News on China's scientific and technological development.

[tphuang]

Carbon Fiber news.

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CSST Group/长盛科技 has successfully developed ZA40MX Carbon fiber with tensile strength >= 5490 Mpa & modulus >= 377 Gpa, elongated break of > 1.45% and linear density of 515 g/km. This is M40X level high modulus CF. It has 350t of capacity here and uses independently developed 2m ultra-wide, ultra-high temperature graphite furnace. Which is core equipment with largest single line capacity & highest process integration in China for this type of process. It is working toward M55 class high modulus CF in 2026.

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上海石化/Shanghai Sinopec in 2025 has started production of 50M class 60K and 120K large tow CF. It has also developed T1000 and M series high performance product. The large tow product is needed for large wind turbines.

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光威复材/Guangwei reported its 2025 result with 2.85853B RMB in revenue and 709m RMB in gross profit. Revenue is up and profit is down YoY. It's Baotou production base is in stable production and looking to improve T800+ production there.

 

[GulfLander]

Researchers Develop High-Performance Vacuum Ultraviolet Nonlinear Optical Crystal ABF​

Vacuum ultraviolet (VUV, 100–200 nm) light sources are indispensable for advanced spectroscopy, quantum research, and semiconductor lithography. Although second harmonic generation (SHG) using nonlinear optical (NLO) crystals is one of the simplest and most efficient methods for generating VUV light, the scarcity of suitable NLO crystals has long been a bottleneck.
To address this problem, a research team led by Prof. PAN Shilie at the Xinjiang Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has developed the fluorooxoborate crystal NH4B4O6F (ABF)—offering aneffective solution to the practical challenges of VUV NLO materials. The team's findings were published in

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on January 28.
The team's key achievement is the development of centimeter-scale, high-quality ABF crystal growth and advanced anisotropic crystal processing technologies. Notably, ABF uniquely integrates a set of conflicting yet critical properties required for VUV NLO materials—excellent VUV transparency, a strong NLO coefficient, and substantial birefringence for VUV phase-matching—while fulfilling stringent practical criteria: large crystal size for fabricating devices with specific phase-matching angles, stable physical/chemical properties, a high laser-induced damage threshold, and suitable processability.This breakthrough resolves the long-standing field challenge where no prior crystal has met all these criteria simultaneously.
As a specialized optical crystal, ABF achieves a notable feat by generating VUV light down to 158.9 nm through SHG. This shorter wavelength opens new avenues for scientific exploration in fields including superconductivity research and chemical reaction studies.
Specifically, its wavelength conversion capability enables the generation of high-energy VUV light, with a maximum nanosecond pulse energy of 4.8 mJ at 177.3 nm and a conversion efficiency of 5.9 %. These values set a new record, representing the highest nanosecond pulse energy and conversion efficiency ever reported for VUV SHG devices, the researchers noted. They added that further improvements in output energy and conversion efficiency are anticipated in future work by enhancing crystal quality and device fabrication precision.
The promising performance of ABF crystal stems from its unique structure: by incorporating fluorine into the borate system, the researchers constructed fluorooxoborate groups and regulated their arrangement, markedly enhancing the crystal's overall performance. This design strategy provides a viable approach for exploring VUV NLO materials.
The development of ABF paves the way for compact, efficient all-solid-state VUV lasers. This advancement is expected to improve access to VUV light in both scientific research and industrial applications, driving progress in areas such as advanced chip manufacturing and cutting-edge scientific investigations.
This research was supported by the CAS Strategic Priority Research Program, the National Natural Science Foundation of China and other funding sources.

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[sunnymaxi]

Vietnamese world-renowned mathematician leaves Yale for University of Hong Kong.​

Professor Vu Ha Van, a world-renowned Vietnamese mathematician, has officially joined the University of Hong Kong (HKU) after a long and distinguished tenure at Yale University in the United States.

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[supercat]

Chinese researchers achieve storage density breakthrough via novel ferroelectric materials​

The theoretical limit is estimated at about 20 terabytes per square centimeter, which is enough capacity to store 10,000 high-definition movies or 200,000 high-definition short videos on a device no larger than a postage stamp.

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[PopularScience]

This week is the historical week of China research. China published 20 papers on Nature, Science and Cell.

 

[jli88]

This week is the historical week of China research. China published 20 papers on Nature, Science and Cell.

Indeed I was getting the impression that the week is turning out well.

May I ask, do you track these every week? How do you track it? (Directly by counting in the journals?)

It is encouraging to see that someone apart from me, considers this as important.

 

[PopularScience]

Indeed I was getting the impression that the week is turning out well.

May I ask, do you track these every week? How do you track it? (Directly by counting in the journals?)

It is encouraging to see that someone apart from me, considers this as important.

I tracked them since 2 decades ago.

