Academic Staff

Brief Biosketch

Dr Zi-Bin Chen conducted his MPhil and PhD research in the field of material science and engineering at the University of Sydney and received his PhD degree in 2017. After his PhD, he worked at the University of Sydney as a research fellow, working on developing high-performance functional and additively manufactured structural materials. He joined The Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 2021.

Dr Zi-Bin Chen has published many high-quality papers in top journals, including Nature Materials, Nature Communications, Science Advances, Advanced Science, Physical Review Letters, Physical Review Applied, and Acta Materialia.

The primary goal of his research is to design additively manufactured materials with structures that provide very high strength and excellent ductility, as well as to tackle practical engineering questions in the field of ferroelectric materials. His works on using an electron beam to enhance ferroelectric data storage capacity and discovering ferroelectric fatigue mechanisms have attracted a lot of attention from the globe. These works have been highlighted as a feature story in ‘Physics’ and ‘PNAS’ and reported by a large number of major media outlets all over the world, including Reuters (UK), Global News (Canada), SBS Mandarin and ABC News (Australia), and Xinhua (China).

He is an associate editor for an international peer-reviewed journal ‘Microstructures’ and a guest editor for the journal ‘Materials’. He also serves as a conference organizer for ‘IEEE 2021 ISAF-ISIF-PFM joint Conference’ in 2021. Based on his achievements, he was awarded several bursaries, including the Australian Microscopy and Microanalysis Society Bursary, Trans-Tasman Bursary, and Graduate student bursary, the Postgraduate Research Support Scheme, the Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-Financed Students Award, and the Ross Coffin Purdy Award.

Research Interests

• Additive Manufacturing
• Metal Alloys
• Ferroelectric and Multiferroic Materials
• Electron Microscopy (In-situ and Ex-situ Characterizations)
• Martensitic Transformation
• Spectroscopy

