Projects
Plasma catalysis at the nanoscale: Model development for diffusion of plasma particles in pores and study of the catalytic behaviour at the pore surface. University of Antwerp
Unsymmetrical Strategies in Dual Gold Catalysis: Fine-tuning and Bottom-up Design of Catalytic Systems Ghent University
During the first two decades of the millennium, the research field of gold catalysis has received enormous attention from the scientific community. Recently, a new concept has emerged in gold chemistry, namely homobimetallic dual catalysis where two distinct gold centers activate both nucleophilic and electrophilic sites in a given transformation. Despite the major advances, there is still a fundamental concept in dual gold catalysis that ...
Catalytic upgrade of carbonyl fermentation products to added-value products: role of heterogeneous catalysis KU Leuven
This PhD intends a strong collaboration with fermentation research. Given fermentation effectively converts carbohydrate to a variety of carbonyls, chemocatalysis may be a promising tool to further upgrade these bio-based platform chemicals to added value products for the chemical industry. This PhD thus will study new catalytic pathways to convert such carbonyls, such as ketoacids, aldehydes and hydroxy-fatty acids selectively into a variety ...
First principles supported operando catalyst characterization for deep catalysis understanding Ghent University
Operando characterization techniques (DRIFTS, XAS) allow to characterize the catalyst during reaction conditions, but the interpretation of the spectra is often difficult. Therefore, this proposal aims to improve the interpretation of operando spectra by systematically coupling it to first principles simulations and kinetic models. The developed methodology will be applied to 3 interesting reactions in the context of sustainable chemistry.
CO2-to-olefins conversion with bifunctional small-pore catalysts: fed-batch synthesis of hybrid oxide-zeolite catalysts KU Leuven
Functionalized Periodic Mesoporous Organosilicas: Creating new active catalytic sites for Heterogenous Catalysis U+2013 Superacids and Nanoparticles-. Ghent University
The goal of this project is to create stable and active catalytic sites on periodic mesoporous organosilicas and to show the versatility and potential of these materials for a wide variety of catalytic processes. Two types of radical reactions U+2013 U+201Cthiol acid-eneU+201D and U+201CperfluoroalkylationU+201D U+2013 on the double bonds of an ethenylene bridged PMO will be used to incorporate different functionalities.
Catalytic coupling reactions on highly disperse heterogeneous Ni catalysts. KU Leuven
Homogeneous and heterogeneous basic catalysts for the in-situ catalytic depolymerization of polystyrene waste KU Leuven
Investigation of catalysis for the depolymerization of polystyrene waste with the goal of increasing styrene recovery rates compared to the state-of-the-art, namely thermal depolymerization. Process intensification includes catalyst synthesis/development and screening/exploration and reactor design evaluation/optimization. Catalyst screening is done by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and will provide data on catalyst requirements. ...
Catalytic upgrading of polyolefins via oxygenation and in-chain ester formation using Ti and Sn zeolite catalysts KU Leuven
Plastic wastes are so far underexplored as feedstocks for producing ‘upcycled’ materials. This project, focusing on the large available mass of end-of-life polyolefins, aims at selective oxidation of these hydrocarbon-type materials. As a first option, alcohol (and ketone) groups are created along the polyolefin chain. For this, selective Ti-containing zeolites and clean oxidants (e.g. hydrogen peroxide) are applied at mild temperatures, ...