News

February 2025

Another Marie Sklodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowships (MSCA PF) award for the CASCH consortium! Samar Al Jitan will start her research on the synthesis and characterization of thin film titania/ferrite materials under supervision of Prof. Vera Meynen (LADCA) and in collaboration with Prof. Sofie Cambré. We wish her good luck for this exciting project! 

January 2025

In the framework of the Excellence of Science Project Biofact joint work of the groups of Veronique Van Speybroeck (UGhent),  Bert Sels (KU Leuven) and Bert Maes (University of Antwerp) has provided new insights into the complex behavior of acid catalysis in nanoconfined environments.

These fundamental findings offer valuable insights into the atomistic mechanisms at play and pave the way for the rational design of more efficient catalysts for biomass conversion reactions, to make the transition from a society based on fossil to renewable and recycled carbon.

The study is published in Nature Catalysis and can be read at the publisher’s website.

A summary can be found here.

December 2024

The Flemish Interuniversity Council (Vlaamse Interuniversitaire Raad, VLIR) has announced the results of the highly competitive biennial iBOF call, aimed to stimulate inter-university collaboration with a focus on excellence in ground-breaking frontier research in Flanders. The news are excellent: professors of CASCH will participate in two projects - while only nine have been granted among 85 elegibile submissions. Prof. Bert Maes together with Prof. Steven De Feyter, Prof. Michiel Dusselier and Prof. Jeremy Harvey of KULeuven will be a partner in the project "Engineered carbon surfaces for sustainable catalysis". Prof. Tom Breugelmans along with his junior colleague from the ELCAT team Prof. Jonas Hereijgers and KULeuven scientists Prof. Ivo Vankelecom, Prof. Rob Ameloot and Prof. Koen Binnemans will be a member of the consortium "REdox flow Batteries: cheaper and Better through Improved material Design (REBBID)". 

November 2024

Results of the 2024 Moonshot Early Stage Innovation (ESI) and Late Stage Innovation (LSI) call have been announced. Prof. Tom Breugelmans from CASCH is involved as a partner in three granted projects! He will coordinate the LSI project ELECTRA dedicated to the development of a pilot scale (TRL 6) CO₂ electrolysis stack for the production of CO/formate at industrially relevant conditions. In the ESI project EFFORT he will develop, together with the scientists from KULeuven and IMEC, new large scale CO₂ electrolyzers via integration of innovative anion-exchange membranes. In the ESI project ALOHA he will join forces with researchers from KULeuven and VUB to develop electrochemical allylic oxidation of alkenes (e.g. propylene) towards unsaturated carboxylic acids (e.g. acrylic acid). Moonshot is a research and innovation program of the Flemish government aimed to enabling Flanders’ transition to the circular, low-carbon chemical industry.

November 2024

Prof. Pegie Cool is a partner in the Interreg project FOTON: sunlight fueled chemistry. The main objective of FOTON is the development of high-tech systems and materials for sunlight-driven sustainable chemical processes that contribute to a climate-neutral industry. This objective will be realised through the development of 3 pilot scale demonstrators for the production of green hydrogen (2 demonstrators) and green methanol (1 demonstrator) at test sites. FOTON is supported by the Interreg Flanders-Netherlands program, the Dutch national government and the province of North Brabant (NL).

October 2024

Prof. Bert Maes explains in his interview for C2W | Mens & Molecule about the challenges and perspectives of making chemicals from lignocellulosic biomass. "Nature gives to biomolecules various functionalities. It is therefore clever to make use of them, too".  Bert also shares his opinion, together with Prof. Gert-Jan Gruter, on the perspectives of furan derivatives produced from 2G biomass as biobased builidng blocks, on the occasion of the opening of the Avantium factory for the production of 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) in Delfzijl, the Nederlands. 

​Read the full story (in Dutch).

October 2024

RespiriNTM is a project supported by the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI). The project has kicked-off in 2019 to develop antibiotics that can treat the diseases that are caused by the Non-Tuberculous Mycobacteria (NTM), M. avium complex and M. abscessus. BioVersys will join forces with the established RespiriNTM consortium members and will lead development of drug candidates through preclinical and clinical studies. The team of Prof. Maes from CASCH is working together with BioVersys in the RespiriNTM project on the development of efficient synthetic routes allowing upscaling of these new antibiotics. 

​Check the official press release​

October 2024

The Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO) has announced the results of the annual call for PhD fellowships. Three PhD students received fellowships to continue their career in the CASCH consortium. Raphaël Delogne will focus on developing accelerated degradation testing for vanadium redox flow batteries in the ELCAT team. Christine Vantomme will work on her project  “Plasma-photocatalytic CO₂ conversion with a plasmonic photocatalyst” in the LADCA group in collaboration with the research groups A-PECS and PLASMANT. Thomas Staes will join the LADCA team in collaboration with the SCK CEN Academy and VITO. He will develop improved technology for the challenging separation of radioactive Bismuth-213, used in the innovative clinical cancer treatment known as Targeted Alpha Therapy (TAT), from its mother isotope Actinium-225. Congratulations to these young researchers!

