Research News

Modular assembly of ethylene, arenes and heteroarenes

Associate Professor WU Jie and his research team from the Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore (NUS) have developed…

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Boosting the synthesis of stable sugar compounds with a novel nature-inspired approach

The research team led by Associate Professor KOH Ming Joo from the NUS Department of Chemistry, in collaboration with Professor…

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Artificial photosynthesis to produce hydrogen peroxide

The research team, led by Professor Donglin JIANG from the Department of Chemistry at NUS  has developed hexavalent photocatalytic covalent…

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Unlocking RNA functionality: A redox-responsive approach

A research team led by Assistant Professor ZHU Ru-Yi, from the Department of Chemistry at NUS have developed a strategy…

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A magnetic “butterfly” with entangled spins for quantum technologies

A team of NUS researchers led by Associate Professor Jiong LU from the Department of Chemistry and Institute for Functional…

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Multifunctional chiral alkylboron compounds by enantioselective nickel catalysis

A research team led by Associate Professor KOH Ming Joo, from the Department of Chemistry, NUS has developed a new…

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Earth-abundant iron catalysis enables access to valuable dialkylated compounds

A research team led by Associate Professor KOH Ming Joo, from the Department of Chemistry, NUS has solved a longstanding…

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AI-enabled atomic robotic probe to advance quantum material manufacturing

The research team, led by Associate Professor Jiong LU from the Department of Chemistry and the Institute for Functional Intelligent…

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SNIC-AsCA2019 Singapore Award (Distinguished Woman Chemist Award 2024)

Congratulations to Associate Professor Chi Chunyan for winning the SNIC-AsCA2019 Singapore Award (Distinguished Woman Chemist Award 2024) for the synthesis…

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Photosynthesis with water and air

A research team led by Professor Donglin JIANG from the Department of Chemistry, NUS has developed a microporous covalent organic…

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Photon upconversion: Steering light with supercritical coupling

A research team led by Professor LIU Xiaogang from the Department of Chemistry, NUS and his collaborator, Dr Gianluigi ZITO from…

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Deep learning for real-time molecular imaging

A research team, led by Professor Thorsten WOHLAND from both the Department of Biological Sciences and the Department of Chemistry,…

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Single proton illuminates perovskite nanocrystals-based transmissive thin scintillators

A research team led by Professor LIU Xiaogang from the Department of Chemistry and Associate Professor Andrew BETTIOL from the…

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Catalyst for green production of fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals

National University of Singapore (NUS) researchers led by Associate Professor LU Jiong from the Department of Chemistry under the NUS…

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Atomically-precise quantum antidots via vacancy self-assembly

A research team led by Associate Professor Jiong LU from the Department of Chemistry and the Institute for Functional Intelligent…

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Ferromagnetic single-atom spin catalyst for boosting water splitting reactions

The research team led by Associate Professor LU Jiong, from the Department of Chemistry, developed a scalable hydrothermal approach for obtaining…

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On-demand preparation of organosilicon reagents

In a recent paper, Associate Professor Jie WU and his colleagues from the Department of Chemistry, NUS, have developed a…

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Chiral drug-like building blocks by nickel-catalysed enantioselective olefin cross-coupling

A research team led by Assistant Professor KOH Ming Joo, from the Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore has…

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Mechanoluminescence-powered smart mouthguard for healthcare assistance and human–computer interaction

A research team led by Professor LIU Xiaogang from the Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore demonstrated a bite-controlled…

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Visible light activation enables transformation of bench-stable sulfones to valuable glycosides

A research team led by Assistant Professor KOH Ming Joo has developed a new strategy to generate therapeutically relevant C-glycosides and S-glycosides…

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Sustainable electro-synthesis of esters

A research team led by Associate Professor YEO Boon Siang, Jason from the Department of Chemistry, NUS in collaboration with…

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Sub-angstrom non-invasive imaging of the atomic arrangement in 2D hybrid perovskites

A NUS research team led by Associate Professor Jiong LU, in collaboration with Professor Kian Ping LOH’s research group, both…

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Electronic self-passivation of single vacancy in black phosphorus

A research team led by Associate Professor Jiong LU from the Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore discovered that…

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A simple method to determine phase preference of proteins on live cell membranes

The research team led by Professor Thorsten WOHLAND from the Departments of Biological Sciences and Chemistry, National University of Singapore…

