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Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering
Biography
Dr. Ryan Wang obtained his PhD in Chemistry from Peking University in 2012. He wasan Alexander von Humboldtresearcher in Max Planck Institute for coal research in Germany between2012 and 2015. He joined the Chemical Engineering Department of UCL as a Lecturer in January 2016, and Associate Professor in 2021. He is the awardee ofthe Young Scientist Prize of the International Association of Catalysis Societies in 2016. He is the member of the Early Career Advisory Board of Journal ChemCatChem and the member of the EPSRC SAT team in capitcal equipments. His research is mainly focusing on the application of syncrotron X-ray techniques for understanding chemical and engineering problems in catalysis and energy storage systems. He is one of the few users for X-ray free electron laser facility in catalysis.
Teaching Summary听
2018 - present: Applied Inorganic Chemistry for Engineers
2018 - present: Applied Organic Chemistry for Engineers
Research Summary
My group studies and develops catalysts to reduce pollution and improve energy conversion efficiency. We specializein operando spectroscopy, studying the catalyst properties under the realistic reaction condition. This enables the direct observation of bond breaking and formation dynamics, in particular in oxidation reaction with molecular oxygen. We have published a few papers at top tier journals (Nat. Comm., Angew. Chem., J. Am. Chem. Soc.) to show our leading position in this field. Our uniqueness is pushing the envelop of the operando techniques in order to unveil the hiding dynamics and mechanism of oxidation reaction, namely 鈥淔aster, Higher, Strong鈥�.
Faster: With faster X-ray pulses, we can detect bond breaking and formation dynamics on surface and in solution, without measuring the diffusion and adsorption of reaction molecules. This is only possible with free electronlasers (FEL). We are the first UK user to perform such X-ray FEL (XFEL) experimentin catalysis.
Higher: With the higher beam energy and intensity, it is then possible to record spectra with low emission probability. Those emission lines are highly related to the valence states, and are they for more sensitive to the bond breaking and formation.
Stronger: With a stronger and more focused beam, it is then possible to achieve high space resolution toward nm region, providing spatial resolved XAFS/XRF imaging on target locations. This is then correlated with electron imaging (EM) to provide statistical understanding of the catalyst performance. We have used this to image the materials degradation in catalysis.
Most of those studies are carried out at synchrotron and XFEL facilities around world, including the Diamond Light Source, BESSY II, Spring-8, PetraIII, TPS and PAL-XFEL. The improvement of X-ray techniques enables better understanding of bonding chemistry.
础飞补谤诲蝉听
2016
Young Scientist Prize of the International Association of Catalysis Societies
Education
2012
PhD, Peking University, Chemistry, P. R. China
2006
Peking University, Chemistry, P. R. China
Professional Affiliations听听
- MAIChE 鈥� member of AIChE
- FHEA 鈥� member of HEA
Publications
- Zhangxiang Hao, Jie Chen, Xuekun Lu, Liqun Kang, Chun Tan, Ruoyu Xu, Lixia Yuan*, Dan J.L. Brett, Paul R.Shearing*, Feng RyanWang*, YunhuiHuang*, 鈥淧recisely visit the performance modulation of functionalized separator in Li-S batteries via consecutive multiscale analysis鈥� Energy Storage Materials, 2022, 49, 85-92.
听 - Kai Xu, Chao Ma, Han Yan, Hao Gu, Wei-Wei Wang, Shan-Qing Li, Qing-Lu Meng, Wei-Peng Shao, Guo-Heng Ding, Feng Ryan Wang*, Chun-Jiang Jia*, 鈥淐atalytically Efficient Ni-NiOx-Y2O3 Interface for Medium Temperature Water-Gas Shift Reaction鈥� Nature Communications, 2022, 13, 2443, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-30138-5.
听 - Liqun Kang, Bolun Wang, Andreas T. G眉ntner, Siyuan Xu, Xuhao Wan, Yiyun Liu, Sushila Marlow, Yifei Ren, Diego Gianolio, Chiu C. Tang, Vadim Murzin, Hiroyuki Asakura, Qian He, Shaoliang Guan, Juan J. Velasco-V茅lez, Sotiris E. Pratsinis, Yuzheng Guo, Feng Ryan Wang* 鈥淭he electrophilicity of surface carbon species in the redox of CuO-CeO2 catalysts鈥� Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2021, 60, 14420-14428, DOI: 10.1002/anie.202102570. (Hot Paper, frontispiece).
听 - Liqun Kang, Bolun Wang, Adam Thetford, Ke Wu, Mohsen Danaie, Qian He, Emma K. Gibson, Ling-Dong Sun, Hiroyuki Asakura, C. Richard A. Catlow, Feng Ryan Wang* 鈥淒esign, Identification and Evolution of Surface -[bipy-Ru(II)(CO)2Cl2] Single-Site for CO Activation鈥� Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2021, 60, 1212-1219. DOI: 10.1002/anie.202008370.
听 - Liqun Kang, Bolun Wang,* Qiming Bing, Michal Zalibera, Robert B眉chel, Ruoyu Xu, Qiming Wang, Yiyun Liu, Diego Gianolio, Chiu C. Tang, Emma Gibson, Mohsen Danaie, Christopher Allen, Ke Wu, Sushila Marlow, Ling-dong Sun, Qian He, Shaoliang Guan, Anton Savitsky, Juan Velasco-V茅lez, June Callison, Christopher W. M. Kay, Sotiris E. Pratsinis, Wolfgang Lubitz, Jing-yao Liu, Feng Ryan Wang* 鈥淎dsorption and activation of molecular oxygen over atomic copper(I/II) site on ceria鈥�, Nat. Commun. 2020, 11, 4008.