2021
May 2021: Xiao Li gave a talk entitled “Gas adsorption in porous solids: Structure, thermodynamics and kinetics from in-situ diffraction study” for the PhD Students’ Day from the IMCN Institute; Véronique Louppe, Timothy Steenhaut, Ting Zhang and Jian Wang presented short videos of their research. Timothy Steenhaut got the prize for best video presentation.
Mar. 2021: All lab members assisted to the 11th Belgian Crystallography Symposium (BCS-11, online version), with poster presentations from Ting Zhang (“Synthesis and thermal properties of H-rich Aluminium amidoborane complexes”) and Jian Wang (“Direct Synthesis of MxB12H12 (M=Na, K, Mg) from Borohydrides in an Autoclave”).
Jan. 2021: Jian Wang attended the Energy week 2021 online meeting (Fukuoka, Japan) and presented a poster entitled “Synthesis of Unsolvated MxB12H12 (M=Na, K, Mg) by a Facile Autoclave Route”.
Jan. 2021: Julien Delderenne successfully defended his Master Thesis entitled “The gravimetric tank method to evaluate CO2 adsorption in MOFs”. Congratulations!
Jan. 2021: 10th anniversary of the lab!
2020
Sep. 2020: Timothy Steenhaut attended the virtual conference MOF2020WEB, on Metal-Organic Frameworks and Open Framework Compounds.
Jun. 2020: Séraphin Lacour successfully defended his Master Thesis entitled “Functionalization of open-metal sites in stable MOFs through the use of post-functionalized anchor molecules”. Congratulations!
Jan. 2020: Jian Wang presented a poster entitled “High yield selective Na2B12H12 with autoclave method” at the Kyushu University Energy Week at Fukuoka (Japan).
2019
Oct. 2019: We welcome our new Master student, Julien Delderenne (bio-engineer), who will work on the development of a gravimetric analysis technique for characterizing the adsorption of heavy gases (CO2), in co-promotion with prof. Yann Garcia.
Sep. 2019: We welcome our new Master student, Séraphin Lacour, who will work on MOFs in co-promotion with prof. Sophie Hermans.
Sep. 2019: Xiao Li attended the 1st International Adsorption Summer School in Spetses (Greece) and presented a poster entitled “Ar adsorption in the porous magnesium borohydride, A case study by X-ray powder diffraction”.
Jun.-Jul. 2019: Yaroslav Filinchuk, Véronique Louppe and Timothy Steenhaut attended the Gordon Research Conference about Hydrogen-Metal Systems in Barcelona (Spain) and presented a poster made together with Nicolas Grégoire and Sophie Hermans (“Metal doping in Metal-Organic Frameworks to improve hydrogen sorption”).
Jun. 2019: Nicolas Grégoire successfully defended his Master Thesis entitled “Mechanochemical synthesis of defect-engineered HKUST-1”. Congratulations!
Apr. 2019: An IPL student, Ousam Abdallah, will stay with us for a 2-month internship about the synthesis of linker-modified MOFs under the supervision of Timothy. Welcome!
Jan. 2019: An IPL student, Benjamin Van Meerbeek, will stay with us for a 3-month internship about the synthesis of MOFs with elongated linkers under the supervision of Timothy. Welcome!
Jan. 2019: Xiao Li attended the Energy week conference in Fukuoka (Japan) with a poster entitled “Ar adsorption and interaction in porous magnesium borohydride”.
Jan. 2019: Dr. Dmity Chernyshov from SNBL/ESRF(European Synchrotron) is visiting us for two weeks and giving “ lectures to the IMCN members.
2018
Oct. 2018: Xiao Li attended the 16th International Symposium on Metal-Hydrogen Systems in Guangzhou (China) with an oral presentation entitled “Light noble gases adsorption in γ-Mg(BH4)2”.
Oct. 2018: All lab members attended the 10th Belgian Crystallography Symposium (BCS-10) held in Brussels. Volodia Gounaris got the award for best short presentation and Xiao Li presented a poster entitled “Ultradense hydrogen physisorption in the porous magnesium borohydride”.
Sep. 2018: We welcome our two new PhD (CSC) students, Ting Zhang and Jian Wang.
Sep. 2018: We welcome our new Master student, Nicolas Grégoire, who will work on MOFs.
Sep. 2018: Experiments at SNBL (ESRF, Grenoble, France).
May. 2018: Experiments at SNBL (ESRF, Grenoble, France).
Apr. 2018: An IPL student, Florent Urbain, will stay with us for a 2-month internship about mechanochemical synthesis of bimetallic MOFs under the supervision of Timothy. Welcome!
Feb. 2018: Maxime Baix, a student from IPES Wavre, will stay with us for a 3-week internship. Welcome!
Jan.-Feb. 2018: Xiao Li attended the “Energy week” conference in Fukuoka (Japan) and presented a poster entitled "Ultradense adsorption of hydrogen in the porous magnesium borohydride".
