The Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science (SYNL) was founded on June 28, 2001. The SYNL is operated by the Institute of Metal Research (IMR), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and established based on three laboratories in IMR (State Key Lab for Rapidly Solidified Non-equilibrium Alloys, State Key Lab for Fatigue and Fracture of Materials and Lab for Atomic Imaging of Solids of CAS). Current director of the SYNL is Prof. Ke LU. The chairman of the Advisory Committee of the SYNL is Prof. Heng-qiang YE, and Prof. Chang-xu SHI is the honorary chairman.

It is a long-term goal of the SYNL to build up a world-class laboratory in materials science community. The SYNL conducts fundamental research of materials science, ranging from the materials processing, characterization, modeling, properties and performance. It consists of ten research divisions, including Non-equilibrium Metallic Materials Division, High-performance Ceramics Division, Advanced Carbons Division, Magnetism and Magnetic Materials Division, Microelectronic Interconnect Materials Division, Solid Atomic Imaging Division, Materials Fatigue and Fracture Division, Engineering Alloys Division, Materials Process Modeling Division and Catalysis and Materials Division, as well as one Technical Service Division and three centers, Research Center for Materials Development Strategy, Materials Basic Data Center and Materials Failure Analysis Center.

Over the past nine years (2001～2009), research progresses in several fields were made, including: (1) Inventing a surface mechanical attrition treatment (SMAT) technique to induce the surface nanocrystallization in metallic materials. It is of interest to improve the, wear and corrosion resistance of materials surface, and to reduce the temperature of subsequent surface chemical heat treatment of metallic materials. (2) Using the techniques of pulsed electro-deposition and dynamic plastic deformation, nanoscale growth twins are formed in metallic materials. It is shown that nanotwinned copper exhibits a good combination of ultrahigh strength, high plasticity and electrical conductivity. (3) Developing a CVD (chemical vapor deposition) method of flowing catalyst to synthesize SWCNTs (single walled carbon nanotubes), which has become one of major methods for CNT synthesis. (4) Developing a method of in-situ solid-liquid reaction synthesis and simultaneous densification to fabricate Mn+1AXn ceramics, their solid solutions and composites. (5) Discovering the beta-type titanium alloys (Ti2448) with multi-functional properties, including high strength / low elastic modulus, desired by biomedical implant applications, as well as super-elasticity and a high damping capacity. Ti2448 alloys plates for biomedical application have passed national registration and inspection. (6) A unified tensile fracture criterion of materials was proposed to unify the four classical criteria. (7) Developing a visualized hot-working technology of metallic materials, which has a very important significance for improving the quality of the casting and forging ingots in huge scale. This technique has been gradually applied in the industry.

Currently, researchers at the SYNL undertake more than 100 projects from the funding agency in each year, including National Basic Research Program of China, National High Technology Research and Development Program of China, Major Program of NSFC (National Natural Science Foundation of China), Key Project of NSFC, etc. During the past nine years, the SYNL won 1 Second Prize National Award for Natural Science” in 2006 (Prof. Huiming Cheng, etc., “The synthesis, structure and properties of single-walled and double-walled carbon nanotubes”), 1 Outstanding Scientific and Technological Achievement Award of CAS (Prof. Dianzhong Li, etc., “The research group for the visualized casting and forging technology”), 4 First Prize and 5 Second Prize of the Natural Science Awards in Liaoning Province. The whole lab has published 2317 scientific papers in international journals (1893 of them in SCI Journals), and filed 356 domestic patents and 8 international patents for invention, of which 181 domestic patents and 5 international patents were approved. Meanwhile, SYNL scientists were invited to present 246 invited talks at international conferences. In additon, about 13 scientists at SYNL held the service positions in 31 international academic organizations and journals, including reviewing editor of Science and editors of Materials Letters, Scripta Materialia and Carbon etc. SYNL scientists have won over 10 awards and honours of international significance, including MRS Fellow (Prof. K Lu), Academician of the World Academy of Ceramics and the American Ceramics Society Fellow (Prof. Y.C. Zhou), Charles E. Petinos Award of the American Carbon Society (Prof. M.H. Cheng), Kelly Lecture of Cambridge University (Prof. K Lu) and Global Star Award of Engineering Ceramic Division of the American Ceramic Society (Prof. Y.C. Zhou), etc.

Up to now, there are 164 scientists and staff at the SYNL, including three members of CAS, one member of CAE and eleven winner of Distinguished Young Scholars Funding of NSFC. In recent years, the SYNL has recruited three high-level faculty with the experience at least as the associate professor in overseas research institutions, and introduced eleven young leaders by “100 Talents Program”. In December, 2008, the SYNL was awarded “the base of innovation and carving out for overseas high-level talents” by national government. In addition, there are 392 graduate students and visiting scientists working at the laboratory. Currently, 202 and 82 students received the Ph D. and Master degree at the SYNL, respectively, of which there were six dissertations winning “National Top 100 Doctoral Dissertations Award”, four dissertations winning “Excellent Doctoral Dissertations Award of CAS” and seven students receiving “Special President Award of CAS”. Moreover, the lab established the “T. S. Kê Research Fellowship” program since March, 2008. Its purpose is to provide opportunities for outstanding young scholars all over the world and to pursue high level research in materials science and engineering at the SYNL. At present, 4 excellent young scholars were awarded for this fellowship.

So far, the SYNL has established extensive academic exchange and collaboration with the world-wide scientists. It established “Lee Hsun Award Series” named after Prof. Lee Hsun who is a famous metallurgist and the first director of IMR (including Lee Hsun Lecture Award, Joint Research Award and Achievement Award.) and “Foundation for Academic Exchange and Collaboration” to support world-wide excellent scientists and scholars to present lectures and short-term work at the SYNL. During the past several years, the SYNL invited 5056 scientists to visit the laboratory and participate in academic activities, 366 scientists to present academic lectures. Among them, “Lee Hsun Award Series” lectures were 47 person-times. It has also successfully organized 12 international conferences, such as MPI-MF/IMR-CAS Bilateral Symposium, the First International Symposium on Interfacial Materials, International Gamma TiAl Workshop 2005, etc. Moreover, it has established Sino-Danish Research Center for Nanocrystalline Metals with Risø National Laboratory, etc. and IMR-PolyU Joint Lab with the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Through the construction and development of ten years, the SYNL has gradually become a high-level research lab for materials research, featured by excellent talents, state-of-the-art facilities, research projects oriented by frontier problems in materials science and the national needs, significant accomplishments, cultivation of high-level talents and international style running under the support of the MOST, CAS and NSFC, etc. As expected, these efforts have laid a solid foundation for providing service for national need for the advanced materials and new technologies and for producing original knowledge.