Welcome
Welcome to my personal website. I am full professor at the Department of Chemistry, University of Antwerp. I am also head of the research group PLASMANT.
We are studying plasma and plasma-surface interactions by means of computer modelling and experiments, for various applications, mainly CO2, CH4 and N2 conversion into value-added chemicals, plasma medicine, and microelectronics.
The research we perform on CO2, CH4 and N2 conversion by plasma and plasma catalysis includes modelling the plasma chemistry (by quasi-1D chemical kinetics modelling, focussing on the role of CO2 or N2 vibrational levels for better energy efficiency, besides thermal reactions and the effect of quenching, as well as on mixtures of CO2 with CH4, H2O, H2 and N2), modelling various plasma reactors (i.e., gliding arc plasmas, atmospheric pressure glow discharges, microwave plasmas, pin-to-pin arc discharges, dielectric barrier discharges (DBDs), and packed bed DBDs) by 2D or 3D fluid models, to improve the design for energy-efficient CO2, CH4 or N2 conversion and modelling plasma-catalyst interaction (i.e., penetration of plasma species inside catalyst pores, microkinetic modelling and density functional theory (DFT) to study chemical reactions at the catalyst surface; the latter in collaboration with Erik Neyts). We also perform a lot of experimental works in various types of plasma reactors: various gliding arc and atmospheric pressure glow discharges, microwave plasmas, pin-to-pin arc discharges, and (packed bed) DBDs.
Our second large research topic is plasma medicine , focussing mainly on plasma for cancer treatment. We perform experiments with various plasma jets and DBDs on various types of cancer cells. We mainly focus on melanoma, glioblastoma, pancreatic cancer and head and neck cancer. We perform in-vitro experiments (in 2D cell cultures, but also in 3D models, that are closer to real tumors, like spheroids and organoids, as well as the in-ovo model), and we also perform in-vivo experiments. These experiments are in collaboration with CORE (E. Smits, Oncology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Care). We also performed experiments on plasma killing of various types of viruses, including corona-virus, in collaboration with the Laboratory for Microbiology, Parasitology and Hygiene (P. Delputte, Biomedical Sciences). This research started upon request of Prof. Jorens (head of the Intensive Care Unit of the Antwerp University Hospital), in their fight against SARS-COV-2, and maybe future pandemics. Finally, we also do computer simulations on the plasma chemistry inside the plasma jet, and its interaction with liquid medium, by quasi-1D chemical kinetics models and 2D fluid models, as well as on the effect of plasma-induced oxidation of biomolecules, like DNA, proteins and phospholipids in the plasma membrane of cells, by means of molecular dynamics simulations, to better understand the underlying mechanisms of plasma medicine, in order to be able to improve the applications.
In the field of microelectronics, we use a hybrid Monte Carlo – fluid model to describe the plasma chemistry and plasma-surface interactions in plasma reactors used for etching and film deposition, as well as Monte Carlo feature profile simulations for modelling etch trench evolutions.
Finally, in the past, we also studied analytical chemistry applications, for which we developed comprehensive models for glow discharges in dc, rf and pulsed operation mode, as well as for laser ablation (focussing on laser-solid interaction, plume expansion and plasma formation, and the gas dynamics in a laser ablation cell), and inductively coupled plasma (ICP) sources, focussing on sample introduction into the ICP, including evaporation, ionisation and excitation.
Here, you can find more information about my research interests and topics, including some recent publication highlights, as well as the full publications list of my group PLASMANT and my brief CV.