D. degree defended on 24 May, 2015, A-grade (the highest). Institute: State Key Laboratory of Crystal Materials, Shandong University (SDU), Jinan, China. Dissertation title: “Crystal Growth, Solid-State Phase Transition and Properties of Molecular Complexes: Studied in Crystal Engineering” Advisor: Prof. Xutang Tao
• The State Key Laboratories are arranged on the top positions in the Chinese scientific research system. The aims of the State Key Laboratories are: the development of high-level scientific and applied researches, the training of excellent young scientists and the promotion of academic exchanges in the world. The State Key Laboratory of Crystal Materials, Shandong University, one of the first batches of Key Laboratories established in China, is a laboratory for exploring and studying the relationship among the composition, structure and the functional characteristics of man-made crystals and other relevant materials. Since the establishment of the Key Laboratory, many important achievements have been obtained. For example, the LAP crystal won the First Class National Invention Award, the KTP crystal won the Second Class National Progress Award, binary-doped TGS, KNSBN and tetragonal KTN crystals all won Third Class National Invention Awards.
• Master degree: Sept. 2006 – June 2009. Institute: Department of Chemistry, Lanzhou University (LZU), Lanzhou, China. Thesis title: Preparation of Functional Polymeric Nanospheres. Advisor: Prof. Peng Liu
• Bachelor degree: Sept. 2000 – June, 2004. Position: Undergraduate student. Institute: Department of Chemistry, Shandong University (SDU), Jinan, China

Both of SDU and LZU are the oldest (1901, SDU and 1909, LZU) and most reputed comprehensive universities and among the top 15 universities in China. Both of them are supported directly by the ministry of education of Chinese national government (only 30 universities in China) and member universities Project ‘985’, the national key construction project to support the development of high-quality universities. SDU’s disciplines of crystal materials, financial mathematics, condensed matter physics, micro-biology and materials science have all risen to the first-class level within the country, and some are known abroad (like crystal materials) http://en.sdu.edu.cn/. LZU has a long history of excellence in chemistry, physics, biology, mathematics and geology. It also excels in some unique disciplines and research areas based on the regional resources and culture of north-western China. http://en.lzu.edu.cn.

2 Current and previous positions

• Current position: Marie Skłodowska-Curie post-doc fellow, Laboratoire de Chimie des Polymères, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium. (success rate < 10%)
• Previous positions:

January 2018 – June, 2018, non-permanent professor, State Key Laboratory of Crystal Materials, Shandong University (SDU), Jinan, China. On Nov. 2017, I won a Qi Lu Young Scholar “QLYS” position in SDU. QLYS depends on the Ministry of Education of China. QLYS gives a non-permanent professorship position (5 years contract) to the selected candidates to start their teaching and research activities. QLYS is highly competitive (success rate < 10%) and is only open for researchers who have long-term oversea education/research experiences. Thus, on Jan. 2018, I came back to Jinan and joined SDU. However, at the same moment, EU informed me that my PARADA proposal has been selected for a Marie Skłodowska-Curie individual fellowship (MSCA-IF). MSCA-IF is a highly prestigious fellowship that offers a wealth of opportunities: new scientific horizons, international recognition, and international scientific network beyond Asia, which will be very helpful for me in developing international collaborations indispensable for an independent research career. Thus, I decided to accept the MSCA-IF and give up the QLYS position.

September 2015 – January 2018, Research Fellow (Postdoc position), School of Materials Science & Engineering, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. (Start from September, 2015)  Research topic: crystal growth, phase transition and crystallization of organic–inorganic hybrid materials. NTU is a full-fledged comprehensive and research-intensive university. In 2015, NTU rose to 54th position worldwide and 4th in Asia in the Times Higher Education World University Ranking with strong scores in all the categories measured, particularly for research, citations, international outlook as well as industry income and innovation. http://www.ntu.edu.sg/Pages/home.aspx.

July 2009 – June, 2011, Engineer, China Aviation Industry Corporation (CAIC), Shennan Circuit Company, Shenzhen, China (duty: technology research and development for polymer materials): after finished my Master education, I was like to apply my knowledge in industrial community and to get some experiences about the application of polymer materials for real products. So, I decided to join in CAIC, Shennan Circuit Company, the most famous electronics company in China (the company provides products and services for the five largest communication equipment’s manufactures and the three largest aeronautics and astronautics electronic manufactures and plants in the world. http://www.scc.com.cn/en/Default.aspx) as a material engineer. Except for learning a lot of specialized knowledge about polymer materials manufacturing and processing for electronic industry.

