In conversation with Yong Cui

Yong Cui

What drives a materials scientist to push the boundaries of what's possible? We sat down with Yong Cui, one of our Materials Horizons editors, to explore not just the cutting-edge developments shaping the field, but the passion and curiosity that fuel groundbreaking research. 

Why did you choose to specialise in your specific research field? 

Nature makes pervasive use of homochirality (eg, D-sugars and L-peptides) to assemble biomolecules, whose interactions determine life processes, while biological homochirality is still one of the major unsolved problems in science. My research interest is thus focused on the design and development of chiral crystalline materials through hierarchical self-assembly of suitably designed chiral building blocks, with the aim to fundamentally understanding how molecular-scale chirality could be significantly transmitted and amplified across differing length scales. Eventually, we aim to develop useful chiral materials with unexpected advantages relevant to materials science, molecular biology, nanotechnology and precision medicine. 

What do you see as the biggest challenges facing researchers who work in your field? 

Frankly speaking, there are lots of challenges and difficulties in this field. If I have to choose the biggest one, I think it should be how to rationally design and precisely synthesize chiral materials enabling outstanding enantioselective performance that could compare with (even beyond) natural systems.

I am very proud of my students who will continue to devote themself to scientific research.

What excites you most about your area of research and what has been the most exciting moment of your career so far? 

One of the most exciting moments of my research was when we developed a new type of 2D materials that were achieved through exfoliation of molecule crystals. Against expectation, the free-standing homochiral monolayer crystallites rely purely on weak non-covalent forces to maintain their integrity. Our finding suggests the possibility of greatly increasing the range and diversity of 2D materials. 

The most exciting moment of my career have always been related to my students who get really exciting experimental results or discover new experimental phenomena etc. I am very proud of my students who will continue to devote themself to scientific research. 

What has been the most challenging moment of your career so far? 

The most challenging moment should be the supervision of a research group, either a small or big team, but this process seems to be very rewarding. Looking back now, I was very lucky to have lots of incredible advisors, colleagues, and friends, who taught me how to be an independent scientist. I’m also grateful for working with those talented students and I really hope they have enjoyed their time in my research group. 

Which of your Royal Society of Chemistry publications are you most proud of and why? 

I would have to say that I love them all. We spend a lot of time and effort on this fundamental research. However, if I have to select one piece of them, it would probably be the research regarding the design and synthesis of a homochiral Cr-salen-based MOF for catalysing broad-scope asymmetric transformations, including the Nazarov cyclization, aminolysis reaction, and Diels–Alder and hetero Diels–Alder reactions. This work demonstrates the superior reactivity of Cr-salen embedded crystalline porous materials, which represents an important step towards practical applications. 

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That’s important for researchers, knowing that you are publishing your work in an ascending journal with a strong reputation.

Why do you feel that researchers should choose to publish their work in Materials Horizons? 

Materials Horizons is a high profile, prestigious journal publishing rigorously peer-reviewed research across broad-scope disciplines. The high quality articles published in the journal are indicative that the community trust us for their cutting-edge research. That’s important for researchers, knowing that you are publishing your work in an ascending journal with a strong reputation.  

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What attracted you to join the Materials Horizons as an editor? 

The editorial board of Materials Horizons has done a great job in attracting high quality and innovative material science research. I believe that I could help to further improve the impact of Materials Horizons and help to expand the scope of readers in China. I can see this would be a golden opportunity for me to learn how to participate and promote the development of Materials Horizons and engage the communication between the editorial board and the authors. I’m very happy to work as an editor to make Materials Horizons one of the most exciting and high impact journals.