Title Promoter Affiliations Abstract "Computer modelling and experimental validation of plasmas and plasma- surface interactions, for a deep insight in cryogenic etching (Cryoetch)." "Annemie Bogaerts" "Plasma Lab for Applications in Sustainability and Medicine - Antwerp (PLASMANT)" "Microchips have caused a revolution in electronics over the last few decades. Following Moore's law, much effort has been put into continuously shrinking electronic feature dimensions. Indeed, typical feature sizes of semi-conductors decreased from 10 μm in 1971 to 14 nm in 2014. With the shrinkage of feature sizes, plasma etching plays a more and more important role due to its anisotropy during surface processing. However, to go beyond 14 nm features, current state-of-the-art plasma processing faces significant challenges, such as plasma induced damage. Recently, one such novel process with limited plasma damage is cryogenic etching of low-k material with SF6/O2/SiF4 and CxFy plasmas. In this project, the fundamental mechanisms of the plasma, and its interaction with the surface, for these gas mixtures, will be studied to improve cryogenic plasma etching. For this purpose, numerical models (a hybrid Monte Carlo - fluid model and molecular dynamics model) will be employed to describe (i) the plasma behavior for SF6/O2/SiF4 and CxFy gas mixtures applied for cryogenic etching, and (ii) the surface interactions of the plasma species with the substrate during etching. Furthermore, cryogenic etch experiments will also be conducted to validate the modeling results." "PLASMAT: Closing the Circle by high temperature design of Enhanced Landfill Mining plasma stone for climate-friendly cement and insulating building materials." "Bart Blanpain" "Sustainable Metals Processing and Recycling" "The aim of this project is to produce a clean plasma rock slag that can be reprocessed into high-quality, low-carbon building materials with new functionalities. This plasma stone is obtained from a plasma gasification installation at Enhanced Landfill Mining (ELFM) at the Remo waste disposal site in Houthalen-Helchteren." "Plasma intensifaction in DBD plasma devices by the use of a packed bed of ceramic particles with specific dielectric properties, obtained by a core-shell design and by specific tuning of the particle size distribution (i-PLASMA)." "Annemie Bogaerts" "Applied Electrochemistry & Catalysis (ELCAT), Plasma Lab for Applications in Sustainability and Medicine - Antwerp (PLASMANT)" "Study of the use of core-shell and particle size distribution designed dielectric ceramic particles as packed bed material in the intensification of plasma based chemical processes. Experience in the field of industrial plasma generation will be combined with the modelling expertise of PLASMANT, in order to check on the valorisation potential of plasma induced chemistry. A dedicated experimental/empirical dataset will be set up and a related CIT process analysis. Valorisation is situated in emission control and synthesis of alternative raw material starting from waste streams." "Investigating fundamental plasma effects on tumor microenvironment through development of a controlled plasma treatment system for clinical cancer therapy." "Annemie Bogaerts" "Industrial Vision Lab (InViLab), Plasma Lab for Applications in Sustainability and Medicine - Antwerp (PLASMANT)" "Non-thermal plasma technology is gaining attention as a novel cancer therapeutic. In the clinic, plasma has been applied to patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, the 6th most common cancer worldwide with long-term survival below 50%. While initial studies are promising (e.g. partial remission, decreased levels of pain, no reported side-effects), a critical issue became apparent when translating plasma technology from the laboratory to the clinic: low reproducibility of treatment. Current plasma devices are handheld and require the operator (clinician) to make a judgement as to how long to treat the patient. This leads to large variability, which becomes even more pronounced when the clinician must move the plasma applicator over a large area of treatment. We aim to develop a robotic plasma treatment system that will enable us to investigate fundamental plasma effects on the tumor for clinical cancer therapy. We will use multiple sensors to detect the patient environment, artificial intelligence to 'learn and predict' patient disturbance patterns (e.g. breathing), and a robotic arm to deliver plasma. We will test our developed system in 3D and mouse cancer models and study the consequence of plasma treatment in the tumor, and to the survival of the animal. Altogether, our project will progress plasma technology for clinical translation by elucidating previously unknown biological responses to plasma and addressing issues in the clinic." "Plasma catalysis at the nanoscale: A generic Monte Carlo model for the investigation of the diffusion and the chemical reactions of plasma species at porous catalysts." "Annemie Bogaerts" "Plasma Lab for Applications in Sustainability and Medicine - Antwerp (PLASMANT)" "In