July, 2004 – June, 2006, Research assistant, Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences, China (duty: assist in developing of new synthetic route for active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), e.g. Ifosfamide, β- Asarone, Cefonicid sodium and Sevelamer HCl, and in developing of new dosage forms): before starting my Master education, I used my chemistry knowledge for pharmacy at Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences. During the two years, I have strengthened my organic synthesis skills and improved my chemical analysis abilities (eg. ¹HNMR, ¹³CNMR, GC-MS, HPLC and FTIR, et.al.).

3 Fellowships and Awards

• Marie Skłodowska-Curie individual fellowship, European Commission, 28, Jan. 2018, success rate < 10%.
• Qi Lu Young Scholar, Shandong University, China, Nov. 2017, success rate < 10%.
• Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique – Chargé de recherches (FNRS-CR fellowship), Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique, Belgium, June. 2019, success rate < 15%. The duty will be started on first of June, 2020.
• Seal of excellence of Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions, European Commission, 4. Apr. 2017. The PARADA proposal was scored as a high-quality project proposal in Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions, 2016.
• Research follow (postdoc position), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 2015-2018. Fellowship awarded by the academic research fund of ministry of education of Singapore (AcRF Tier 1 RG15/17 from MOE), success rate 10%.
• National Scholarship, China, 31.Dec.2014. The National Scholarship is the most famous scholarships for graduate students in China. The scholarship from the government of China is awarded to the excellent Ph.D. candidates (top 5%).
• Excellent Doctorate Theses in Shandong Province, China, 26. Aug. 2016. The top award for doctorate theses in Shandong province (only 50 persons per year for the whole Shandong province).
• Scholarship for Outstanding Academic Achievements of Graduate Student, Shandong Province, China, 20. Oct. 2015. The scholarship from the government of Shandong Province is awarded to the outstanding Ph.D. candidates who have got excellent academic achievements (only Ph.D. candidate per year for the whole institute).
• Wu-Si Young Scientist Award, Shandong University, China, 4. May.2015. The scholarship from Shandong University is awarded to the excellent graduate students (Five Ph.D. candidates per year for the whole university).
• Scholarship for Outstanding Academic Achievements of Graduate Student, Shandong University, China, 1. May.2014. The scholarship from Shandong University is awarded to the Ph.D. candidates who have got excellent academic achievements (top 10%).

4 Contribution to the implementation of funded projects

• Marie Skłodowska-Curie individual fellowship, European Commission, grant agreement No. 791207 (2018-2020). Project title: Parallel donor and acceptor semiconductor crystals for organic field effect transistors (PARADA).
• National Natural Science Foundation, China, Contract No.51372143 (2014-2017). Project title: In-situ monitoring and control of the interface of inorganic-organic composite semiconductors under extreme conditions; participator rank: second; duty: fabrication of organic semiconductor devices.
• National Natural Science Foundation, China, Contract No.51303095 (2014-2016). Project title: Design and preparing of crystals with high fluorescence quantum yield: based on aggregation-induced emission (AIE) active compounds; participator rank: third; duty: crystal growth, fabrication and measurements of related devices.
• Research Fund for Young Scientists of Shandong Province, China, Contract No.BS2012CL020 (2011-2014). Project title: Synthesis and crystal growth of high fluorescence quantum yield compounds; participator rank: third; duty: crystal growth.

5 Publications and scientific interests

• Scientific interests: I am chiefly interested on crystal growth and crystallography, including polymorphism, solid-state phase transitions, the growth of molecular single crystal thin films for semiconductor and nonlinear-optical devices, and investigation of solid-state phase transitions in molecular crystalline materials. My interest comes from the fact that crystal structure determines enormously optoelectronic properties of materials. Structural control is thus one of the most efficient strategies to tune performances and to obtain the unprecedented materials those physicists needs to unravel new physical properties.
• Published papers

In total, 42 articles have been published in peer-reviewed international journals, out of which 15 as first author, co-first author or corresponding author, with 1533 citations and H-index of 20 (Google Scholar)

