Two teams led, respectively, by XJTU Professor Liu Feng and Professor Carsten Tschierske of Martin-Luther-Universitt Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) carried out research on liquid organic frameworks andf ound an 8-connected network with body-centered cubic symmetry.

"The first body-centered cubic liquid crystalline phasewith 8-connected network topology and openoctahedral network structure is reportedly formed by dynamic soft self-assembly of X-shaped polyphiles with oligo (para-phenylene-ethynylene) cores."

The paper titled Liquid organic frameworks: A liquid crystalline 8-connected network with body-centered cubic symmetrywas published in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., a flagship journal for chemistry studies. XJTU doctoral candidate, Chen Changlong, and MLU Doctor Macro Poppe are the first authors. Professor Liu Feng and Carsten Tschierske are the corresponding authors. XJTU's State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behaviors of Materials is the first institutional affiliation.