On April 16th, Invited by Professor Chun Tang from the School of Civil Engineering and Mechanics, Professor Jiantao Wang from the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences visited Jiangsu University and gave a speech titled "High-pressure Phase Transitions of Graphite and Layered Compounds" in room 908 of the Leisi building. Professor Jianguo Zhu, Director of the Structural Health Management Institute, Professor Jian Zhang, associate Professor Wenfeng Hao , and teachers and graduate students from across the campus attended the seminar.

In his speech, Professor Wang mainly talked about his recent research results on high pressure phase transition and novel properties of layered materials. Professor Wang first introduced the results of structural phase transition of graphite under high temperature and pressure. First principles calculation shows that graphite can form a new high pressure phase of diamond through interlaminar slip, in-plane buckling and sp²-sp³ bond conversion: The XRD images of W-Carbon, a high pressure phase, are consistent with the experimental measurements. With new optical and mechanical properties improved, this series of results has successfully revealed a new high pressure phase transition mechanism, driving the development of the field. Professor Wang then introduced the structural phase transition and its kinetic process in the layered silicon and germanium structures caused by cold pressing. He found different cold pressing phase transition reaction pathways and found the lowest reaction energy barrier. The results of this theoretical research were verified by international colleagues through experimental observations two years later (Naure Communications, 2015, 6, 7555). Finally, Professor Wang introduced the research results of his research group in cooperation with the experiment, which have just been published in the journal Phys.Rev.Lett. (2021, 126, 155701). In this study, Prof. Wang's experimental collaborators found that in the high pressure phase transition process of a new magnetic topological insulator layered compound (EuSn2As2), the XRD pattern showed the appearance of a new diffraction peak near 12GPa and the disappearance of the old diffraction peak at 22GPa, respectively. Professor Wang found through the first principles calculations that, in the process of α-β phase transition, the two phases coexist in the transition pressure, superconductivity under high pressure was found, and the superconductivity transition temperature is found to be at 4K.

After the talk, the teachers and students had an in-depth discussion and exchange with Prof. Jiantao Wang on related scientific topics, and shared their experience on how to do world-class academic research. The event was a big success because everyone attended the seminar benefited a lot from Professor Wang's talk and was greatly encouraged.

Jiantao Wang is a professor and doctoral supervisor at the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 1990, he went to Japan to study and received his bachelor's, master's and doctor's degrees in material physics from Tohoku University. He was a special researcher at the Japan Society for the Advancement of Science. After returning to China in 2002, he served as an associate professor and professor in the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Since 2015, he has been a Chair Professor at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, lecturing on Solid State Theory. He has long been engaged in first-principles calculations of spin polarization, high pressure phase transition, surface and topological properties. He has published more than 120 academic papers in Phys. Rev. Lett. Among them, "A new mechanism for the decomposition of nano-clusters on silicon surface" was selected as "a major scientific advance in China in 2006".