The Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) discipline of Central South University, initially founded in1954, is honored as National Key Discipline in First Category and among the earliest ones being granted theauthority to award master degree and doctor degree, and to host Post-doctoral working station. The discipline consists of three National Key Disciplines in Second Category, namely Materials Physics and Chemistry,Materials Science, and Materials Processing Engineering, each with distinct professional features and specialties. It has been well recognized as one national key R&D and talents cultivation base for innovative materials in non-ferrous metals, powder metallurgy, and other new materials.The CSU-MSE discipline has a highly competitive faculty group, led by 6 academicians (including 1 member of the Chinese Academy of Science, 3 members of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and 2foreign members of the Chinese Academy of Engineering),5 “Yangtze River Scholar” distinguished Professors, and 3 Distinguished Young Scholars of the
National Science Foundation of China.The CSU-MSE discipline hosts 7 National Laboratories and Research Centers, including the “State Cooperative Innovation Center for Nonferrous-Metal Oriented Advanced Structural Materials and Manufacturing“, “State Key Laboratory for Powder Metallurgy”, “State Key Laboratory for High Performance Complex Manufacturing”, “State Engineering Research Center for Powder Metallurgy”, “National Science and Technology Key Laboratory for High-Strength Light-Weight Structure Materials”, “National
Engineering Research Center for C/C Composites”, “Chinese Quality Supervision and Inspection Center for Nonferrous-Metal Powder Metallurgical Products”, and 18 Provincial and Ministerial Laboratories and Research Centers. Among which, the State Engineering Research Center for Powder Metallurgy has been ranked Top 1 for three consecutive times evaluated by the National Development and Reform Commission.In recent years, the CSU-MSE discipline has received a rapid development and a fast-increasing international reputation in the field, by developing comprehensive and solid collaboration with a wide variety of more than 50 prestigious universities and institutes in the world, including Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oxford University, Aachen University,University of Tokyo, and Monash University. The discipline hosts the bachelor’s level international cooperative education program - the “Sino-Australia International Class” - granted by the Chinese Ministry of Education, and many other international cooperative research programs granted by the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology, including “the Sino-Russia Research Center for New Materials industrialization Technologies”, “Sino-Australia International Research Center for Light-weight Metals”, and “Sino-German Cooperative Research Lab for Aluminum Alloy Microstructures”. According to the ESI world’s database, the discipline ranked in Top 10 in total journal publication number and Top 100 in Materials discipline in three consecutive years (2012-2014), and more recently, ranked 73th (Top 1‰) in 2015 and 71th in 2016.
Since its creation, the CSU-MSE discipline has cultivated and attracted a large number of world-renowned scholars and leading cadres, including Master-class academicians Huang Peiyun, ZuoTieyong, Huang Baiyun, Zeng Sumin, Jin Zhanpeng, and Xie Jianxin, and political and industrial leaders ZhaoYongqing, Xiao Yaqing, Liang Wengeng, Tang Xiuguo, and etc. The graduates and post-graduates have gone on to very successful careers all over the world, making their exceptional contribution and impact
Major Research Areas
Area 1: Computational Materials Science and Genome Engineering
This area focuses on phase-diagram and thermodynamics and kinetics of materials, construction of non-ferrous metal materials database, modeling and simulation of microstructure evolution during fabrication,prediction of materials composition- processing-property relation, and high-throughput materials design,fabrication, and characterization. This area has cultivated and attracted a group of world-renowned experts and specialists in the fields of phase diagrams and materials design, and has won world reputation for developing the systematic theories for materials design through the coupling of thermodynamic calculations, kinetic simulations, and high throughput experiments. In recent years, a total of more than 350 SCI-cited papers have been published on 30 international journals, and drawn enormous citations in 82 international journals by researchers from more than 130 institutes in 33 countries. The relevant data and results have been officially recommended to the world using more than 350 pages in 4 international handbooks edited by American and
German scientists.
Area 2: New Non-ferrous Metal Materials
This area focuses on developing strengthening/toughing theories and technologies for non-ferrous metal materials, plastic deformation principles and processing technologies, the mechanical properties, service performance, and life prediction of materials, and new methods for microstructure and properties characterization. Recent major achievements include the new theories and key technologies for the continuous hot-rolling of aluminum and aluminum alloys, the plastic deformation and processing of large-size high-strength heat-resistant magnesium alloy work-pieces, and the ultrasonic casting of large-wide and thick ingots of high performance 7050/7085 aluminum alloys, and as well the design and development of high performance aluminum-lithium alloys and wrought magnesium alloys. The 7050/7085 alloys have been successfully applied for manufacturing key structural components in large transport airplanes. The aluminum-lithium alloys have been widely used in advanced planes and rockets. The wrought magnesium alloys have been widely used in new-generation helicopters.These research activities have been awarded more than 10 National Prizes, including the 1st-Place of the National Prize for Science and Technology Progress for twice.
Area 3: New Powder Metallurgical Materials
This area focuses on performance-based design and optimization of powder metallurgical materials, such as new cemented carbides, high-density iron-based materials, and refractory-metal materials, amorphous nano-crystalline alloys, iron- and nickel-based high temperature alloys, and new fabrication technologies for powder metallurgical materials, including 3D additive manufacturing, microwave sintering, and spark plasma sintering. This area has developed enormous high performance powder metallurgical materials and products to meet the national economy and military demands, and won 4 National Prizes. Among them, the project of
“Key technologies for Refractory Tungsten Resource Exploitation and Utilization” won the 1st-Place of the National Prize for Science and Technology Progress in 2011, and the project of “Fabrication technologies for High Performance Tungsten-based Composite Materials” won the 2nd-Place of the National Prize for Technological Invention in 2015. The Cu/C composites have been successfully used as sealing ring materials in LOX/ kerosene engines .
Area 4: Carbon-based Composite Materials
This area focuses on C/C-composite microstructure characterization and design, friction and wear
mechanisms, fast chemical vapor deposition, new anti-oxidation and anti-ablation technologies, fabrication of large-size C/C-composite components, and engineering applications of aviation brake-pair systems. The project of “Fabrication Technologies of High-Performance C/C Brake Materials for Aviation Applications”won the 1st-Place of the National Prize for Technological Invention in 2004. The C/C-composite brake pairs were successfully used in C919 large transport airplanes in 2015. Large-size C/C-composite structural components passed the Ground Test by CALT in 2014 and reach the qualifications for uses in high performance aircraft Large-size C/C nozzle throat was successfully used in solid-propellant rocket engines of Kuaizhou-series carrier rockets. A total of more than 10 C/C components and products have been complemented under the support of the National Key Projects, making great contribution to the development and progress of the national industry.
Area 5: Nano-Energy and New Functional Materials
This area focuses on innovation research of the nano-structure and energy storage/transfer interrelation, high-performance lithium-ion batteries, solar batteries, and fuel cells, and new electronic packaging materials.This new area has gathered a group of talented experts and specialists, including 3 members of “the ThousandTalents Plan of China”, Prof. Pederson Larry Robert (Head of the United States Solid State Energy Conversion Alliance) and Prof. Weifeng Wei. New electronic packaging materials and products have been successfully applied to airborne and shipboard radars, reducing the size & weight and improve the service performance of the equipments. In recent years, a total of more than130 SCI-cited papers have been published on prestigious international journals including Nat. Comm, JACS,Angew. Chem, Adv. Mater., ACS Nano, Adv. Fun. Mater., and EES. Among which, almost 40 papers have been published on high impact journals with IF>10.