this project we will develop a generic model to simulate the diffusion of plasma species in and out of the pores of a catalyst and the catalytic reactions at the pore surface. In this way we will try to gather insight in the underlying processes in plasma catalysis in general and in the plasma catalytic conversion of CO2 and H2 to methanol specifically. In this project, we will focus on the conversion on a Cu-catalyst. Using quantum chemical calculations we will determine the properties of adsorption of the most important plasma species and the different reaction mechanisms and reaction rates at the surface. In parallel we will develop a Monte Carlo model to examine the diffusion of plasma species inside catalyst pores, as well as their surface reactions, for which we will make use of the results provided by the quantum chemical calculations. This model will allow us to investigate the role of plasma species in the methanol synthesis, the influence of the pore size and the pore shape on the total yield, which reaction products and side products are formed and whether these products can diffuse out of the pores to make room for new reactants. The results of this study will provide the necessary information for understanding plasma catalytic processes at a fundamental level and are essential to further optimise these promising processes." "Modeling of plasma and plasma-cell interaction for a better understanding of plasma medicine applications." "Erik Neyts" "Plasma Lab for Applications in Sustainability and Medicine - Antwerp (PLASMANT)" "The aim of this project is to obtain a better insight in plasma-cell interactions on the atomic scale, and specifically on plasma-bacteria interactions. For this purpose, hybrid MD / Monte Carlo (MC) simulations will be performed, for the plasma species bombarding the ""substrate"" (i.e., bacteria) to be treated. The plasma species and their fluxes will be determined from plasma modeling. Therefore, this project is a combination of plasma modeling and modeling of plasma-bacteria interactions." "From physical plasma to cellular pathway: a multi-disciplinary approach to unravel the response pathways induced by nonthermal plasma for cancer therapy." "Annemie Bogaerts" "Center for Oncological Research (CORE), Plasma Lab for Applications in Sustainability and Medicine - Antwerp (PLASMANT)" "Cancer therapy has been rapidly transforming in part due to progress in seemingly unrelated fields. This has led to the development of profound tools for studying cancer pathways and innovative therapies. Non-thermal plasma (NTP) is a novel treatment that has been emerging for cancer immunotherapy. Bioinformatics is another field experiencing rapid growth, as the ability to collect and process large amounts of 'omics' data has become increasingly accessible. In the context of oncology, this has led to success in elucidating therapy-induced pathways and therapy target discovery. Therefore, in my project, I will use a combination of experimental and bioinformatics approaches to study fundamental effects of NTP on cancerous cells: 1) mechanisms driving cell sensitivity and 2) immunological changes to be exploited for combination therapy. In vitro experiments will be performed to categorize cells into sensitivity groups based on NTP-induced cell death; cellular redox and death modalities will also be studied. Transcriptome analysis and bioinformatics techniques will be used to uncover the activated pathways. Signature gene sets from transcriptome data will be studied to obtain a more comprehensive picture of the immunologic changes in NTP-treated cells. All in silico results will be validated experimentally. Success of this project will benefit multiple science fields and open new lines of research while providing insight into underlying mechanisms of NTP-induced cancer response." "Plasma chemistry modeling in a capacitively coupled plasma used for microelectronics applications." "Annemie Bogaerts" "Plasma Lab for Applications in Sustainability and Medicine - Antwerp (PLASMANT)" "Plasmas are widely used in the microelectronics industry for the fabrication of computer chips, i.e., in plasma etching and deposition of different materials. Nowadays there is increased interest for the use of very complex gas mixtures, such as based on CHxFy, sometimes even in combination with HBr, Cl2 and O2. In this project, we wish to obtain a better understanding of the plasma chemistry in several CHxFy plasmas, i.e., CHF3, CH2F2 , CH3F and CF4, by means of a computer model. For this purpose, we will make use of the hybrid plasma equipment model (HPEM). A reaction set will be created, based on a large number of plasma species, including various molecules, radicals, ions, excited species, as well as the electrons. These species react with each other in a large number of collisions, namely electron-neutral, electron-ion, ion-ion, ion-neutral and neutral-neutral reactions. A list of all possible reactions will be constructed, along with the corresponding cross sections and reaction rate coefficients. Subsequently, for every plasma species