The Materials Phase Transitions and Neutron Scattering Research Group，founded in 2018, is part of the Division of Magnetic and Thermal Functional Materials, Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The group is led by Prof. Bing Li and consists of four professors, three engineers, one research assistant, four postdoctoral fellows, ten PhD candidates, and nine master students.

Our research focuses on uncovering the fundamental physics and advancing applications of magnetocaloric and barocaloric materials, zero-carbon cooling, and controllable thermal storage technologies, featured with the use of large-scale facility characterization techniques, pursuing a full innovation chain of physical principles - material optimization - device design - system integration. The team discovered the colossal barocaloric effect in plastic crystals and designed the first barocaloric refrigeration prototype.

The team has been promoting the application of neutron scattering techniques in materials science, and has organized several academic events, including the First International Symposium on Phase-Transition Cooling Materials and Large-Scale Facility Characterization Techniques, the Youth Forum of the National Laboratory, and the First AONSA Symposium on Phase-Transition Cooling Materials.

To date, the group has published over 100 research papers in the high-impact international journals, including Nature, Nature Materials, and Nature Communications, and has filed more than 30 invention patents. Prof. Li has been awarded the 17th China Youth Science and Technology Award and the 2024 CAS Young Scientist Award.