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Wireless sensing of secreted enzymes from wound pathogens

A research team comprising Assistant Professor LI Hao from the Department of Chemistry and Assistant Professor John S. HO from…

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Water clusters in hydrophobic in crystalline porous covalent organic frameworks

A research team led by Professor JIANG Donglin from the Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore has realised water…

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Scalable two-step annealing method for preparing ultra-high-density single-atom catalyst libraries

A NUS research team led by Prof Jiong LU from the Department of Chemistry and the Institute for Functional Intelligent…

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Directing-group-free catalytic dicarbofunctionalization of unactivated alkenes

A research team led by Prof KOH Ming Joo, from the Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore together with…

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Visualising designer quantum states in stable macrocycle quantum corrals

A research team led by Prof Jiong LU from the Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore (NUS) has devised an on-surface…

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Titanium catalysis enables stereoselective synthesis of C-glycosides and glycopeptides

NUS chemists have conceived a new strategy to synthesize medicinally important C-alkyl and C-alkenyl glycosides through a titanium-catalysed reductive transformation process that…

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Modelling nonequilibrium nanoscale junctions with steady-state density functional theory (DFT)

NUS scientists have predicted a new type of nonequilibrium effects that could generally exist in nanoscale electronic devices, and successfully…

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Molecule-mediated surface reconstruction enables giant upconversion luminescence enhancement

A research team led by Prof LIU Xiaogang from Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore and Prof XU Hui from Heilongjiang…

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Stereoselective alkene synthesis with non-precious nickel catalysis

A research team led by Prof KOH Ming Joo, from the Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore in collaboration…

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Titanium catalysis enables stereoselective synthesis of C-glycosides and glycopeptides

NUS chemists have conceived a new strategy to synthesize medicinally important C-alkyl and C-alkenyl glycosides through a titanium-catalysed reductive transformation process that…

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Modelling nonequilibrium nanoscale junctions with steady-state density functional theory (DFT)

NUS scientists have predicted a new type of nonequilibrium effects that could generally exist in nanoscale electronic devices, and successfully…

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Molecule-mediated surface reconstruction enables giant upconversion luminescence enhancement

A research team led by Prof LIU Xiaogang from Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore and Prof XU Hui from Heilongjiang…

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Stereoselective alkene synthesis with non-precious nickel catalysis

A research team led by Prof KOH Ming Joo, from the Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore in collaboration…

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Controllable surface defect engineering on transition-metal trichalcogenide

A research team led by Prof CHEN Wei from both the Departments of Chemistry and Physics, National University of Singapore…

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Lanthanide nanoparticles enable continuous-wave NIR STED microscopy

A research team led by Prof LIU Xiaogang from the Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore has developed a…

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A mitochondria-targeted fluorescent probe for cisplatin

Prof ANG Wee Han and his research team from the Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore have developed a…

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Simple and compact platform for on-demand synthesis of pharmaceutical compounds

A research team led by Prof WU Jie, from the Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore has developed an…

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Synthesis of a sidewall fragment of a (12,0) carbon nanotube

A research team led by Prof CHI Chunyan from the Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore have developed a…

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Treating aggressive breast cancer with an anti-diabetic drug

A team of researchers led by Prof ANG Wee Han from the Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore and…

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On-surface synthesis of graphene molecules and their superlattices

A NUS research team led by Prof Jiong LU, in collaboration with Prof Jishan WU’s research group, both from the…

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Persistent luminescent nanocrystals enable high-resolution X-ray imaging

A research team led by Prof Xiaogang LIU from the Department of Chemistry, NUS has developed a technology for high-resolution…

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Expression, diffusion and molecular interactions determine Wnt3 distribution

A research team led by Prof Thorsten WOHLAND from the Department of Biological Sciences and the Department of Chemistry, NUS…

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Lanthanide nanocrystals brighten molecular triplet excitons

A research team led by Prof LIU Xiaogang from the Department of Chemistry, NUS has developed a new approach to…

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Printable two-dimensional superconducting monolayers

A NUS research team led by Prof LU Jiong, from the Department of Chemistry, NUS in collaboration with Prof Kostya…

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Manipulating chain-walking in olefins using earth-abundant iron-based catalysts

A research team led by Prof KOH Ming Joo, from the Department of Chemistry, NUS has devised a new olefin…

