Lichang Wang | Chemistry and Biochemistry| SIU

Lichang Wang

Professor and Director of Graduate Study

 The Wang research group is currently focused on:

1. Coherent state engineering of organic small molecules as photosensitizers for applications in solar cells, photodynamic therapy, fluorescence and luminescence sensing, and other optoelectronic devices.
2. Studies of transition metal-based clusters, nanoparticles, and bulk materials to understand their catalytic activities and stabilities in

• Oxygen reduction reaction (ORR).
• Hydrogen production from natural gas (methane, ethane, and butane) and ethanol.
• Complete electrochemical oxidation of ethanol (EOR).
• The conversion of glycerol into value-added chemicals.

3. Method developments: (a) Methods to identify coherent states in organic small molecule-based materials; (b) Development and construction of activation energy surfaces and reaction energy surfaces in chemical reaction space for catalysis.

Education and Research Experience

B.S. Chemical Engineering, Tianjin University, 1985
M.S. Chemical Engineering, Tianjin University, 1988
Ph.D. Chemistry, University of Copenhagen,1993
Postdoc, University of Copenhagen, 1993-1994
Postdoc, University of Cambridge, 1994-1998 (also at University College London, 1996-1997)
Postdoc, The Ohio State University, 1998-2001

Selected Recent Publications

Ruitao Wu and Lichang Wang, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 25(2023)2190-2202: “Insight into the solvent effects on ethanol oxidation on Ir(100)”

Ruitao Wu and Lichang Wang, ChemPhysChem (2022)e202200132-13pgs: “Insights and Activation Energy Surface of the Dehydrogenation of C₂H_xO Species in Ethanol Oxidation Reaction on Ir(100)”.

Ruitao Wu and Lichang Wang, J. Phys. Chem. C 126(2022)21650-21666: “Activity Enhancement of PtIr Catalysts for Complete Ethanol Oxidation Reaction by Tuning C−O Coupling Abilities”.

Krishanthi C. Weerasinghe, Tianyang Wang, Junpeng Zhuang, Haiya Sun, Dongzhi Liu, Wei Li, Wenping Hu, Xueqin Zhou, Lichang Wang, Chem. Phys. Impact 4(2022)100062-8pgs: “Coherently degenerate state engineering of organic small molecule materials to generate Wannier excitons”.