Academic Staff

Brief Biosketch

Prof. 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.

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

Prof. Chen’s primary research goal is to design sustainable materials that provide superior structural, functional and service properties, and to address practical engineering challenges across different material systems. His work on developing low-alloy, low-cost, and high-performance sustainable metal alloys, as well as record-breaking ferroelectric materials for energy storage and piezoelectric applications, has attracted considerable attention worldwide.

In recent years, he has secured over HK$10 million in external funding from various sources, including the Hong Kong Research Grant Council, the National Science Foundation of China, the Shenzhen Municipal Science and Technology Innovation Commission, and the Department of Science and Technology of Guangdong Province.

He is a junior executive editor for an international peer-reviewed journal, ‘Microstructures’ and a guest editor-in-chief for the journal ‘Rare Metals’. Based on his achievements, he has received several awards, including the Future AM Breakthrough Award (2026), the Best Youth Scholar Award (2025), the Young Innovative Research Award (2022), and the Ross Coffin Purdy Award (2020).

Research Interests

• AI for materials
• Additive Manufacturing
• Metal Alloys
• Ferroelectric and Multiferroic Materials
• Electron Microscopy (In-situ and Ex-situ Characterizations)

Editorialship of Journals

• Junior Executive Editor of Microstructures
• Guest Editor-in-Chief of Rare Metals

Selected Publications

1. Dongdong Zhang, Hengchao Shi, Jinyu Zhang*, Jianjun Bian, Yating Ran, Qi Liu, Xuanlai Chen, Junhua Luan, Zengbao Jiao, Tao Yang, Jun Sun, Zibin Chen*, Hierarchical nano-orderings enable extraordinary cryogenic strength-ductility synergy in a medium-entropy alloy, Nature Communications, 17, 8606 (2026)

2. Xingdong Dan, Chuanxi Ren, Xuanlai Chen, Hongning Wen, Hengchao Shi, Qi Liu, Shengxi Jin, Dongdong Zhang, KC Chan, Zibin Chen*, Transcending the Rule-of-Mixtures via Coefficient of Thermal Expansion Mismatch-Driven Interfacial Strengthening in Additively Manufactured Ti Alloy Heterostructures, Acta Materialia, 313, 122281 (2026)

3. Zheng Wu#, Yating Ran#, Yuanbo Li#, Danyang Wang, Xiaobing Li, Feifei Wang*, Anyang Cui*, Xiaoming Shi, Yifan Chen, Feilong Yan, Zhongchen Gao, Zhihua Duan, Liman Sai, Xiaomei Qin, Tao Wang, Yanxue Tang, Xiangyong Zhao, Qiaozhen Zhang, Jie Jiao, Haosu Luo, Yiu-Wing Mai, Fei Li, Zibin Chen*, Houbing Huang*, Shujun Zhang*, Topological piezoelectricity in bulk ferroelectrics, Nature Materials, DOI:10.1038/s41563-026-02677-5 (2026)

4. Dongdong Zhang, Jinyu Zhang*, Mengyuan Hao, Jianjun Bian, Hengchao Shi, Ranming Niu*, Julie Cairney, Song Ni, Kang Cheung Chan, Yiu Wing Mai, Min Song, Wenhai Ji, Ping Miao, Ting Zhu, Jun Sun*, Evan Ma*, Zibin Chen*, Negative-curvature interfaces enable highly synergistic strength-ductility-toughness at 77 K, Nature Communications, 17, 8184 (2026)

5. Jiaojiao Yi, Kangyu Zhong, Chen Shen, Yining Zhai, Lu Sun, Hongbin Zhang, Zizheng Song, Zibin Chen, Dragan Damjanovic, Jing-Feng Li, Shujun Zhang*, Lisha Liu*, Thermal-cycling-induced nitriding increases energy storage density in titanate ferroelectric films, Science, 393 (6814), 923-930 (2026)

6. Chuanxi Ren#, Hao Wang#, Xiangyuan Cui, Jinjin Guo, Hansheng Chen, Zizheng Song, Hengchao Shi, Yating Ran, Chunjin Wang, Chi Fai Cheung, Hongwei Liu, Kang Cheung Chan, Xiaozhou Liao, Ting Zhu*, Dengke Chen*, Simon P Ringer*, Zibin Chen*, Ultra-strong and ductile low-alloy titanium by additive manufacturing, Materials Today, 96, 103329 (2026)

7. Jinqiao Liu, Hao Wang, Ranming Niu, Chuanxi Ren, Kevin Sisco, Ying Liu, Zibin Chen*, Julie Cairney, Yiu-Wing Mai, Simon Ringer, Xiaozhou Liao*, Deformation behaviors of dislocation cellular structures in alloys produced by additive manufacturing, Materials Today, 95, 103268 (2026)

8. Liqiang He, Le Zhang*, Yating Ran, Cunle Bo, Kaiyun Chen, Yao Liu, Chen Zhang, Zihao Zheng, Jinming Guo*, Danyang Wang, Shujun Zhang, Sen Yang, Xiaobing Ren, Zibin Chen*, Dong Wang*, Ultrahigh energy storage density and efficiency in AgNbO3-based ceramics by percolating interaction between antipolar regions and defect pairs, Nature Communications, 17, 1582 (2026)

