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	Author	Neyts, E.C.; Bal, K.M.
	Title	Effect of electric fields on plasma catalytic hydrocarbon oxidation from atomistic simulations			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2017	Publication	Plasma processes and polymers	Abbreviated Journal	Plasma Process Polym
	Volume	14	Issue	6	Pages	e1600158
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Plasma Lab for Applications in Sustainability and Medicine – Antwerp (PLASMANT)
	Abstract	The catalytic oxidative dehydrogenation of hydrocarbons is an industrially important process, in which selectivity is a key issue. We here investigate the conversion of methanol to formaldehyde on a vanadia surface employing long timescale simulations, reaching a time scale of seconds. In particular, we compare the thermal process to the case where an additional external electric field is applied, as would be the case in a direct plasma-catalysis setup. We find that the electric field influences the retention time of the molecules at the catalyst surface. These simulations provide an atomic scale insight in the thermal catalytic oxidative dehydrogenation process, and in how an external electric field may affect this process.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication	Weinheim	Editor
	Language		Wos	000403699900013	Publication Date	2016-11-08
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	1612-8850	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor	2.846	Times cited	2	Open Access	Not_Open_Access
	Notes				Approved	Most recent IF: 2.846
	Call Number	UA @ lucian @ c:irua:144210			Serial	4647
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	Author	Aussems, D.U.B.; Bal, K. M.; Morgan, T.W.; van de Sanden, M.C.M.; Neyts, E.C.
	Title	Atomistic simulations of graphite etching at realistic time scales			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2017	Publication	Chemical science	Abbreviated Journal	Chem Sci
	Volume	8	Issue	10	Pages	7160-7168
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Plasma Lab for Applications in Sustainability and Medicine – Antwerp (PLASMANT)
	Abstract	Hydrogen–graphite interactions are relevant to a wide variety of applications, ranging from astrophysics to fusion devices and nano-electronics. In order to shed light on these interactions, atomistic simulation using Molecular Dynamics (MD) has been shown to be an invaluable tool. It suffers, however, from severe timescale limitations. In this work we apply the recently developed Collective Variable-Driven Hyperdynamics (CVHD) method to hydrogen etching of graphite for varying inter-impact times up to a realistic value of 1 ms, which corresponds to a flux of 1020 m2 s1. The results show that the erosion yield, hydrogen surface coverage and species distribution are significantly affected by the time between impacts. This can be explained by the higher probability of C–C bond breaking due to the prolonged exposure to thermal stress and the subsequent transition from ion- to thermal-induced etching. This latter regime of thermal-induced etching – chemical erosion – is here accessed for the first time using atomistic simulations. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that accounting for long time-scales significantly affects ion bombardment simulations and should not be neglected in a wide range of conditions, in contrast to what is typically assumed.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000411730500055	Publication Date	2017-08-24
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	2041-6520	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor	8.668	Times cited	3	Open Access	OpenAccess
	Notes	DIFFER is part of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientic Research (NWO). K. M. B. is funded as a PhD fellow (aspirant) of the FWO-Flanders (Fund for Scientic Research-Flanders), Grant 11V8915N. The computational resources and services used in this work were provided by the VSC (Flemish Supercomputer Center), funded by the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) and the Flemish Government – department EWI.			Approved	Most recent IF: 8.668
	Call Number	PLASMANT @ plasmant @c:irua:145519			Serial	4707
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	Author	Tinck, S.; Tillocher, T.; Georgieva, V.; Dussart, R.; Neyts, E.; Bogaerts, A.
	Title	Concurrent effects of wafer temperature and oxygen fraction on cryogenic silicon etching with SF₆/O₂plasmas			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2017	Publication	Plasma processes and polymers	Abbreviated Journal	Plasma Process Polym
	Volume	14	Issue	9	Pages	1700018
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Plasma Lab for Applications in Sustainability and Medicine – Antwerp (PLASMANT)
	Abstract	Cryogenic plasma etching is a promising technique for high-control wafer development with limited plasma induced damage. Cryogenic wafer temperatures effectively reduce surface damage during etching, but the fundamental mechanism is not well understood. In this study, the influences of wafer temperature, gas mixture and substrate bias on the (cryogenic) etch rates of Si with SF6/O2 inductively coupled plasmas are experimentally and computationally investigated. The etch rates are measured in situ with double-point reflectometry and a hybrid computational Monte Carlo – fluid model is applied to calculate plasma properties. This work allows the reader to obtain a better insight in the effects of wafer temperature on the etch rate and to find operating conditions for successful anisotropic (cryo)etching.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000410773200012	Publication Date	2017-04-03
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	1612-8850	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor	2.846	Times cited		Open Access	Not_Open_Access
	Notes	Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, 0880.212.840 ; Hercules Foundation; Flemish Government (Department EWI); Universiteit Antwerpen;			Approved	Most recent IF: 2.846
	Call Number	PLASMANT @ plasmant @c:irua:145637			Serial	4708
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	Author	Bal, K.M.; Huygh, S.; Bogaerts, A.; Neyts, E.C.
