Nature Materials Reports ECUST’s Discovery of Hydrogels with “Self-Magnetic” Properties Featuring “Monovalent-Like” Calcium Ions

Recently, Professor Haiping Fang and Associate Researcher Ruoyang Chen from the School of Physics, ECUST, in collaboration with researchers from multiple domestic academic institutions, discovered that calcium ions can exhibit distinctive “monovalent” characteristics when combined with suitable organic substances, and the corresponding hydrogels exhibit exceptionally strong paramagnetism. The study was published in the international journal Nature Materials (doi.org:10.1038/s41563-025-02477-3).

This work has obtained financial support from a series of national and local scientific research funds, including the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Action Plan, the Shanghai Baiyulan Talent Program (Pujiang Program), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.

Collaborating institutions include the Wenzhou Institute of the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, the CAS High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Oujiang Laboratory, Zhejiang University, and Hangzhou City University.