October 2024

The artwork for a recent publication by the Prof. Cool team in Sustainable Energy & Fuels was selected for the front cover of the journal.  It depicts surface modification of mesostructured cellular foam to enhance hydrogen storage in binary THF/H₂ clathrate hydrate.

August 2024

The artwork for a recent publication by the Prof. Maes group in ACS Catalysis was selected for the front cover of the journal.  It depicts the two ways disulfones could be activated: stepwise oxidative quenching beats a true energy transfer mechanism.

April 2024

Prof. Tom Breugelmans is a proud winner (shared with Prof. Annemie Bogaerts) of one of the four Antwerp University Association (AUHA) AHA! awards, announced at the third edition of the Antwerp Innovation Night and supported by the Provincie Antwerpen. Congratulations! 

February 2024

Prof. Bert Maes has presented, together with the two other prominent speakers, recent results in the field of Cross-Dehydrogenative Coupling (CDC) alongside related synthetic methodology topics including C-H functionalization at the Thieme web-seminar organized by Science of Synthesis. 

February 2024

Within the cocoon's shell is encased a secret beauty, how to liberate it? In their Review Prof. Bert Maes, together with Prof. Bert Sels of KULeuven and co-workers, summarize the advancements and perspectives of lignin O-demethylation. The presence of methoxy groups limits the chemical reactivity and the applicability of lignin-derived compounds. Through O-demethylation, the reborn product rich in phenolic functionality can start a versatile new life with broader applications.

January 2024

Our femtosecond laser ablation machine supported by the FWO Infrastructure funding (spokesman: Prof. Tom Breugelmans) has arrived! It is located in building Z on Campus Groenenborger. 

December 2023

Good news to finish the year 2023! Prof. Pegie Cool has obtained a research project grant from the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO). PICASSO project will deal with plasmon catalysis for the conversion of CO₂ to CO, an important raw material for chemical industry. Together with the Antwerp colleague Prof. Sammy Verbruggen and Prof. Marlies Van Bael from the Hasselt University, she will develop new generations of catalysts with improved performance, increased durability, and cost-effectiveness by using abundant and cheap metals.

November 2023

Major illegal drug seizures at the port of Antwerp are regularly in the news. But how can chemistry help to dispose of major amounts of seized cocaine in a quick, safe, secure and sustainable way? Prof. Bert Maes shares his thoughts on the subject in his interview in De Standaard.

October 2023

Great news: a prestigious European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant has been awarded to Prof. Tom Breugelmans! In the "In-depth understanding of multi-phase mass transfer in CO₂ electrolyzers through application of engineered, ordered reactor components (TRANSCEND) project novel, high-end machining equipment and engineering tools will be combined with a profound knowledge on electrochemistry to develop the next generation of CO₂ electrolyzers.

October 2023

The Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO) has announced the results of the annual call for PhD fellowships. Three PhD students received fellowships to continue their career in the CASCH consortium. Thijs De Vos will join the Prof. Bert Maes team (ORSY) to work on the new methods to make organofluorine compounds. Robine Cleirbaut will develop peroxidases immobilized on TiO₂ under the supervision of Prof. Sabine Van Doorslaer (TSM²). Quinten Van Laere will focus on the optimisation of bubble removal in alkaline water electrolysers at industrial current densities in the team of Prof. Tom Breugelmans (ELCAT). Congratulations to these young researchers!

August 2023

The article of Prof. Bert Maes and co-workers "Synthesis of Levulinic Acids From Muconic Acids in Hot Water" is featured on the cover of the highly reputable journal Angewandte Chemie. Simple heating of muconic acid in water at high temperature in an autoclave under autogenic pressure provides levulinic acid in high yield. The method can also be applied to make substituted levulinic acids from the corresponding muconic acids. Lignin oil rich in propylguaiacol obtained from pine sawdust has been successfully transformed into 3-propyllevulinic acid. This opens new avenues for production of high value biobased chemicals from wood. 

April 2023

Prof. Tom Breugelmans is awarded a highly competitive EIC Pathfinder grant "CONFETI: Green valorization of CO₂ and Nitrogen compounds for making fertilizers". Together with research partners from Spain, France and Italy his team will develop a lab-scale innovative technology that is able to electrochemically convert CO₂ and N₂ directly from air or flue gases without the use of critical raw materials and using renewable energy sources. Only 44 projects were funded among 436 submitted proposals in the EIC Pathfinder Challenges 2022 call.