	Title	Effect of plasma-induced surface charging on catalytic processes: application to CO₂activation			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2018	Publication	Plasma sources science and technology	Abbreviated Journal	Plasma Sources Sci T
	Volume	27	Issue	2	Pages	024001
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Plasma Lab for Applications in Sustainability and Medicine – Antwerp (PLASMANT)
	Abstract	Understanding the nature and effect of the multitude of plasma–surface interactions in plasma catalysis is a crucial requirement for further process development and improvement. A particularly intriguing and rather unique property of a plasma-catalytic setup is the ability of the plasma to modify the electronic structure, and hence chemical properties, of the catalyst through charging, i.e. the absorption of excess electrons. In this work, we develop a quantum chemical model based on density functional theory to study excess negative surface charges in a heterogeneous catalyst exposed to a plasma. This method is specifically applied to investigate plasma-catalytic CO2 activation on supported M/Al2O3 (M=Ti, Ni, Cu) single atom catalysts. We find that (1) the presence of a negative surface charge dramatically improves the reductive power of the catalyst, strongly promoting the splitting of CO2 to CO and oxygen, and (2) the relative activity of the investigated transition metals is also changed upon charging, suggesting that controlled surface charging is a powerful additional parameter to tune catalyst activity and selectivity. These results strongly point to plasma-induced surface charging of the catalyst as an important factor contributing to the plasma-catalyst synergistic effects frequently reported for plasma catalysis.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000424520100001	Publication Date	2018-02-07
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	1361-6595	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor	3.302	Times cited	19	Open Access	OpenAccess
	Notes	KMB is funded as PhD fellow (aspirant) of the FWO-Flanders (Research Foundation—Flanders), Grant 11V8915N. The computational resources and services used in this work were provided by the VSC (Flemish Supercomputer Center), funded by the FWO and the Flemish Government— department EWI.			Approved	Most recent IF: 3.302
	Call Number	PLASMANT @ plasmant @c:irua:149285			Serial	4813
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	Author	Razzokov, J.; Yusupov, M.; Vanuytsel, S.; Neyts, E.C.; Bogaerts, A.
	Title	Phosphatidylserine flip-flop induced by oxidation of the plasma membrane: a better insight by atomic scale modeling			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2017	Publication	Plasma processes and polymers	Abbreviated Journal	Plasma Process Polym
	Volume	14	Issue	10	Pages	1700013
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Plasma Lab for Applications in Sustainability and Medicine – Antwerp (PLASMANT)
	Abstract	We perform molecular dynamics simulations to study the flip-flop motion of phosphatidylserine (PS) across the plasma membrane upon increasing oxidation degree of the membrane. Our computational results show that an increase of the oxidation degree in the lipids leads to a decrease of the free energy barrier for translocation of PS through the membrane. In other words, oxidation of the lipids facilitates PS flip-flop motion across the membrane, because in native phospholipid bilayers this is only a “rare event” due to the high energy barriers for the translocation of PS. The present study provides an atomic-scale insight into the mechanisms of the PS flip-flop upon oxidation of lipids, as produced for example by cold atmospheric plasma, in living cells.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000413045800010	Publication Date	2017-04-05
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	1612-8850	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor	2.846	Times cited	9	Open Access	Not_Open_Access
	Notes	Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, 1200216N ;			Approved	Most recent IF: 2.846
	Call Number	PLASMANT @ plasmant @c:irua:149567			Serial	4910
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	Author	Bal, K.M.; Neyts, E.C.