1. Chen Lyu , Hongfei Li , Shufang Zhou , Guangfeng Liu , Peter B. Wyatt , William P. Gillin, and Huanqing Ye, Bright and efficient sensitized near-infrared photoluminescence from an organic neodymium-containing composite material system, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2021, accepted
2. Canglei Yang, Lixing Luo, Jinqiu Chen, Bo Yang, Wei Wang, Hebin Wang, Guankui Long, Guangfeng Liu, Jing Zhang, and Wei Huang, Helical Mesoscopic Crystals Based on Achiral Charge-transfer Complex with Controllable Untwisting/Breaking, Chemical Communications, 2021, 57, 10031-10034
3. Guangfeng Liu, Jie Liu, Andrew S Dunn, Peter Nadazdy, Peter Siffalovic, Roland Resel, Mamatimin Abbas, Guillaume Wantz, and Yves Henri Geerts, Directional Crystallization from the Melt of an Organic p-Type and n-Type Semiconductor Blend, Crystal Growth & Design, 2021, 21, 9, 5231-5239
4. Schweicher, G., Liu, G.*, Fastré, P., Resel, R., Abbas, M., Wantz, G. & Geerts, Y. H. (2021). Directional Crystallization of C8-BTBT-C8 Thin Films in a Temperature Gradient. Mater. Chem. Front., 5, 249-258.
5. Xitong Liu, Haixiao Xu, Yecheng Zhou, Canglei Yang, Guangfeng Liu, Lixing Luo, Wei Wang, Yudong Ma, Jianqun Jin, Jing Zhang*, and Wei Huang Solution-processed self-assemble engineering PDI derivative polymorphisms with optoelectrical property tuning in organic field-effect transistors, Organic Electronics 2020, 83, 105777
6. Huang, Y., Xing, J., Gong, Q., Chen, L.-C., Liu, G., Yao, C., Wang, Z., Zhang, H.-L., Zhong, C., & Zhang, Q. (2019). Reducing aggregation caused quenching effect through co-assembly of PAH chromophores and molecular barriers Nature communications.,10.1038/S41467-018-08092-y.
7. Li, G., Wang, S., Yang, S., Liu, G., Hao, P., Zheng, Y., Long, G., Li, D., Zhang, Y., Yang, W., Xu, L., Gao, W., Zhang, Q., Cui, G., & Tang, B. (2019). Synthesis, Photophysical Properties and Two Photon Absorption Study of Tetraazachrysene-based N-heteroacenes Chemistry – An Asian Journal., 14(10), 1807-1813.
8. Skliri, E., Miao, J., Xie, J., Liu, G., Salim, T., Liu, B., Zhang, Q., & Armatas, G. S. (2018). Assembly and photochemical properties of mesoporous networks of spinel ferrite nanoparticles for environmental photocatalytic remediation. Applied catalysis. B,Environmental, 227, 330-339.
9. Yang, Y., Liu, G., Liu, J., Wei, M., Wang, Z., Hao, X.-T., Repaka, M. D., Ramanujan, R. V., Tao, X., Qin, W., & Zhang, Q. (2018). Anisotropic magnetoelectric coupling and Cotton-Mouton effects in the organic magnetic charge-transfer complex Pyrene-F4TCNQ ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 10(51), 44654-44659.
10. Ye, H., Liu, G., Liu, S., Casanova, D., Ye, X., Tao, X., Zhang, Q., & Xiong, Q. (2018). Molecular-Barrier-Enhanced Aromatic Fluorophores in Cocrystals with Unity Quantum Efficiency Angewandte Chemie International Edition in English, 57(7), 1928-1932.
11. Wang, Z., Wang, Z., Zhou, Y., Gu, P.-Y., Liu, G., Zhao, K., Nie, L., Zeng, Q., Zhang, J., Li, Y., Rakesh, G., Aratani, N., Huang, L., Liu, Z., Yamada, H., Hu, W., & Zhang, Q. (2018). Structure engineering: extending the length of azaacene derivatives through quinone bridges. Journal of Materials Chemistry C, 6(14), 3628-3633.
12. Xu, H., Zhou, Y., Zhang, J., Jin, J., Liu, G., Li, Y., Rakesh, G., Huang, L., Xu, W., Zhu, D., Huang, W., & Zhang, Q. (2018). Polymer-Assisted Single Crystal Engineering of Organic Semiconductors To Alter Electron Transport ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 10(14), 11837-11842.
