Publications | SRM-Lab

2026

Hand tracking using wearable wrist imaging

Gengxi Lu, SeongHyeon Kim, Xiaoyu Chen, Yushun Zeng, Dian Li, Shu Wang, Baoqiang Liu, Shucong Li, Runze Li, Bolei Deng, Junhang Zhang, Chen Gong, Anantha P. Chandrakasan, Qifa Zhou, Xuanhe Zhao

Nature Electronics 9, 426–440 (2026). DOI

A wearable non-invasive sonogenetic pacemaker

Chen Gong, Gengxi Lu, Baoqiang Liu, Z. Phil Che, Jie Ji, Fan Wei, Junhao Lin, Xiao Wan, Songsong Tang, Runze Li, Won Jun Song, Fengyi Ma, Jaemin Seo, Sunyoung Jung, Jiawen Chen, Shanshan Wang, Junhang Zhang, et al.

Nature Biomedical Engineering (2026). DOI

Liquid crystal elastomers for solar, mechanical, thermal, and electrochemical energy applications

Meng Zhang, Xinxin Lu, Tingting Ye, Haodong Hu, James P. Scarbrough, Rui Wang, Yuxing Yao, Shucong Li, Xiaoguang Wang

Journal of Materials Chemistry A 14, 3185–3209 (2026). DOI

Long-term stability of moisture-capturing hydrogels by preventing metal-mediated degradation

Carlos D. Díaz-Marín, Chad T. Wilson, Won Jun Song, Xiao-Yun Yan, Yuran Shi, Shucong Li, Chang Liu, Emily Lin, Yang Zhong, Lorenzo Masetti, Xuanhe Zhao

Nature Communications 17, 3783 (2026). DOI

Unusual swelling behavior of hydrogels modified with spiropyran as appendage or crosslinker

Michael M. Lerch, Ankita Shastri, Thomas B. H. Schroeder, Amos Meeks, Shucong Li, Anna V. Shneidman, Michael Aizenberg, Joanna Aizenberg

Advanced Functional Materials 36, e18243 (2026). DOI

Air-permeable hydrogels through viscoelastic phase separation of aerogels

Xiao-Yun Yan, Shucong Li, Won Jun Song, Rui Li, Anurag Dahal, Benjamin F. G. Aymon, Haodong Hu, D. K. Malu, et al.

Nature 655, 372–380 (2026). DOI

Liquid crystal elastomers under confinement: A review of template-based fabrication and applications

Meng Zhang, Lei Yang, Xinyu Ding, James P. Scarbrough, T. N. Singh, Yuxing Yao, Shucong Li, Xiaoguang Wang

Advanced Engineering Materials 28, e202501727 (2026). DOI

2025

A metre-scale vertical origami hydrogel panel for atmospheric water harvesting in Death Valley

Chang Liu, Xiao-Yun Yan, Shucong Li, Hongshi Zhang, Bolei Deng, Nicholas X. Fang, Youssef Habibi, Shih-Chi Chen, Xuanhe Zhao

Nature Water 3, 714–722 (2025). DOI

All-3D-printed multi-environment modular microrobots powered by large-displacement dielectric elastomer microactuators

Won Jun Song, Yong-Woo Kang, Yun Hyeok Lee, Junhyung Kim, Bastien F. G. Aymon, Seong-Yu Choi, Yong Eun Cho, Xiao-Yun Yan, Shucong Li, Younghoon Lee, Xuanhe Zhao, Yong-Lae Park, Jeong-Yun Sun

Advanced Materials 37 (45), e07503 (2025). DOI

Synergistic adhesion and shape deformation in nanowire-structured liquid crystal elastomers

Robert L. Dupont, Yang Xu, Arjun Borbora, Xiaoguang Wang, Farzaneh Azadi, K. Havener, B. Lewis, et al.

Advanced Materials 37 (9), e2414695 (2025). DOI

Multistable polar textures in geometrically frustrated nematic liquid crystals

Ufuoma I. Kara, Boya Chen, Sašo Čopar, Shucong Li, Rohan Mamtani, Yuxing Xu, Alan H. Weible, Emily C. Boerner, et al.

Nature Physics 21, 1404–1411 (2025). DOI

Electronic-free particle robots communicate through architected tentacles

Xinyi Yang, Bohan Wang, Víctor Riera Naranjo, Minghao Guo, Olivia Rivera, Leonid Sopizhenko, Shucong Li, William Freeman, Wojciech Matusik, Bolei Deng

Advanced Intelligent Systems 7 (12), e202500151 (2025). DOI

Artificial synapse-based intelligent light-controlled liquid crystal network actuators

Yuhang Song, Junyao Zhang, Zejun Sun, Haixia Liang, Tongrui Sun, Zhimin Lu, Shucong Li, Yuxing Yao, Xiaoguang Wang, Yang Xu, Jia Huang

InfoMat 7 (6), e70008 (2025). DOI

2024

Programming liquid crystal elastomers for multistep ambidirectional deformability