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Divergent synthesis of bicyclic medium-sized ring structures

A research team led by Prof ZHAO Yu, from the Department of Chemistry, has discovered catalyst-controlled divergent reactions to synthesise…

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Antibacterial prodrug by targeting intracellular metabolite

The research team led by Prof ANG Wee Han from the Department of Chemistry, NUS proposed a new approach to…

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Transparent near-infrared light-emitting diodes

NUS researchers have developed transparent near-infrared light-emitting diodes (LEDs) that could be integrated into the displays of smart-watches, smart-phones and…

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Late-stage functionalisation of carbon-hydrogen bonds

Illustration showing (top) the site-selective late-stage C-H alkenylation through the use of synergistic hydrogen atom transfer and cobalt catalysis in…

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An electrical switch for magnetism

A research team led by Professor Goki Eda from the Department of Physics and the Department of Chemistry, and the…

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Incorporating ferromagnetism and superconductivity together in a single layer of molecular superlattice

A research team led by Assistant Professor Lu Jiong from the Department of Chemistry, NUS has demonstrated that the incorporation…

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Spatio-temporal dynamics of DNA replication

A research team comprising Assistant Professor Zhao Ziqing, Winston from the Department of Chemistry and Centre for BioImaging Sciences, NUS,…

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Engineering covalently bonded 2D layered materials by self-intercalation

Professor Loh Kian Ping‘s group and researchers at NUS Materials Science and Engineering have fabricated a whole new library of…

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Sustainable iron catalysis enables controllable alkene borylation

A research team led by Assistant Professor Koh Ming Joo from the Department of Chemistry, NUS has developed a new…

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Electric-field-driven dual-functional molecular switches in tunnel junctions

A challenge in miniaturized electronics is to reduce power consumption which causes overheating and shortens battery life-times in our electronic…

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Thin film Weyl semimetals for spintronic applications

Professor Loh Kian Ping‘s group has discovered that thinning down Weyl semimetals provides a new twist to spintronics. The group…

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3D global aromaticity and a new [6N+2] aromaticity rule

Professor Wu Jishan’s research group recently reported a 3D fully conjugated diradicaloid cage and its aromaticity in different oxidation states….

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Most influential scientists in chemistry in 2019

Professors Chen Wei, Goki Eda, Jiang Donglin, Liu Xiaogang, and Loh Kian Ping are among the most influential scientists in…

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Order–disorder Transition in a Two-dimensional Boron–Carbon–Nitride Alloy

A team lead by Professor Loh Kian Ping reported the mixing and demixing of 2-D boron–nitrogen and carbon phases and…

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Dibenzoheptazethrene Isomers with Different Biradical Characters: An Exercise of Clar’s Aromatic Sextet Rule in Singlet Biradicaloids

Extension of the Clar’s Aromatic Sextet Rule to the singlet biradicaloids! In a recent Article published in JACS (Link), A/P…

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Observing High Pressure Chemistry in Graphene Bubbles

The above recent work by the team of Professor Loh Kian Ping has been chosen as a “Hot Paper” by…

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A new benchmark dye for dye-sensitized solar cell! 

A new benchmark dye for dye-sensitized solar cell! In a recent Article published in JACS (Link), A/P Wu Jishan and his…

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Distortional isomerism in polyrotaxane coordination polymers!

Of the four supramolecular isomers of coordination polymers synthesized, two have polyrotaxane structures which differ only in the relative positions…

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Crystals dance during a reaction! Of course they are excited under UV light!

The self-propulsion of single crystals of three Zn(II) complexes under UV light has been discovered by Prof. JJ Vittal’s group…

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You can be made and broken in cycles, Mr. C-C Bond!

The cyclobutane ring can easily be made by solid-state [2+2] cycloaddition reaction. But can this be cleaved? Is it possible…

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Single crystals of a coordination polymer containing an organic polymer ligand!

Prof. JJ Vittal’s group reported an organic polymer comprising cyclobutane rings and a coordination polymer blend together inside this 3D…

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Multicolor Barcoding in a Single Upconversion Crystal

The synthesis of luminescent crystals based on hexagonal-phase sodium yettrium fluoride upconversion microrods is reported by A/P Liu Xiaogang’s group….