13. Ye, X., Liu, Y., Han, Q., Ge, C., Cui, S., Zhang, L., Zheng, X., Liu, G., Liu, J., Liu, D., & Tao, X. (2018). Microspacing In-Air Sublimation Growth of Organic Crystals. Chemistry of materials, 30(2), 412-420.
14. Ge, C., Liu, J., Ye, X., Han, Q., Zhang, L., Cui, S., Guo, Q., Liu, G., Liu, Y., & Tao, X. (2018). Visualization of Single-Crystal-to-Single-Crystal Phase Transition of Luminescent Molecular Polymorphs The Journal of Physical Chemistry Part C: Nanomaterials and Interfaces, 122(27), 15744-15752.
15. Gu, P.-Y., Wang, Z., Liu, G., Yao, H., Wang, Z., Li, Y., Zhu, J., Li, S., & Zhang, Q. (2017). Synthesis, Full Characterization, and Field Effect Transistor Behavior of a Stable Pyrene-Fused N-Heteroacene with Twelve Linearly Annulated Six-Membered Rings. Chemistry of materials, 29(10), 4172-4175.
16. Wang, Z., Gu, P.-Y., Liu, G., Yao, H., Wu, Y., Li, Y., Rakesh, G., Zhu, J., Fu, H., & Zhang, Q. (2017). A large pyrene-fused N-heteroacene: fifteen aromatic six-membered rings annulated in one row. Chemical communications, 53(55), 7772-7775.
17. Zhang, J., Liu, G., Zhou, Y., Long, G., Gu, P.-Y., & Zhang, Q. (2017). Solvent Accommodation: Functionalities Can Be Tailored Through Co-Crystallization Based on 1:1 Coronene-F4TCNQ Charge-Transfer Complex. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 9(2), 1183-1188.
18. Liu, G., Liu, J., Nie, L., Ban, R., Armatas, G. S., Tao, X., & Zhang, Q. (2017). Surfactant 1-Hexadecyl-3-methylimidazolium Chloride Can Convert One-Dimensional Viologen Bromoplumbate into Zero-Dimensional. Inorganic Chemistry, 56(10), 5498-5501.
19. Liu, G., Gu, P.-Y., Nie, L., & Zhang, Q. (2017). Simultaneous crystallization of an in situ formed conjugated polymer and inorganic matrix for structure solving Chemical communications, 53(91), 12365-12368.
20. Liu, G., Liu, J., Ye, X., Nie, L., Gu, P.-Y., Tao, X., & Zhang, Q. (2017). Self-Healing Behavior in a Thermo-Mechanically Responsive Cocrystal during a Reversible Phase Transition Angewandte Chemie International Edition in English, 56(1), 198-202.
21. Gu, P.-Y., Liu, G., Zhao, J., Aratani, N., Ye, X., Liu, Y., Yamada, H., Nie, L., Zhang, H., Zhu, J., Li, D.-S., & Zhang, Q. (2017). Understanding the structure-determining solid fluorescence of an azaacene derivative Journal of Materials Chemistry C, 5(34), 8869-8874.
22. Nie, L., Xie, J., Liu, G., Hao, S., Xu, Z. J., Xu, R., & Zhang, Q. (2017). Crystalline In–Sb–S framework for highly-performed lithium/sodium storage Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 5(27), 14198-14205.
23. Nie, L., Liu, G., Xie, J., LIM, T.-T., Armatas, G. S., Xu, R., & Zhang, Q. (2017). Syntheses, crystal structures, and photocatalytic properties of two ammonium-directed Ag–Sb–S complexes: rmatas. Inorganic chemistry frontiers., 4(6), 954-959.
24. Liu, G., Liu, J., Tao, X., Li, D.-S., & Zhang, Q. (2016). Surfactants as additives make the structures of organic–inorganic hybrid bromoplumbates diverse. Inorganic chemistry frontiers., 3(11), 1388-1392.
25. Yu, D., Kearley, G. J., Liu, G., Mole, R. A., McIntyre, G. G., & Tao, X. (2016). Driving forces for the phase transition of CuQ 2-TCNQ molecular crystals CrystEngComm, 18(27), 5070-5073.
26. Gu, P.-Y., Wang, Z., Liu, G., Nie, L., Rakesh, G., Li, Y., & Zhang, Q. (2016). Synthesis, physical properties, and sensing behaviour of a novel naphthalenediimide derivative Dyes and pigments, 131, 224-230.
27. Liu, G., Liu, J., Sun, Z., Zhang, Z., Chang, L., Wang, J., Tao, X., & Zhang, Q. (2016). Thermally Induced Reversible Double Phase Transitions in an Organic–Inorganic Hybrid Iodoplumbate C4H12NPbI3 with Symmetry Breaking Inorganic chemistry, 55(16), 8025-8030.Zheng, X., Liu, Y., Liu, G., Liu, J., Ye, X., Han, Q., & Tao, X. (2016). Crystalline Mixed Halide Halobismuthates and Their Induced Second Harmonic Generation Chemistry of materials, 28(12), 4421-4431.