Yuxing Yao, Atalaya Milan Wilborn, Baptiste Lemaire, Foteini Trigka, Friedrich Stricker, Alan H. Weible, Shucong Li, Robert K. A. Bennett, Tung Chun Cheung, Alison Grinthal, Mikhail Zhernenkov, Guillaume Freychet, Patryk Wąsik, Boris Kozinsky, Michael M. Lerch, Xiaoguang Wang, Joanna Aizenberg

Science 386 (6726), 1161–1168 (2024). DOI

Programming hierarchical anisotropy in microactuators for multimodal actuation

Shiyu Wang, Shucong Li, Wenchang Zhao, Ying Zhou, Liqiu Wang, Joanna Aizenberg, Pingan Zhu

Lab on a Chip 24 (17), 4073–4084 (2024). DOI

Functional nanoporous graphene superlattice

Hualiang Lv, Yuxing Yao, Mingyue Yuan, Guanyu Chen, Yuchao Wang, Longjun Rao, Shucong Li, Ufuoma I. Kara, Robert L. Dupont, Cheng Zhang, Boyuan Chen, Bo Liu, Xiaodi Zhou, Renbing Wu, Solomon Adera, Renchao Che, Xingcai Zhang, Xiaoguang Wang

Nature Communications 15, 1295 (2024). DOI

2023

Staggered circular nanoporous graphene converts electromagnetic waves into electricity

Hualiang Lv, Yuxing Yao, Shucong Li, Guanglei Wu, Biao Zhao, Xiaodi Zhou, Robert L. Dupont, Ufuoma I. Kara, Yimin Zhou, Shibo Xi, Bo Liu, Renchao Che, Jincang Zhang, Hongbin Xu, Solomon Adera, Renbing Wu, Xiaoguang Wang

Nature Communications 14, 1982 (2023). DOI

Programming deformations of 3D microstructures: Opportunities enabled by magnetic alignment of liquid crystalline elastomers

Shucong Li, Michael Aizenberg, Michael M. Lerch, Joanna Aizenberg

Accounts of Materials Research 4 (12), 1008–1018 (2023). DOI

Single-molecule visualization determines conformational substate ensembles in β-sheet-rich peptide fibrils

Wenbin Zhang, Rui Wang, Meng Liu, Shucong Li, Alexander E. Vokoun, W. Deng, Robert L. Dupont, F. Zhang, et al.

Science Advances 9 (27), eadg7943 (2023). DOI

Experimental insights into conformational ensembles of assembled β-sheet peptides

Liya Yu, Rui Wang, Shucong Li, Ufuoma I. Kara, Emily C. Boerner, B. Chen, F. Zhang, Z. Jian, Shiyu Li, et al.

ACS Central Science 9 (7), 1480–1487 (2023). DOI

2022

Self-regulated non-reciprocal motions in single-material microstructures

Shucong Li, Michael M. Lerch, James T. Waters, Bolei Deng, Reese S. Martens, Yuxing Yao, Do Yoon Kim, Katia Bertoldi, Alison Grinthal, Anna C. Balazs, Joanna Aizenberg

Nature 605, 76–83 (2022). DOI

Wettability-based ultrasensitive detection of amphiphiles through directed concentration at disordered regions in self-assembled monolayers

Yuxing Yao, Robert K. A. Bennett, Yang Xu, Adil M. Rather, Shucong Li, Tung Chun Cheung, Alisha Bhanji, Michael J. Kreder, Dan Daniel, Solomon Adera, Joanna Aizenberg, Xiaoguang Wang

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 119 (43), e2211042119 (2022). DOI

2021

Liquid-induced topological transformations of cellular microstructures

Shucong Li, Bolei Deng, Alison Grinthal, Alyssha Schneider-Yamamura, Jinliang Kang, Reese S. Martens, Cathy T. Zhang, Jian Li, Siqin Yu, Katia Bertoldi, Joanna Aizenberg

Nature 592, 386–391 (2021). DOI

Controlling liquid crystal orientations for programmable anisotropic transformations in cellular microstructures

Shucong Li, Gabriele Librandi, Yuxing Yao, Austin J. Richard, Alyssha Schneider-Yamamura, Joanna Aizenberg, Katia Bertoldi

Advanced Materials 33 (42), 2105024 (2021). DOI

2020

3D printable and reconfigurable liquid crystal elastomers with light-induced shape memory via dynamic bond exchange

Emily C. Davidson, Arda Kotikian, Shucong Li, Joanna Aizenberg, Jennifer A. Lewis

Advanced Materials 32 (1), 1905682 (2020). DOI

Twist again: Dynamically and reversibly controllable chirality in liquid crystalline elastomer microposts

James T. Waters, Shucong Li, Yuxing Yao, Michael M. Lerch, Michael Aizenberg, Joanna Aizenberg, Anna C. Balazs

Science Advances 6 (13), eaay5349 (2020). DOI

2018

Multiresponsive polymeric microstructures with encoded predetermined and self-regulated deformability

Yuxing Yao, James T. Waters, Anna V. Shneidman, Jiaxi Cui, Xiaoguang Wang, Nikolaj K. Mandsberg, Shucong Li, Anna C. Balazs, Joanna Aizenberg

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 115 (51), 12950–12955 (2018). DOI