Biography

Lei Sun was born in Changchun, Jilin Province, China. He received the B.S. degree in 2011 from School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Nanjing University. During 2011−2017, He worked with Prof. Mircea Dincă in Department of Chemistry at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After graduating with the Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry degree, he conducted postdoctoral research under the guidance of Prof. Danna E. Freedman in Department of Chemistry at Northwestern University during 2017−2019 and then Dr. Tijana Rajh in Center for Nanoscale Materials at Argonne National Laboratory during 2019−2021. Meanwhile, he studied Machine Learning in College of Computing at Georgia Institute of Technology and in 2022 obtained the Master of Science in Computer Science degree. In November 2021, he joined the School of Science at Westlake University as a joint Assistant Professor in Department of Chemistry and Department of Physics and established the Laboratory of Molecular Quantum Devices and Quantum Information.

Research

The Sun Laboratory is interested in exploring quantum information science and condensed matter physics from chemistry perspective. The lab’s research focuses on designing functional molecules to study fundamental quantum phenomena and using devices to realize single-molecular quantum manipulation.

1.Integrate molecular electron spin qubits into micro/nano-devices, solid-state surfaces, and microporous materials to investigate spin dynamics in various application-related environments.

2.Develop molecular quantum sensing, communication, and computing technologies based on coherent addressing of electron spin qubits with single-molecule devices.

3.Examine electron and spin transport properties of two-dimensional metal−organic frameworks and their heterostructures to gain insight into quantum phenomena such as topological states, superconductivity, and two-dimensional magnetism.

Representative Publications

1.Jia-Shiang Chen^†, Kasidet Jing Trerayapiwat^†,Lei Sun^†, Matthew D. Krzyaniak, Michael R. Wasielewski, Sahar Sharifzadeh, Xuedan Ma^*“Long-Lived Electronic Spin Qubits in Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes”Nat. Commun.2023, 14, 848.

2.Alexander K. Oanta, Kelsey A. Collins, Austin M. Evans, Saied Md Pratik, Lyndon A. Hall, Michael J. Strauss, Seth R. Marder, Deanna M. D’Alessandro, Tijana Rajh, Danna E. Freedman, Hong Li, Jean-Luc Brédas,Lei Sun^*, William R. Dichtel^*“Electronic Spin Qubit Candidates Arrayed within Layered Two-Dimensional Polymers”J. Am. Chem. Soc.2023, 145, 689−696.

3.Lei Sun^†,*, Luming Yang^†, Jin-Hu Dou, Jian Li, Grigorii Skorupskii, Michael Mardini, Kong Ooi Tan, Tianyang Chen, Chenyue Sun, Julius J. Oppenheim, Robert G. Griffin, Mircea Dincă^*, Tijana Rajh^*“Room-Temperature Quantitative Quantum Sensing of Lithium Ions with a Radical-Embedded Metal−Organic Framework”J. Am. Chem. Soc.2022, 144, 19008−19016.

4.Lei Sun, Bolin Liao, Dennis Sheberla, Daniel Kraemer, Jiawei Zhou, Eric A. Stach, Dmitri Zakharov, Vitalie Stavila, A. Alec Talin, Yicong Ge, Mark D. Allendorf, Gang Chen, François Léonard, Mircea Dincă^*“A Microporous and Naturally Nanostructured Thermoelectric Metal−Organic Framework with Ultralow Thermal Conductivity”Joule2017, 1, 168−177.

5.Lei Sun, Christopher H. Hendon, Sarah S. Park, Yuri Tulchinsky, Ruomeng Wan, Fang Wang, Aron Walsh, Mircea Dincă^*“Is Iron Unique in Promoting Electrical Conductivity in MOFs?”Chem. Sci.2017, 8, 4450−4457.

6.Lei Sun, Sarah S. Park, Dennis Sheberla, Mircea Dincă^*“Measuring and Reporting Electrical Conductivity in Metal−Organic Frameworks: Cd₂(TTFTB) as a Case Study”J. Am. Chem. Soc.2016, 138, 14772−14782.

7.Lei Sun^†, Michael G. Campbell^†, Mircea Dincă^*“Electrically Conductive Porous Metal‒Organic Frameworks”Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.2016, 55, 3566−3579;Angew. Chem.2016, 128, 3628‒3642 (review).

8.Lei Sun, Christopher H. Hendon, Mikael A. Minier, Aron Walsh, Mircea Dincă^*“Million-Fold Electrical Conductivity Enhancement in Fe₂(DEBDC) versus Mn₂(DEBDC) (E = S, O)”J. Am. Chem. Soc.2015, 137, 6164−6167.

9.Lei Sun, Tomoyo Miyakai, Shu Seki, Mircea Dincă^*“Mn₂(2,5-disulfhydrylbenzene-1,4-dicarboxylate): A Microporous Metal‒Organic Framework with Infinite (−Mn−S−)_∞Chains and High Intrinsic Charge Mobility”J. Am. Chem. Soc.2013, 135, 8185−8188.

10.Lilia S. Xie,Lei Sun, Ruomeng Wan, Sarah S. Park, Jordan A. DeGayner, Christopher H. Hendon, Mircea Dincă^*“Tunable Mixed-Valence Doping toward Record Electrical Conductivity in a Three-Dimensional Metal‒Organic Framework”J. Am. Chem. Soc.2018, 140, 7411‒7414.

^†first author     ^*corresponding author

Contact Information

Email:sunlei@westlake.edu.cn

We are dedicated to creating a psychologically safe, open-communicating, independent, and helpful laboratory environment that encourages lab members to learn interdisciplinary knowledge and skills, enjoy research, and innovate with curiosity, courage, resilience, and perseverance. Our goal is to cultivate young talents to achieve personal growth, articulate career plan, and appreciate the “DAO” of science. We welcome motivated undergraduates, graduates, postdocs, and research assistants with chemistry, physics, material science, or computer science background to apply our laboratory. Interested candidates please send CV, research summary, and research interests tosunlei@westlake.edu.cn.

Let's explore the exciting molecular quantum world together!