	Title	Modelling molecular adsorption on charged or polarized surfaces: a critical flaw in common approaches			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2018	Publication	Physical chemistry, chemical physics	Abbreviated Journal	Phys Chem Chem Phys
	Volume	20	Issue	13	Pages	8456-8459
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Plasma Lab for Applications in Sustainability and Medicine – Antwerp (PLASMANT)
	Abstract	A number of recent computational material design studies based on density functional theory (DFT) calculations have put forward a new class of materials with electrically switchable chemical characteristics that can be exploited in the development of tunable gas storage and electrocatalytic applications. We find systematic flaws in almost every computational study of gas adsorption on polarized or charged surfaces, stemming from an improper and unreproducible treatment of periodicity, leading to very large errors of up to 3 eV in some cases. Two simple corrective procedures that lead to consistent results are proposed, constituting a crucial course correction to the research in the field.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000428779700007	Publication Date	2018-03-12
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	1463-9076	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor	4.123	Times cited	8	Open Access	OpenAccess
	Notes	K. M. B. is funded as PhD fellow (aspirant) of the FWO-Flanders (Research Foundation – Flanders), Grant 11V8915N. The computational resources and services used in this work were provided by the VSC (Flemish Supercomputer Center), funded by the FWO and the Flemish Government – department EWI.			Approved	Most recent IF: 4.123
	Call Number	PLASMANT @ plasmant @c:irua:150357			Serial	4916
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	Author	Heyne, M.H.; de Marneffe, J.-F.; Nuytten, T.; Meersschaut, J.; Conard, T.; Caymax, M.; Radu, I.; Delabie, A.; Neyts, E.C.; De Gendt, S.
	Title	The conversion mechanism of amorphous silicon to stoichiometric WS₂			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2018	Publication	Journal of materials chemistry C : materials for optical and electronic devices	Abbreviated Journal	J Mater Chem C
	Volume	6	Issue	15	Pages	4122-4130
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Plasma Lab for Applications in Sustainability and Medicine – Antwerp (PLASMANT)
	Abstract	The deposition of ultra-thin tungsten films and their related 2D chalcogen compounds on large area dielectric substrates by gas phase reactions is challenging. The lack of nucleation sites complicates the adsorption of W-related precursors and subsequent sulfurization usually requires high temperatures. We propose here a technique in which a thin solid amorphous silicon film is used as reductant for the gas phase precursor WF6 leading to the conversion to metallic W. The selectivity of the W conversion towards the underlying dielectric surfaces is demonstrated. The role of the Si surface preparation, the conversion temperature, and Si thickness on the formation process is investigated. Further, the in situ conversion of the metallic tungsten into thin stoichiometric WS2 is achieved by a cyclic approach based on WF6 and H2S pulses at the moderate temperature of 450 1C, which is much lower than usual oxide sulfurization processes.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000430538000036	Publication Date	2018-03-20
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	2050-7526	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor	5.256	Times cited	4	Open Access	OpenAccess
	Notes	This work was supported throughout a strategic fundamental research grant for M. H. by the agency Flanders innovation & entrepreneurship (VLAIO).			Approved	Most recent IF: 5.256
	Call Number	PLASMANT @ plasmant @c:irua:150968			Serial	4921
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	Author	Neyts, E.C.
	Title	Atomistic simulations of plasma catalytic processes			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2018	Publication	Frontiers of Chemical Science and Engineering	Abbreviated Journal	Front Chem Sci Eng
	Volume	12	Issue	1	Pages	145-154
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Plasma Lab for Applications in Sustainability and Medicine – Antwerp (PLASMANT)
	Abstract	There is currently a growing interest in the realisation and optimization of hybrid plasma/catalyst systems for a multitude of applications, ranging from nanotechnology to environmental chemistry. In spite of this interest, there is, however, a lack in fundamental understanding of the underlying processes in such systems. While a lot of experimental research is already being carried out to gain this understanding, only recently the first simulations have appeared in the literature. In this contribution, an overview is presented on atomic scale simulations of plasma catalytic processes as carried out in our group. In particular, this contribution focusses on plasma-assisted catalyzed carbon nanostructure growth, and plasma catalysis for greenhouse gas conversion. Attention is paid to what can routinely be done, and where challenges persist.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000425156500017	Publication Date	2017-09-30
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	2095-0179	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor	1.712	Times cited	5	Open Access	Not_Open_Access
	Notes				Approved	Most recent IF: 1.712
	Call Number	UA @ lucian @ c:irua:149233			Serial	4927
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	Author	Nematollahi, P.; Neyts, E.C.