 

[PopularScience]

On January 29, 2026, local time, the journal *Science* published online the groundbreaking findings of a team led by Ren Xiaobing, a senior researcher at the Yongjiang Laboratory and a chair professor at Xi'an Jiaotong University. They significantly increased the piezoelectric coefficient (d₃₃), a core performance indicator of a classic and inexpensive class of polycrystalline piezoelectric ceramics, by more than 10 times, creating "super piezoelectric ceramics" and pioneering a new paradigm for active piezoelectric devices, enabling the material to operate stably at the "peak of performance." This research has been hailed as a "revolutionary discovery" by reviewers and is expected to reshape the technological landscape in areas such as high-end sensing, precision actuation, and intelligent interaction.

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[Some1Guy]

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Chipmaking expert Xu Zhenpeng leaves OpenAI-funded start-up for Shanghai role​

Advanced chipmaking engineer Xu Zhenpeng has left the United States to take up a full-time position at

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(SJTU), one of China’s leaders in artificial intelligence hardware research.
Before his return to China, Xu led a team at the California-based manufacturing start-up Atomic Semi, developing 3D printing techniques aimed at making chip production faster and cheaper than conventional methods that used bulky, multimillion-dollar machines.

Investors in the company, founded in 2023, have included ChatGPT creator

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start-up fund, former CEO of GitHub Nat Friedman and co-founder of crypto investment firm Paradigm Fred Ehrsam, according to reports.

Xu, who earned his PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 2023, is a rising talent in large-area, micron-precision 3D printing – a technology increasingly used in

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While pursuing his master’s degree in Florida in 2016, he co-founded a company that built and sold compact, high-resolution 3D printers using liquid plastic.

At UCLA, Xu’s research included printing tiny robots that could respond to their surroundings without external controls, using metamaterials engineered to convert mechanical motion into electrical signals.

Seems like China is attracting more and more talent.

 

[jnd85]

Hong Kong researchers develop new hydrogel to reduce solar panel temperatures up to 16°C while boosting output by up to 13%​

From the

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:

A research team at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) has developed a simple and affordable hydrogel coating that not only enhances the heat dissipation in solar panels for cooling their “hot spots” effectively, but also increases power generation efficiency, ultimately supporting Hong Kong’s goal of achieving urban carbon neutrality. Hot spots, often caused by partial shading, have long been the culprit behind diminishing power generation efficiency of solar panels, compromising the stability of entire power supply systems over time. This PolyU innovation offers an effective and robust solution to a key industry pain point.

The groundbreaking hydrogel cooling technology was developed by a PolyU team led by Prof. YAN Jerry, Chair Professor of Energy and Buildings, together with Dr LIU Junwei, Research Assistant Professor of the Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering. The team’s research showed that after applying the hydrogel coating to solar panels, hot-spot temperatures could be lowered by up to 16°C, with the power output increased by as much as 13%. When applied to “rooftop and building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) systems”, the hydrogel coating is expected to mitigate nearly half of the power losses caused by hot spots, significantly improving the long-term stability and efficiency of solar photovoltaics for building electricity supplies.

Prof. Yan said, “Our hydrogel cooling technology effectively addresses the hot-spot issues in solar panels without the need to modify existing circuit designs. It is cost-effective and user-friendly, making it suitable for various urban settings. Taking Hong Kong and Singapore as case studies, our team anticipates potential annual power generation increases of 6.5% and 7.0%, respectively. The estimated payback periods are notably short at just 4.5 years and 3.2 years. On a global scale, this innovation has the potential to offset approximately 50% of power generation losses caused by hot spots in BIPV systems, demonstrating its pivotal contribution to the advancement of solar energy technology.”

The impact of hot spots on solar photovoltaic systems demands our attention, as they not only reduce power generation efficiency due to the elevated operating temperatures, but also pose potential fire risks in severe cases. According to existing research that investigated 3.3 million photovoltaic panels, 36.5% exhibited thermal defects with the defective modules registering an average temperature increase of over 21°C, accelerating the ageing and degradation of solar panels. The PolyU hydrogel coating not only delivers excellent cooling performance but also demonstrates outstanding durability, making it suitable for long-term outdoor use.

Dr Liu added, “Our team has combined the natural polymer ‘hydroxyethyl cellulose’ and the fibrous material ‘leafy cotton thread’ with the hydrogel matrix to address the critical challenges of cracking and shrinkage, which affect conventional hydrogels during prolonged use. Traditional hydrogels can experience volumetric shrinkage of up to 46% after extended use, whereas our innovation significantly reduces cracking and shrinkage, limiting the volumetric shrinkage rate to 34%. Looking ahead, we hope to build upon this hydrogel evaporative cooling technology to advance the development and popularisation of emerging photovoltaic technologies.”