Despite the challenges brought about by the pandemic, four budding scientists (L-R) Sruja, An, Robrecht, and Maider joins the Ameloot Group for their Master projects.

Looks like the pandemic is not stopping our growth as we welcome three fresh PhDs today! Jonas, Margot, and Jorid all obtained their Master in Bioscience Engineering at KU Leuven and were former Master's thesis students at the Ameloot Group. They will be working on various projects on 3D-printing for point-of-care diagnostics and MOF-based sensors for their doctoral research. While the on-boarding activity is virtual for now, we are all excited to (physically) welcome them to the crew very soon!

Alex is one of the 13 researchers selected by the Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO) to represent the region in the EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF) this year. ESOF is a biennial, pan-European, general science conference dedicated to scientific research and innovation. Attended by renowned scientists from all over the world, ESOF brings together 4,500 leading researchers, innovators, government bodies, journalists, and educators from over 90 countries, to discuss current and future breakthroughs in contemporary science.

Our collaborative work with Norbert Stock's group at CAU Kiel on Al-carboxylate MOFs for water sorption is now available through ChemEurJ!

Mikhail wins a spot in the list of candidates vying for the ALD student awards at the 20th International Conference on Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD2020). In collaboration with imec and Heidelberg Instruments Nano in Switzerland, Mikhail will present his work entitled, "Resistless Lithography Based on Local Surface Modification of Halogenated Amorphous Carbon".

Alex explains in a very accessible way what we hope to do with MOFs. This short production is part of the science outreach initiative by Scriptie vzw.

Our paper entitled, *"Solid-phase microextraction coatings based on the metal-organic framework ZIF-8: Ensuring stable and reusable fibers"* led by our collaborators from Universidad de La Laguna (ULL) in Tenerife is now published in Talanta. Supervised by Prof. Veronica Pino, a part of this work is carried out in the Ameloot Group's lab in the context of Priss' short stay in Leuven. In this project, highly stable ZIF-8 coatings for SPME fibers prepared by chemical vapor deposition of MOF (MOF-CVD). The preparation mode ensured SPME fibers with high inter-batch reproducibility while used in DI-SPME-GC-FID. These MOF fibers performed successfully for target hydrocarbons and personal care products and its performance was compared to that of commercial SPME coatings.

We further prove the robustness of the MOF-CVD process by demonstrating this time for MAF-6, a large pore MOF. The CVD process is based on the reaction of ZnO with 2-ethylimidazole vapor at temperatures ≤ 100 °C. A combination of PALS and Kr physisorption measurements confirmed the porosity of these MOF-CVD films and the size of the MAF-6 supercages (diam. ~2 nm), in close agreement with powder data and calculations.

Aleksander received his PhD at the Jožef Stefan Institute in Slovenia with his thesis entitled, "Inkjet printing and structure-property relations of ferroelectric thin-film structures". In the Ameloot Group, he will be researching the fundamental electrical and dielectric properties of MOFs and their implementation in advanced electronic applications as ultra-low-k dielectrics and in gas sensing devices.

Timothée successfully defends his PhD entitled, "Metal-organic framework powders and thin films by vapour-phase processing" on December 13, 2019. Well done, Tim!