9. Yunlong Sun, Ranming Niu, Zizheng Song, Shiyu Tang, Huizhong Wang, Xun Geng, Ji Zhang, Jack Yang, Claudio Cazorla, Changqing Guo, Shery Chang, Xiaojie Lou, Houbing Huang, Zibin Chen*, Shujun Zhang, Danyang Wang*, Flexoelectricity-driven giant polarization in (Bi, Na) TiO3-based ferroelectric thin films, Nature Communications, 16, 10589 (2025) 

10. Wendi Zhang, Zizheng Song, Shuqi Tang, Jinchen Wei, Yan Cheng, Bing Li, Shiyou Chen*, Zibin Chen*, Anquan Jiang*, Ultrahigh dielectric permittivity in Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 thin-film capacitors, Nature Communications, 16, 2679 (2025)

11. Xingdong Dan, Chuanxi Ren, Zizheng Song, Saad Waqar, Dongdong Zhang, Meng Wang, Qi Liu, Yixuan Sun, Xuanlai Chen, Wenting Jiang, Song Ni, Jing Lu, KC Chan, Lin Liu, Jie Pan, Yuntian Zhu, Zibin Chen*, Exceptional strength and ductility in heterogeneous multi-gradient TiAl alloys through additive manufacturing, Acta Materialia, 281, 120395 (2024)

12. Yangfei Gao#, Zizheng Song#, Haichao Hu, Junwen Mei, Ruirui Kang, Xiaopei Zhu, Bian Yang, Jinyou Shao, Zibin Chen*, Fei Li, Shujun Zhang*, Xiaojie Lou*, Optimizing high-temperature energy storage in tungsten bronze-structured ceramics via high-entropy strategy and bandgap engineering, Nature Communications, 15, 5869 (2024) 

13. Zibin Chen*, Designs where disorder prevails, Science, 384 (6692), 158-159 (2024)

14. Yangfei Gao, Wenjing Qiao, Xiaojie Lou*, Zizheng Song, Xiaopei Zhu, Liqiang He, Bian Yang*, Yanhua Hu, Jinyou Shao, Danyang Wang, Zibin Chen*, Shujun Zhang*, Ultrahigh Energy Storage in Tungsten Bronze Dielectric Ceramics Through a Weakly Coupled Relaxor Design, Advanced Materials, 36 (11), 2310559 (2024)

15. Tingting Song#, Zibin Chen#, Xiangyuan Cui, Shenglu Lu, Hansheng Chen, Hao Wang, Tony Dong, Bailiang Qin, Kang Cheung Chan, Milan Brandt, Xiaozhou Liao, Simon P Ringer*, Ma Qian*, Strong and ductile titanium–oxygen–iron alloys by additive manufacturing, Nature, 618 (7963), 63-68 (2023)

16. Hao Wang, Qi Chao, Xiangyuan Cui, Zibin Chen*, Andrew J. Breen, Matthew Cabral, Nima Haghdadi, Qianwei Huang, Ranming Niu, Hansheng Chen, Belinda Lim, Sophie Primig, Milan Brandt, Wei Xu*, Simon P. Ringer*, Xiaozhou Liao*, Materials Today, 61, 11-21 (2022)

17. Hao Wang, Qi Chao, Hansheng Chen, Zibin Chen*, Sophie Primig, Wei Xu, Simon P. Ringer*, Xiaozhou Liao*, Formation of a transition V-rich structure during the α' to α+ β phase transformation process in additively manufactured Ti-6Al-4 V, Acta Materialia, 235, 118104 (2022)

18. Heng Li, Tianju Chen, Weilin Li, Hualei Zhang, Shuang Han*, Caizhi Zhou*, Zibin Chen*, Emmanuel A Flores-Johnson, Luming Shen, Jianshe Lian, Irene J Beyerlein, Xiaozhou Liao, Grain size dependent microstructure and texture evolution during dynamic deformation of nanocrystalline face-centered cubic materials, Acta Materialia, 216, 117088 (2021)

19. Qianwei Huang, Zibin Chen*, Matthew J Cabral, Feifei Wang, Shujun Zhang, Fei Li, Yulan Li, Simon P Ringer, Haosu Luo, Yiu-Wing Mai, Xiaozhou Liao*, Direct observation of nanoscale dynamics of ferroelectric degradation, Nature Communications, 12 (1), 2095 (2021)

20. Zibin Chen#*, Fei Li#, Qianwei Huang, Fei Liu, Feifei Wang, Simon P Ringer, Haosu Luo, Shujun Zhang*, Long-Qing Chen, Xiaozhou Liao*, Giant tuning of ferroelectricity in single crystals by thickness engineering, Science Advances, 6 (42), eabc7156 (2020)

21. Fei Li#*, Dabin Lin#, Zibin Chen#, Zhenxiang Cheng#, Jianli Wang, ChunChun Li, Zhuo Xu, Qianwei Huang, Xiaozhou Liao, Long-Qing Chen*, Thomas R Shrout, Shujun Zhang*, Ultrahigh piezoelectricity in ferroelectric ceramics by design, Nature Materials, 17 (4), 349-354 (2018)

22. Zibin Chen#, Liang Hong#, Feifei Wang, Simon P Ringer, Long-Qing Chen, Haosu Luo, Xiaozhou Liao*, Facilitation of ferroelectric switching via mechanical manipulation of hierarchical nanoscale domain structures, Physical Review Letters, 118 (1), 017601 (2017)

23. Zibin Chen, Xiaolin Wang, Simon P Ringer, Xiaozhou Liao*, Manipulation of nanoscale domain switching using an electron beam with omnidirectional electric field distribution, Physical Review Letters, 118 (1), 017601 (2017)