Siyi attended South China University of Technology in Guangzhou, where he got his B.A. in Light Chemical Engineering. While attending, he received his scientific training on cellulose derivative nanopapers over 3 years in Chinese State Key Lab of Pulp and Paper Engineering as the first undergraduate student.
Now, Siyi is working on applying photonic cellulose derivatives into functional materials, particularly focusing on Hydroxypropyl Cellulose (HPC) and Ethyl Cellulose (EC). What makes these materials very interesting for photonic applications is the fact that the reflected colour changes not only with the concentration or solvent, but also dynamically with temperature, pressure and in response to magnetic fields. However, it is hard to produce vibrant solid-state coloured materials from HPC and EC, and in different material geometries there are additional challenges and limitations to overcome in terms of understanding how these geometries affect the self-assembled structure. Siyi hopes to fabricate smart photonic films, fibres, and droplets through chemical and physical crosslinkings of HPC and EC, and then explore their additional functionalities, such as self-healing, shape-memory or responsivity-mechanochromisim.