Editorialship of Journals

• Associate Editor of Microstructures
• Guest Editor of Materials

Selected Publications

1. Q.W. Huang, Z.B. Chen*(Corresponding author), M.J. Cabral, H.S. Luo, H.W. Liu, S.J. Zhang, Y.L. Li, Y.W. Mai, S.P. Ringer, X.Z. Liao, Manipulating ferroelectric behaviors via electron-beam induced crystalline defects, Nanoscale, 13, 14330 (2021), selected as journal cover
2. H. Li, T.J. Chen, W.L. Li, H.L. Zhang, S. Han, C.Z. Zhou, Z.B. Chen*(Corresponding author), E.F. Johnson, L.M. Shen, J.S. Lian, I.J. Beyerlein, X.Z. Liao, Grain Size dependent microstructure and texture evolutions during dynamic deformation of nanocrystalline face-centered cubic materials, Acta Materialia, 117088 (2021)
3. Z.B. Chen, X.Z. Liao, S.J. Zhang, The visible hand behind properties, Microstructures, 1, 1 (2021)
4. Q.W. Huang, Z.B. Chen*(corresponding author), M. Cabral, F.F. Wang, S.J. Zhang, F. Li, Y.L. Li, S. Ringer, H.S. Luo, Y.W. Mai, X.Z. Liao, Direct observation of nanoscale dynamics of ferroelectric degradation, Nature Communications, 12, 2095 (2021)
   • This work is the first time providing a full picture of how fatigue in ferroelectric materials occurs. Social medias including University of Sydney news and Startup Daily have reported this significant result.
5. X.Y. Gao, Z.X. Cheng, Z.B. Chen, Y. Liu, X.Y. Meng, X. Zhang, J.L. Wang, Q.H. Guo, B. Li, H.J. Sun, Q.F. Gu, H. Hao, Q. Shen, J.S. Wu, X.Z. Liao, S. Ringer, H.X. Liu, L.M. Zhang, W. Chen, F. Li, The mechanism for the enhanced piezoelectricity in multi-elements doped (K,Na)NbO3 ceramics, Nature Communications, 12, 881 (2021)
6. M.B. Ghasemian, A. Zavabeti, M. Mousavi, B.J. Murdoch, A.J. Christofferson, N. Meftahi, J.B. Tang, J.L. Han, R. Jalili, F.M. Allioux, M. Mayyas, Z.B. Chen, S.P. Russo, S. Ringer, K.K. Zadeh, Doping process of two-dimensional materials based on the selective migration of dopants to the interface of liquid metals, Advanced Materials, 2104793 (2021)
7. H. Wang, Q. Chao, L. Yang, M. Cabral, Z.Z. Song, B.Y. Wang, S. Priming, W. Xu, Z.B. Chen* (corresponding author), S.P. Ringer, X.Z. Liao, Introducing transformation twins in titanium alloys: an evolution of α-variants during additive manufacturing, Materials Research Letters, 9, 119-126 (2020)
8. Z.B. Chen* (corresponding author), F. Li, Q.W. Huang, F. Liu, F.F. Wang, S. Ringer, H.S. Luo, S.J. Zhang, L.Q. Chen, X.Z. Liao, Giant Tuning of Ferroelectricity in Single Crystals by Thickness Engineering, Science Advances, 6, eabc7156, (2020)
9. C.Liu, X.D. Huang, J.Z. Liu, J. Wang, Z.B. Chen, R. Luo, C.H. Wang, J.S. Li, L.J. Wang, J.J. Wan, C.Z. Yu, A General Approach to Direct Growth of Oriented Metal-Organic Framework Nanosheets on Reduced Graphene Oxides, Advanced Science, 1901480 (2019)
10. Z.B. Chen, Q.W. Huang, F.F. Wang, S.P. Ringer, H.S. Luo, X.Z. Liao, Stress-induced reversible and irreversible ferroelectric domain switching, Applied Physics Letters 112, 152901 (2018)
11. F. Li, .B. Lin, Z.B. Chen (Equal First Author), Z.X. Cheng, J.L. Wang, C.C. Li, Z. Xu, Q.W. Huang, X.Z. Liao, L.Q. Chen, T.R. Shrout, S.J. Zhang, Ultrahigh piezoelectricity in ferroelectric ceramics by design, Nature materials 17, 349 (2018)
12. Z.B. Chen, L. Hong, F.F. Wang, X.H. An, X.L. Wang, S. Ringer, L.Q. Chen, H.S. Luo, X.Z. Liao, Kinetics of Domain Switching by Mechanical and Electrical Stimulation in Relaxor-Based Ferroelectrics, Physical Review Applied 8, 064005 (2017)
13. Z.B. Chen, L. Hong, F.F. Wang, S.P. Ringer, L-Q. Chen, H.S. Luo, X.Z. Liao, Facilitation of ferroelectric switching via mechanical manipulation of hierarchical nanoscale domain structure, Physical Review Letters 118, 017601 (2017)
14. Z.B. Chen, X.L. Wang, S.P. Ringer, and X.Z. Liao, Manipulation of Nanoscale Domain Switching Using an Electron Beam with Omnidirectional Electric Field Distribution, Physical Review Letters 117, 027601 (2016).
    • This work has also been highlighted as a feature story in ‘Physics’ and ‘Nanotechnology’. The work was also reported by a large number of major media outlets all over the world including Reuters (UK), Global News (Canada), SBS Mandarin and ABC news (Australia), Xinhua (China), Fenghuang (Hong Kong, China).
15. P.W. Trimby, Y. Cao, Z.B. Chen, S. Han, K.J. Hemker, J.S. Lian, X.Z. Liao, P. Rottmann, S. Samudrala, J.L. Sun, J.T. Wang, J. Wheeler, J.M. Cairney, Characterizing deformed ultrafine-grained and nanocrystalline materials using transmission Kikuchi diffraction in a scanning electron microscope, Acta materialia 62, 69-80 (2014).
16. Z.B. Chen, W. Lei, B. Chen, Y.B. Wang, X.Z. Liao, H.H. Tan, J. Zou, S.P. Ringer, C. Jagadish, Elemental diffusion during the droplet epitaxy growth of In (Ga) As/GaAs (001) quantum dots by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition, Applied Physics Letters 104, 022108 (2014).
17. Z.B. Chen, W. Lei, B. Chen, Y.B. Wang, X.Z. Liao, H.H. Tan, J. Zou, S.P. Ringer, C. Jagadish, Preferential nucleation and growth of InAs/GaAs (001) quantum dots on defected sites by droplet epitaxy, Scripta Materialia 69, 638-641 (2013).
18. Z.B. Chen, W. Lei, B. Chen, Y.B. Wang, X.Z. Liao, H.H. Tan, J. Zou, S.P. Ringer, C. Jagadish, Can misfit dislocations be located above the interface of InAs/GaAs (001) epitaxial quantum dots?, Nanoscale research letters 7, 1-5 (2012).