Professor Tao Wen received his bachelor's degree from Lanzhou University in 2008 and his doctorate from the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2013. He worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Physics, University of Freiburg, Germany and the Department of Chemical Engineering, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan. From March 2018 to date, he has been a professor, doctoral supervisor, and dean's assistant (2022 to date) at the School of Frontier Soft Matter, South China University of Technology. He is mainly engaged in teaching and research in functional soft matter materials. He has presided over more than 10 national, provincial, municipal, school and enterprise scientific research projects. He has published more than 60 papers in authoritative journals in the field of soft matter, applied for 13 Chinese invention patents, 8 of which have been authorized. He was nominated for the Best Article of the 16th Feng Xinde Polymer Award; he is a joint young editorial board member of Chinese Journal of Polymer Science, Journal of Polymer Science and Polymer Bulletin (2024 to present); he presided over a number of teaching, research and teaching reform projects including the Guangdong Provincial Undergraduate College Teaching Quality and Teaching Reform Project, and won the first prize in the South China University of Technology Young Teachers Teaching Competition in the academic year 2023-2024; he was the secretary of the graduate student party branch of the college, the head teacher of the 2018 graduate class.

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Prof. Wen’s laboratory is committed to designing and synthesizing materials with multi-layer structures, and to regulating the microstructure of materials in a targeted manner through chemical and physical means. While deeply understanding basic scientific problems, we develop advanced materials with excellent performance. Our main research directions include the following four aspects: 1. Application of polymer functional porous materials in advanced printed electronics; 2. Development and application of polymer-based luminescent materials; 3. Chiral polymer materials; 4. Application of advanced electron microscopy technology in soft matter.
1. Application of polymer functional porous materials in advanced printed electronics
Porous materials have important value in modern science and technology. Polymer porous materials have important uses not only in traditional separation, catalysis and other fields, but also in energy storage, environmental treatment, electronic devices and other directions. We hope to prepare polymer porous materials with specific functions and application prospects through effective and easy ways, and develop their applications in separation, energy and other fields.

Ref.: Chinese Journal of Polymer Science, 2025, 43, 153-161; ACS Macro Letters, 2023, 12, 697-702

2.Development and application of polymer-based luminescent materials
Photoluminescent materials have important applications in marking, display, lighting and other fields. In recent years, polymer-related photoluminescence has gradually become known to everyone, such as non-conjugated polymer luminescence, polymer-based ultra-long afterglow, etc. These novel luminescence behaviors are closely related to the aggregated structure of polymers. The understanding and application of these luminescence behaviors involve two different disciplines: 'polymer chemistry and physics' and 'organic optoelectronics'. This cross-field is an expansion of the functions of traditional polymers and a deepening of the principles of organic electronics. The fusion of the two fields is expected to develop novel luminescent materials with high processability.
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Ref. : ACS Applied Polymer Materials, 2024, 6, 9400-9405; Macromolecules, 2024, 57, 2679-2686; Advanced Optical Materials, 2023, 2301546; Macromolecular Rapid Communications, 2023, 2300666; Polymer Chemistry, 2023, 14, 2788-2796

3. Chiral polymer materials
'Chirality' is one of the basic properties of nature. From amino acids, DNA to various life forms, and even planets and galaxies, these things have chirality in their existence and movement. In the exploration of the objective world, chirality is an eternal topic.

Ref.: Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2023, e202317102; Chem. Mater., 2017, 29, 4493; ACS Macro Lett., 2017, 6, 370; Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2015, 54, 14313                          

4. Application of advanced electron microscopes in soft matter

Ref.: Polymer, 2019, 167, 209-214