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Reuleaux Triangle Disks: New Shape on the Block (DOI: ja506625y)

A/P Fan Wai Yip and Bernard Ng Choon Hwee reported the preparation of Reuleaux triangle disks from the hydrolysis and…

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Milk orange Illuminating test measures fat in milk

Prof. Chang Young-Tae’s group reported the first fluorescent milk fat sensor (Chem Comm, 2014, 50, 10398-10410). It exhibits magnificent, yet…

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Nature Nanotechnology

Assoc Professor LIU Xiaogang group reported that producing luminescence materials with tunable emission colors that can be applied for high…

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Multiphoton harvesting metal–organic frameworks

Usually multiphoton harvesting property exhibited by the organic molecules in the solution, is quenched in the solid state due to…

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Dielectric Medium Self-consistent reaction field (SCRF) methods based on multiple expansions

Self-consistent reaction field (SCRF) methods based on multiple expansions are the most popular approaches in incorporation solvation effect in quantum…

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Z-Shaped Pentaleno- Acene Dimers with High Stability and Low Band Gap

Dr. Chi’s group reported a new strategy to stabilize reactive acenes by fusion of an anti-aromatic pentalene unit onto the…

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Dipolar Quinoidal Acene Analogues as Stable Isoelectronic Structures of Pentacene and Nonacene

In a recent article published in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2015, 54, 14412 (Link ), Dr. Chi and her co-workers…

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Development of background-free tame fluorescent probes for intracellular live cell imaging

Fluorescent dyes have been used for bioimaging for long time, but the conventional wisdom says the organic dyes are sticky…

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Boronic Acid: A Bio-Inspired Strategy to Increase the Sensitivity and Selectivity of Fluorescent NADH Probe

Fluorescent probes have been widely used in the molecular recognition events in biological systems; however, it remains challenging to design…

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Extended Bis(benzothia)-quinodimethanes and Their Dications: From Singlet Diradicaloids to Isoelectronic Structures of Long Acenes

In a recent article published in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2016, 55, 9316-9320 (hot paper), (Link), Dr. Chi and her…

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Toward metallic molecular wires!

Graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) with a width < 10 nm have promising applications in the future nano-electronics. While semi-conducting GNRs can…

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NUS chemists made C-C coupling based 2D polymer

Professor Kian Ping Loh and PhD student Liu Wei in the Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore, applied an…

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Cobalt-Catalyzed Asymmetric Hydroboration/Cyclization of 1,6-Enynes and Enantioselective Synthesis of (-)-Magnofargesin

Dr. Ge and his research team in the Department of Chemistry, NUS, have developed the first cobalt-catalyzed enantioselective hydroboration/cyclization of…

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Reversible multi-electron redox chemistry of π-conjugated N-containing heteroaromatic molecule-based organic cathodes

Even though organic molecules with well-designed functional groups can be programmed to have high electron density per unit mass, their…

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Gate-Tunable Giant Stark Effect in Few-Layer Black Phosphorus

Two-dimensional black phosphorus has sparked enormous research interest due to its high carrier mobility, layer-dependent direct bandgap and outstanding in-plane…

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Molecular electronics scientists shatter ‘impossible’ record of rectification rate

Assoc Prof Christian NIJHUIS from the Department of Chemistry, NUS and his research team, in collaboration with Dr Damien Thompson…

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Photoredox Functionalizaton of C(sp3)-H Bonds

Asst Prof WU Jie and his research group from the Department of Chemistry, NUS have developed a visible-light-promoted Ni-catalyzed C(sp3)-H…

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Highly efficient on-chip direct electronic-plasmonic transducers

Assoc Prof Christian NIJHUIS and his research group from the Department of Chemistry, NUS have developed electronic-plasmonic transducers operating at…

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Solar Driven Conversion of Carbon Dioxide to Ethylene

Asst Prof YEO Boon Siang Jason and his co-workers have developed an artificial photosynthesis device that facilitates the conversion of…

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Using upconversion nanoparticles to probe brain function

Prof LIU Xiaogang, together with an international research team, developed a novel approach to investigate deep brain stimulation utilising upconversion…

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Spatial structure of bound hole states in black phosphorous

Spatial structure of bound hole states in black phosphorous Asst Prof LU Jiong and his co-workers have discovered that the…

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Pioneering new ‘Trojan horse’ cancer drug

A team of NUS pharmacists and chemists has developed a new anti-cancer drug that has less toxic effects to the…

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