28. Liu, J., Liu, G., Liu, Y., Zheng, X., Han, Q., Ye, X., & Tao, X. (2016). The Role of Weak Interactions in the Mechano-induced Single-Crystal-to-Single-Crystal Phase Transition of 8-Hydroxyquinoline-Based Co-crystals Chemistry – An Asian Journal, 11(11), 1682-1687.
29. Dang, Y., Liu, Y., Sun, Y., Yuan, D., Liu, X., Lu, W., Liu, G., Xia, H., & Tao, X. (2015). Bulk crystal growth of hybrid perovskite material CH 3 NH 3 PbI 3 CrystEngComm, 17(3), 665-670.
30. Ye, X., Liu, Y., Lv, Y., Liu, G., Zheng, X., Han, Q., Jackson, K. A., & Tao, X. (2015). In situ microscopic observation of the crystallization process of molecular microparticles by fluorescence switching Angewandte Chemie International Edition in English, 54(27), 7976-7980.
31. Lv, Y., Liu, Y., Ye, X., Liu, G., & Tao, X. (2015). The effect of mechano-stimuli on the amorphous-to-crystalline transition of mechanochromic luminescent materials CrystEngComm, 17(3), 526-531.
32. Liu, G., Liu, J., Sun, H., Zheng, X., Liu, Y., Liu, X., Qi, H., Bai, X., Jackson, K. A., & Tao, X. (2015). In Situ imaging of on-surface, solvent-free molecular single-crystal growth. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 137(15), 4972-4975.
33. Liu, G., Liu, J., Zheng, X., Liu, Y., Yuan, D., Zhang, X., Gao, Z., & Tao, X. (2015). Bulk crystal growth and characterization of semi-organic nonlinear optical crystal tri-diethylammonium hexachlorobismuthate (TDCB) CrystEngComm, 17(22), 2569-2574.
34. Liu, Y., Ye, X., Liu, G., Lv, Y., Zhang, X., Chen, S., Lam, J. W. Y., Kwok, H. S., Tao, X., & Tang, B. Z. (2014). Structural features and optical properties of a carbazole-containing ethene as a highly emissive organic solid. Journal of Materials Chemistry C, 2(6), 1004-1009.
35. Yang Liu, Guangfeng Liu, Xutang Tao. The Applications of Crystallography in the Studies of Organic Optoelectronic Materials, Materials China, 2014, 12, 712-724
36. Liu, G., Liu, J., Liu, Y., & Tao, X. (2014). Oriented single-crystal-to-single-crystal phase transition with dramatic changes in the dimensions of crystals Journal of the American Chemical Society, 136(2), 590-593.
37. Lv, Y., Liu, Y., Guo, D., Ye, X., Liu, G., & Tao, X. (2014). Mechanochromic Luminescence of Fluorenyl#Substituted Ethylenes Chemistry – An Asian Journal, 9(10), 2885-2890.
38. Liu, G., & Liu, P. (2010). Synthesis of monodispersed crosslinked nanoparticles decorated with surface carboxyl groups via soapless emulsion polymerization. Colloids and surfaces. A, Physicochemical and engineering aspects, 354(1-3), 377-381.
39. Liu, P., Liu, G., Chen, D., Cheng, S., & Tang, N. (2009). Adsorption properties of Ag (I), Au (III), Pd (II) and Pt (IV) ions on commercial 717 anion-exchange resin. Transactions of Nonferrous Metals Society of China, 19(6), 1509-1513.
40. Liu, G., & Liu, P. (2009). Preparation of carboxyl-coated polystyrene nanoparticles usingoleic acid. I E T Nanobiotechnology, 3(2), 23-27.
41. Liu, P., Liu, G., Wei Zhang,, & Fan, J. (2009). Crosslinked polymeric nanocapsules with controllable structure via a ‘self-templating’approach. Nanotechnology, 21(1), 015603.
42. Liu, G., & Liu, P. (2009). Mono-dispersed functional polymeric nanocapsules with multi-lacuna via soapless microemulsion polymerization with spindle-like Fe 2 O 3 nanoparticles as templates. Nanoscale Research Letters, 4(3), 281-285.

Research project