Jan. 2018: Prof. Hai-Wen Li from International Institute for Carbon-Neutral Energy Research, Kyushu University, Japan, is an invited professor at UCLouvain for the period of 2018-2019.
2017
Dec. 2017: FRIA fellowship was awarded to Timothy Steenhaut.
Sep. 2017: Fabrice Morelle successfully defended his PhD thesis entitled “Hybrid hydridic frameworks by the combination of complex hydrides and nitrogen-based organic ligands”. Congratulations Dr. Morelle!
Sep. 2017: Véronique Louppe became teaching assistant. Congratulations!
Sep. 2017: We welcome our three new PhD students: Xiao Li (CSC), Véronique Louppe (teaching assistant) and Timothy Steenhaut.
2015
Mar. 2015: Experiment at MS / SLS (Switzerland)
Mar. 2015: Yaroslav Filinchuk gives an invited talk at SMEC 2015 in Western Caribbean.
Mar. 2015: Experiment at SNBL / ESRF (France)
Jan. 2015: Prof. Hai-Wen Li from International Institute for Carbon-Neutral Energy Research, Kyushu University, Japan, visit us for one week at the end of February - beginning of March 2015.
Jan. 2015: Kasper Møller, a visiting PhD student from Aahrus University (group of Prof. T.R. Jensen), will stay with us from February to July 2015.
Jan. 2015: Two internship students, Youssef Khay and Thibault Peeters, will stay with us for three weeks.
Jan. 2015: FNRS granted us funding for a state of the art TGA/DSC-MS instrument installed in an Ar-filled glovebox.
2014
Dec. 2014: Damir Safin gave an invited talk at the Belgian Synchrotron contact group meeting in Namur.
Dec. 2014: Experiment at MS / SLS (Switzerland). The first high-res powder diffraction data obtained during ball milling! Congrats to Nikolay Tumanov on 3D-printed jars!
Dec. 2014: After 3 years of postdoctoral stay, Voraksmy Ban leaves our group, going to SLS / PSI (Switzerland). We will continue to work together on hydrides and on mechano-chemical synthesis followed by diffraction.
Nov. 2014: Experiment at ID15 / ESRF (France).
Oct. 2014: Two postdocs paid by WBI come from Canada, reinforcing our synthetic side
Oct. 2014: Iurii Dovgaliuk got the best poster award for his presentation at the Belgian Crystallographic Symposium in Brussels.
Sep. 2014: Two papers were accepted, from Voraksmy and from Iurii.
July 2014: five oral presentations were given by the members of our group at the International Symposium on Metal-Hydrogen Systems, MH2014 in Manchester, June 2014.
June 2014: MAR300 diffractometer was installed on the second port of the rotating anode generator.
May 2014: Our first collaboration works with the group of Tom Leyssens were accepted in CrystEngComm and Crystal Growth & Design. Powder diffraction has linked our groups with the help of Nikolay Tumanov.
May 2014: an experiment at SNBL / ESRF.
May 2014: our paper was accepted in JACS.
Apr. 2014: Yaroslav Filinchuk stayed four weeks in I2CNER, KyushuUniversity, thanks to the JSPS Short-Term Invitation Fellowship (hosted by Prof. Hai-Wen Li).
Apr. 2014: A long-term (2 years) proposal for Materials Science Beamline at Swiss Light Source is accepted! It got the highest score among all proposals! It is devoted to in-situ ball milling, in collaboration with University of Geneva and PSI, Switzerland. Voraksmy Ban is playing the key role in it.
Mar. 2014: Carolina Picasso joins the group. She will study reactions of hydrides with carbon dioxide. Welcome!
Mar. 2014: we gave a public lecture with demos at "Printemps de Sciences" in UCL, entitled "Stockage de l'hydrogène, matériaux nouveaux et cristallographie".
Mar. 2014: three group members visited Laborama exhibition in Brussels.
Feb. 2014: two reviews on hydrides are published in Materials Today (IF = 6) with our Danish colleagues. See one and the other.
Feb. 2014: Volumetric (Sieverts) instrument is installed: Hiden IMI-HTP system, 200 bar upper limit, -186 °C to 500 °C, two detachable reactors, immersion sample holder for 77 K. We thank FNRS for the funding!
Feb. 2014: experiments at SNBL / ESRF and ID15 / ESRF. The first in-situ ball milling of hydrides!
Jan. 2014: 4-hand Mbraun Labmaster glovebox with an integrated microscope is installed. We are grateful to the ESRF (Harald Müller and Axel Kaprolat) for this donation!
Jan. 2014: the first paper of Iurii Dovgaliuk comes out in J. Phys. Chem. C.
Jan. 2014: an experiment at SNBL / ESRF.
2013
Dec. 2013: Fabrice Morelle got FRIA fellowship from FNRS. Congratulations!
Nov. 2013: 4-hand glovebox from Innovative Technology, with an integrated microscope and a deep freezer, is installed. We thank FNRS for the funding!