In January 2018, the training network HYCOAT was launched which will boost Molecular Layer Deposition (MLD) technology in four key European industrial sectors, namely packaging, electronics, batteries and biomedical applications.

Priscilla Rocío-Bautista completed her Bachelor degree in Chemistry in 2012, and her Master degree in Chemistry in 2013, both at the University of La Laguna (ULL), Spain. She is currently a PhD student in analytical chemistry at the QAAMA group (https://ginqaama.webs.ull.es/index.htm), holding a FPI research fellowship (Project Ref. MAT2014-57465-R). Her research focuses on the use of metal-organic frameworks and other hybrid materials, including magnetic composites, in miniaturized devices and platforms for in situ environmental monitoring through integrated analytical microextraction approaches. During her stay in the Ameloot Group, she will study different deposition strategies of MOFs over metallic surfaces in an attempt to obtain MOF-based microextraction devices. Víctor Rubio-Giménez graduated in Chemistry at the University of València (https://www.uv.es/uvweb/college/en/university-valencia-1285845048380.html) in 2012 after an Erasmus research stay at Imperial College London (http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/long/index.html). In 2014 he obtained a master degree in Molecular Nanoscience & Nanotechnology at the University of València and then received a FPU PhD grant from the Spanish government. His current work at the UIMM (http://www.icmol.es/uimm) and Funimat (http://www.icmol.es/funimat/index.php) research teams focuses on the preparation of programmable SURMOF architectures and the study of their electronic properties. During his stay, Víctor will work exploring the fabrication of ultrathin films of electrically conductive MOFs via CVD to fabricate MOF-based electronic devices.

Max is originally from Germany and completed his doctoral degree in Physics under the supervision of Karl Leo at Technical University Dresden in 2014. His research comprised investigations on the fundamental physics of molecular doping processes in organic semiconductor thin films as employed in OLEDs, OPVs, and novel OFET structures. In particular, he has gained expertise in elucidating the electronic structure at metal/organic and organic/organic interfaces by photoemission spectroscopy (UPS/XPS). Subsequently, he moved to the Solar Center of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia), where he worked as Postdoctoral Fellow and Research Consultant under the supervision of Jean-Luc Brédas and Aram Amassian. Scientific topics comprised material characterization and interfacial studies on organometal halide perovskite, metal oxide, and organic semiconductor materials by UPS/XPS. Also, he was in charge for technical extension of the MBE/UPS/XPS setup of the Amassian’s lab. In 2016, he moved back to Dresden working with Karl Leo and Koen Vandewal on the elementary steps of electrical doping of organic semiconductors at the Dresden Integrated Center for Applied Physics and Photonic Materials. In the Ameloot group, Max’ PostDoc will focus on sensor development employing metal-organic frameworks in photonic crystal and ChemFET structures. Welcome Max!

Elif is the newest member of Ameloot group! Her doctoral project will be on 3D printing of porous materials for heterogeneous catalysis. Through her PhD project, the use of inkjet-based methods will be explored for the optimization of supported catalysts. Special attention will be devoted to catalysts based on ceramic supports. Apart from new experimental techniques, a methodology will be developed for the interpretation of the results through simulations. She did her MSc at Bilkent University under the supervision of Assoc. Prof. Emrah Ozensoy on the dehydrogenation of formic acid to produce ultra-pure H2(g) from formic acid aqueous solutions under ambient conditions (i.e. at room temperature), in the absence of any additives and with high CO-poisoning tolerance. Under the supervision of Prof Emiel Hensen and Dr Evgeny Pidko at Eindhoven University of Technology, she worked on the evaluation of supported Platinum-Rhenium bimetallic catalysts for selective hydrogenation of ester, with the primary objective of making it highly efficient.

Our review paper on 3D printing in chemical engineering and catalytic technology was accepted in Chemical Society Reviews. In the field of catalytic technology and chemical engineering the impact of 3D printing, is steadily increasing thanks to a rapidly decreasing equipment threshold. Although still in an early stage, the rapid and seamless transition between digital data and physical objects enabled by these fabrication tools will benefit both research and manufacture of reactors and structured catalysts. 3D printing closes the gap between theory and experiment, by enabling accurate fabrication of geometries optimized through computational fluid dynamics and the experimental evaluation of their properties. Our review highlights the research using 3D printing and computational modeling as digital tools for the design and fabrication of reactors and structured catalysts. The goal of this contribution is to stimulate interactions at the crossroads of chemistry and materials science on the one hand and digital fabrication and computational modeling on the other.

Ameloot Group welcomes Benzheng Xia! His PhD will focus on the synthesis of MOFs via solvothermal and MOF-CVD methods to explore different electrical properties. Before arriving in Leuven, he was a research assistant at the National Center for Nanoscience and Technology (NCNST) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, working on organic photoelectric functional materials and devices.

Mikhail Krishtab is a new member joining our group as a postdoc researcher. During his Master and PhD research, Mikhail was exploring various classes of porous materials for their application as low-k dielectrics in on-chip interconnects. His research involved evaluation of mechanical, electrical, chemical, optical and structural properties of thin porous films as well as of their compatibility with integration processes, mainly plasma etching. Supervised by Prof. Mikhail Baklanov and Prof. Stefan De Gendt, Mikhail Krishtab developed a new approach for damage-free integration of self-assembly based mesoporous organosilica coatings. His activities and interests span over wide range of microfabrication processes and thin film characterization techniques among which ellipsometric porosimetry takes the central place. As the class of metal-organic frameworks became an appealing candidate for replacement of silica-based low-k dielectrics, Mikhail's research touched on evaluation of dielectric properties of various MOF films prepared by liquid phase epitaxy (in collaboration with the group of Prof. Woell) and by solvent-free metal/metal oxide conversion (in collaboration with the group of Prof. Ameloot). In our group, Mikhail will investigate the impact of surface pattern and its functionality on nucleation and crystallization of CVD MOFs targeting applications in nanoelectronics devices.

Sabina is joining our group after three years post-doctoral research at the Supramolecular Nanochemistry and Materials group of Prof. Daniel Maspoch in the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (Barcelona, Spain). She was working on the synthesis and characterization of new Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) and Coordination Polymers (CPs) based on peptides, poly-pyridyl, poly-carboxylic and nucleobases as organic ligands. She was focused on the study of their properties, such as hydrophobicity, gas sorption or the possibility to tune these properties by post-synthetic modification. Previously, Sabina completed her PhD in Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Vigo (Spain) in the Metallosupramolecular Chemistry group –under the supervision of Prof. Ezequiel Vazquez-Lopez, where she was working on the synthesis and characterization of CPs based on hydrazone ligands. She was focused on their single-crystal structure determination and the identification of their expansion patterns, involving supramolecular interactions. She also did a short stay at the Porous Solid Group (Lavoisier Institute of Versailles, France) under the supervision of Prof. Franck Millange. In our group, Sabina will focus on the development of MOF-on-MOF hybrids for membrane separation and on the crystallographic study of their hetero-epitaxial structural relationship. Welcome Sabina!

Dmitry Kravchenko has joined the Ameloot group. His doctoral work will focus on the fabrication of thin films and membranes by means of MOF-CVD process for microelectronics and gas separation. Dmitry graduated from the Department of Chemistry of Moscow State University. There he worked on fabrication of zeolite membranes and catalysis on MOFs. During his studies he also did internships in the groups of Prof. De Jong (Universiteit Utrecht) and Prof. Gascon (TU Delft). Welcome aboard, Dmitry!

Rob was listed by De Tijd in their special issue on 'tech pioneers'.