Prof. Evelyne VAN RUYMBEKE (PI – Spokesperson)
Since 2021, Prof. Evelyne van Ruymbeke is Senior Research Associate of the FNRS. From 2012, she was is Research Associate of the FNRS and Professor at UCLouvain working at the Institute of Condensed Matter and Nanosciences (IMCN), after two years as scientist in the Polymer Rheology and Processing Research department at DSM (Geleen, The Netherlands), and a three years postdoctoral stay with Pr. Dimitris Vlassopoulos at the Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas (Heraklion, Greece).
The overall objective of her research is to understand and model at the mesoscopic level the relationship between the composition of polymeric samples and their rheological behavior. Her interests include the study of the properties of supramolecular polymer networks and gels as well as of polymer networks characterized by two different dynamics, and the study of the nonlinear viscoelastic properties of polymer melts and solutions under shear or elongation.
She is presently coordinator of the European MSCA doctoral Network “ReBond”, which aims at using vitrimers for enhancing the properties of plastic waste. Studying the relationship between the composition and the properties of vitrimers is also a key objective of the ARC project INVITE.
In 2011 and in 2018, she received the Journal of Rheology Publication Award of the Society of Rheology, and in 2016, she received the Arthur B. Metzner Early Career Award of the Society of Rheology. She is presently member at large of the Society of Rheology and Associated Editor of Macromolecules.
Personnal website: https://uclouvain.be/fr/repertoires/evelyne.vanruymbeke
Research Group
-- Alexandru Tudor BOBORODEA (CORSCI)
-- Alvaro QUINTEROS SEDANO (CORSCI) [POST-DOC]
-- Anahita KARIMI (CORSCI)
-- Naïma SALLEM (CORTA)
-- Pascal VAN VELTHEM (CORTA)
Collaboration with Bernard NYSTEN (CORA) and Cécile D’HAESE (CORTA) for Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) analyses.
Prof. Charles-André FUSTIN (co-PI)
Charles-André Fustin got his Ph.D. in 1999 from the University of Namur. From 2000 to 2001 he was a postdoctoral researcher at the Université catholique de Louvain in the group of Prof R. Legras and C. Bailly . He then moved to the group of Prof. H. W. Spiess in the Max-Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz (Germany) where he got a European Marie-Curie Fellowship. In 2003 he obtained a Chargé de Recherches position of the FNRS at the UCLouvain and then a Research Associate of the FRS-FNRS in 2007. Since 2018 he is Professor at the UCLouvain.
The research activities of Charles-André Fustin’s team evolve around stimuli responsive polymers, supramolecular systems, polymer self-assembly, and polymer networks and gels. The activities are centered on the material synthesis, but cover also their characterization. He investigates the properties of these materials at different levels, with a special focus on mechanical and rheological properties. In particular, he is interested in polymeric materials containing addressable and/or functional moieties such as supramolecular bonds, reversible covalent bonds, or molecular springs such as foldamers. Examples of current topics are: i) the development of vitrimer-like polymer networks for either solid-state polymer electrolytes for battery applications, or for improving compatibilization of plastic wastes, ii) the development of polymer networks containing tethered supramolecular bonds to transpose the concepts of sacrificial bonds and hidden length, common in biological materials, to artificial materials (EOS project TETHERED that he coordinates), iii) the development of polymer networks containing aromatic oligoamide foldamers as dissipative mechanical elements.
Personnal website: https://uclouvain.be/en/directories/charles-andre.fustin
Research Group
-- Charlène Breton (CORSCI)
Prof. Jean-François GOHY (co-PI)
J.-F. Gohy obtained his PhD degree in 1999 under the supervision of Prof. R. Jérôme from the University of Liège. He then moved in 2001 to the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) as post-doc working with Prof. U. S. Schubert on metallo-supramolecular block copolymers. In 2002, he started as Assistant Professor in UCLouvain in the CMAT unit. He developed research themes related to pH- and light-responsive block copolymers for application in nanostructured systems including micelles, thin films and gels. Those researches were supported by various FNRS, EU and Région wallonne projects and two ARC projects (NANOMOL 2003-2008 as participant and SUPRATUNE 2008-2013 as coordinator). In 2006, he became Associate Professor UCLouvain and was part-time (20%) Professor at TU/e from 2008 and 2010. In 2008 and 2019, he was invited Professor at the University of Bordeaux. In 2012, he started to investigate redox polymers for application in organic Li-ion batteries (coordinator of the ARC project BATTAB 2014-2019) and solid polymer electrolytes for solid-state batteries. J.F. Gohy was appointed as Full Professor at UCLouvain in 2016 where he was President of the School of Chemistry from 2012 to 2018, Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Sciences in 2019-2020 and President of the IMCN institute from 2021 to 2024. In 2018-2019, he was visiting Professor at RWTH Aachen in the frame of a sabbatical leave with funding from Marcel De Merre price for nanotechnologies, and President of the Belgian Polymer Group from 2019 to 2022. In 2022-2023, he was President of the CE06 Committee from the Agence Nationale de la Recherche in France. He is (co-)author of more than 230 scientific papers, has an h-index of 64 (Google Scholar) and 15000 citations.
Personal website: https://dial.uclouvain.be/pr/boreal/en/search/site/gohy?f%5B0%5D=sm_creator%3AGohy%2C%20Jean-Fran%C3%A7oi
Research Group
The laboratory is specialized in the synthesis and characterization of functional polymers for applications in Li-ion batteries. Since its creation in 2003, the laboratory has gained a deep expertise in the synthesis of polymers with perfectly defined molecular characteristic features (in terms of molar masses, distribution of molar masses, introduction of functional groups at defined locations in polymer chains, tacticity of polymer chains, etc.) and controlled architectures (synthesis of diblock copolymers, triblock terpolymers, star-shaped (co)polymers, comblike and grafted architectures). The laboratory has been a pioneer in the development of novel polymeric structures combining classical covalently bound polymer chains to supramolecular bonding. For more than 10 years, the laboratory has utilized his expertise in the synthesis of polymeric materials that are relevant for applications in batteries. The topics developed so far cover: flexible and printable electrodes and separators, nanostructured silicon-based anode materials, redox active polymers based on stable nitroxide radicals in order to achieve fast charging and high-power electrodes, hybrid inorganic/organic materials for electrodes with superior performances, the synthesis of novel types of (co)polymers to achieve solid polymer electrolytes and gel polymer electrolytes.
People funded by the project:
-- Oriane Froment (CORSCI)
People working on the project under other sources of funding:
-- Yinghui Zhang (CORSCI)
-- Garance Keus (CORSCI)
-- Shanshan Yan (CORSCI)
-- Zhenni He (CORSCI)
-- Carla Barakat (CORSCI)
-- He Jia (CORSCI) [post-doc]
-- Fabio Luccacioni (CORTA)