Projects
Valorization of Municipal Solid Waste Incinerator Bottom Ash by Microwave Irradiation and Alkali Activation KU Leuven
Municipal solid waste incinerator bottom ash (BA) is a waste that results from the incineration of municipal solid waste, for which valorization has proved to be challenging. In the current research, BA was subjected to a purification technique through microwave vitrification, in order to be used as a precursor for alkali activated materials. Prior to realising a microwave process, the ability of the material to absorb microwave energy was ...
Microwave Sensing in Microfluidics for Cell and Extracellular Vesicles Character KU Leuven
Microwave concepts are increasingly being used in microfluidic devices to advance detection, monitoring and actuation of liquid mixtures in lab-on-a-chip applications thanks to the work that demonstrated capabilities of microwave sensing and heating. This exploratory work has demystified microwave techniques to the life science community, convinced the optical-based community into advantages of microwaves, and identified limitations of ...
Microwave Heating for Microfluidics KU Leuven
This PhD project aims at developing integrated microwave or millimeter wave based heating systems for total analysis systems (μTAS), whichare miniaturised microfluidic lab-on-a-chip devices that perform several laboratory functions on a single device.
In total analysis systems (μTAS) accurate and fast temperature cycling is an important issue. Temperature control in μTAS typically employs Peltier elementsor resistive heaters, which ...
Complex waveforms and microwave systems for characterization and actuation at the single-cell level in life sciences KU Leuven
Microwave concepts are increasingly being used in microfluidic devices to advance detection, monitoring and actuation of liquid mixtures in lab-on-a-chip applications thanks to earlier research that demonstrated capabilities of microwave sensing and heating. A promising way to fight cancer in the early stages, among other diseases, is through information carried by single cells and extracellular vesicles (EVs). However, extracting this ...
Microwave sensing in microfluidics for cell and extracellular vesicle characterization (MESMERIC) KU Leuven
Versatile usage of liquid metals in emerging microwave technologies KU Leuven
Dielectric characterisation and microwave heating for flow chemistry KU Leuven
Microwaves are increasingly being used to intensify organic synthesis reactions and improve their outcome in terms of product purity. However, these improvements were mostly demonstrated on the scale of mL's using commercial equipment that relies on 2.45 GHz irradiation. Even though the advantages of microwave-based heating have been clearly demonstrated, we believe that this is merely the tip of the iceberg, and further significant ...
Microwave a la carte flow chemistry (MIRACLE) KU Leuven
Self-healing flexible biosensors for microwave dielectric spectroscopy KU Leuven
Microwave microfluidic sensors are emerging as an inexpensive and portable diagnosis tool compared to the conventional and bulky optical techniques. The feasibility of microwave dielectric spectroscopy has been shown already but the reported biosensors were implemented on rigid microwave substrates, limiting the types of samples that can be measured. To enhance characterizations in bio-incubators and/or well plates, it is essential to ...