Atomic Level Structural/Phase Transformation in CeO2 and CeO2-ZrO2 during
Redox Processes
Ruigang Wang
Department of Chemistry and MSE Program
Youngstown State University
Abstract
Ceria (CeO2) and cerium-based oxides can release lattice oxygen under oxygen lean condition and
storage oxygen under oxygen rich condition. This property, characterized as the oxygen storage capacity
(OSC) or redox functionality, has made it a material of considerable interest in applications such as
vehicle three-way exhaust clean-up, water-gas shift reactions, gas sensors, carbon dioxide capture, and
fuel cell electrodes. In this seminar, I will present some recent progress on understanding atomic-level
redox behavior of cerium-based oxides using environmental transmission electron microscopy (E-TEM),
and on the synthesis and characterization of shape/crystal structure-controlled CeO2 and CeO2-ZrO2 for
designing new automotive catalytic converter washcoat and catalyst supporting materials.
Brief Bio
Dr. Ruigang Wang received his PhD with Prof. Peter Crozier in Materials Science and Engineering from
Arizona State University in 2007. His thesis work was on in situ environmental transmission electron
microscopy study. He then did a postdoc with Prof. Lutgard DeJonghe at Materials Sciences Division,
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, working on intermediate-temperature fuel cell and Li-ion battery
materials. He joined Youngstown State University in the fall of 2010 as an Assistant Professor in the
Department of Chemistry and Materials Science and Engineering Program, and was promoted to
Associate Professor in 2015. Dr. Wang’s research focuses on the synthesis and structure-processingproperty relationship study of oxides, catalyst supporting materials, and energy conversion/storage
materials (fuel cell and battery etc.). He has extensive experience in ceramic processing and applying
advanced transmission electron microscopy techniques to atomic-level structural and chemical
characterization of hard materials.