the various production and loss processes need to be specified, for solving the continuity equations. The transport of the species will be described based on diffusion, migration and advection. The electric field distribution inside the plasma will be calculated self-consistently from the charged species densities by solving Poisson's equation. Typical results of this model include the species densities, fluxes and energies, the electromagnetic field distribution, and information on the importance of various reactions in the plasma." "Development of a plasma device for rapid disinfection of contaminated hospital materials: Hospital‐Use Plasma Unit (HUP‐Unit)." "Annemie Bogaerts" "Laboratory for Microbiology, Parasitology and Hygiene (LMPH), Laboratory Experimental Medicine and Pediatrics (LEMP), Plasma Lab for Applications in Sustainability and Medicine - Antwerp (PLASMANT)" "The SARS‐CoV‐2 pandemic has exposed how unprepared our society was in preventing the propagation of highly infectious diseases, protecting the healthcare providers and patients, and efficiently organizing the logistics, while managing large numbers of patients. For the past two years, hospitals have battled to mitigate the spread of the virus in their facilities, a challenge that included the need to daily dispose of thousands of unused, individually‐packaged medical products that could not be disinfected with the traditional disinfection methods. On average, the Antwerp University Hospital (UZA) produced around 250,000 kg of medical waste per year. In 2021, the amounts of medical waste increased by more than 10% compared to the pre‐COVID period. Globally, the pandemic not only increased the cost for hospitals, but it also increased the generation of waste around the world by 400‐500%. Moreover, at the height of the pandemic, there was even a critical shortage of medical supplies. Therefore, this was not only an environmental and financial issue, but also a serious healthcare burden. In order to be better prepared for future pandemics, we have prepared a mission‐oriented innovation project, which responds to a specific request from the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at UZA. In our IOF‐POC CREATE project here, we aim to develop a non‐thermal plasma (NTP)‐based disinfection device to rapidly eliminate viruses from unused, individually‐packaged medical products: the hospital‐use plasma unit (HUP‐unit). Our HUP‐device will utilize a completely innovative cylindrical geometry design feature with materials to be disinfected, to enhance NTP generation and contact with a large volume of material, and ensure complete, uniform treatment. Indeed, we have to design a completely novel NTP device concept, which we will categorize as a 'moving‐bed' dielectric barrier discharge (DBD). By using the individually‐packaged hospital products as part of the NTP generation mechanism, our 'moving‐bed' DBD HUP‐unit offers a scalable solution to provide rapid disinfection in the hospital. Based on our understanding of plasma dynamics and computational plasma simulations, we have developed this theoretical design, but the feasibility of creating a working prototype remains to be seen. Therefore, in this IOF‐POC CREATE project, we will produce and validate our prototype HUP‐unit in the lab. If successful, our HUP‐unit will allow us to: i) mitigate shortages in individually‐packaged medical products; ii) reduce the waste produced by healthcare facilities and associated waste management cost; iii) reduce the incidence of hospital‐acquired infections." "Plasma catalysis at the nanoscale: Model development for diffusion of plasma particles in pores and study of the catalytic behaviour at the pore surface." "Annemie Bogaerts" "Plasma Lab for Applications in Sustainability and Medicine - Antwerp (PLASMANT)" "In this project we will develop a generic model to simulate the diffusion of plasma species in and out of catalyst pores and the catalytic reactions at the pore surface. We will try to gather insight in the underlying processes of plasma catalysis in general and of the plasma catalytic conversion of CO2 and H2 to methanol specifically. We will focus on the conversion on a Cu-catalyst. Using quantum chemical calculations we will determine the properties of adsorption of the most important plasma species and the different reaction mechanisms and reaction rates. In parallel we will develop a Monte Carlo model to examine the diffusion of plasma species inside catalyst pores, as well as their surface reactions, for which I will apply the results arising from the quantum chemical calculations. We will determine the minimum pore diameter needed for the plasma species to be able to penetrate the catalyst pores and undergo chemical reactions, which reaction products and side products are formed and whether these products can diffuse out of the pores to make room for new reactants. The results of this study will provide the necessary information to understand plasma catalytic processes at a fundamental level and are essential to further optimize these promising processes."