	Title	A comparative DFT study on CO oxidation reaction over Si-doped BC2N nanosheet and nanotube			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2018	Publication	Applied surface science	Abbreviated Journal	Appl Surf Sci
	Volume	439	Issue	439	Pages	934-945
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Plasma Lab for Applications in Sustainability and Medicine – Antwerp (PLASMANT)
	Abstract	In this study, we performed density functional theory (DFT) calculations to investigate different reaction mechanisms of CO oxidation catalyzed by the Si atom embedded defective BC2N nanostructures as well as the analysis of the structural and electronic properties. The structures of all the complexes are optimized and characterized by frequency calculations at the M062X/6-31G* computational level. Also, The electronic structures and thermodynamic parameters of adsorbed CO and O-2 molecules over Si-doped BC2N nanostructures are examined in detail. Moreover, to investigate the curvature effect on the CO oxidation reaction, all the adsorption and CO oxidation reactions on a finite-sized armchair (6,6) Si-BC2NNT are also studied. Our results indicate that there can be two possible pathways for the CO oxidation with O-2 molecule: O-2(g) + CO(g) -> O-2(ads) + CO(ads) -> CO2(g) + O-(ads) and O-(ads) + CO(g) -> CO2(g). The first reaction proceeds via the Langmuir-Hinshelwood (LH) mechanism while the second goes through the Eley-Rideal (ER) mechanism. On the other hand, by increasing the tube diameter, the energy barrier increases due to the strong adsorption energy of the O-2 molecule which is related to its dissociation over the tube surface. Our calculations indicate that the two step energy barrier of the oxidation reaction over Si-BC2NNS is less than that over the Si-BC2NNT. Hence, Si-BC2NNS may serve as an efficient and highly activated substrate to CO oxidation rather than (4,4) Si-BC2NNT. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication	Amsterdam	Editor
	Language		Wos	000427457100112	Publication Date	2018-01-08
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	0169-4332	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor	3.387	Times cited	8	Open Access	Not_Open_Access
	Notes				Approved	Most recent IF: 3.387
	Call Number	UA @ lucian @ c:irua:150745			Serial	4960
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	Author	Wang, Z.; Zhang, Y.; Neyts, E.C.; Cao, X.; Zhang, X.; Jang, B.W.-L.; Liu, C.-jun
	Title	Catalyst preparation with plasmas : how does it work?			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2018	Publication	ACS catalysis	Abbreviated Journal	Acs Catal
	Volume	8	Issue	3	Pages	2093-2110
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Plasma Lab for Applications in Sustainability and Medicine – Antwerp (PLASMANT)
	Abstract	Catalyst preparation with plasmas is increasingly attracting interest. A plasma is a partially ionized gas, consisting of electrons, ions, molecules, radicals, photons, and excited species, which are all active species for catalyst preparation and treatment. Under the influence of plasma, nucleation and crystal growth in catalyst preparation can be very different from those in the conventional thermal approach. Some thermodynamically unfavorable reactions can easily take place with plasmas. Compounds such as sulfides, nitrides, and phosphides that are produced under harsh conditions can be synthesized by plasma under mild conditions. Plasmas can produce catalysts with smaller particle sizes and controllable structure. Plasma is also a facile tool for reduction, oxidation, doping, etching, coating, alloy formation, surface treatment, and surface cleaning in a simple and direct way. A rapid and convenient plasma template removal has thus been established for zeolite synthesis. It can operate at room temperature and allows the catalyst preparation on temperature-sensitive supporting materials. Plasma is typically effective for the production of various catalysts on metallic substrates. In addition, plasma-prepared transition-metal catalysts show enhanced low-temperature activity with improved stability. This provides a useful model catalyst for further improvement of industrial catalysts. In this review, we aim to summarize the recent advances in catalyst preparation with plasmas. The present understanding of plasma-based catalyst preparation is discussed. The challenges and future development are addressed.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher	Amer chemical soc	Place of Publication	Washington	Editor
	Language		Wos	000426804100055	Publication Date	2018-01-29
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	2155-5435	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor	10.614	Times cited	81	Open Access	Not_Open_Access
	Notes				Approved	Most recent IF: 10.614
	Call Number	UA @ lucian @ c:irua:150880			Serial	4963
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	Author	Aussems, D.U.B.; Bal, K.M.; Morgan, T.W.; van de Sanden, M.C.M.; Neyts, E.C.
	Title	Mechanisms of elementary hydrogen ion-surface interactions during multilayer graphene etching at high surface temperature as a function of flux			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2018	Publication	Carbon	Abbreviated Journal	Carbon
	Volume	137	Issue		Pages	527-532
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Plasma Lab for Applications in Sustainability and Medicine – Antwerp (PLASMANT)
	Abstract	In order to optimize the plasma-synthesis and modification process of carbon nanomaterials for applications such as nanoelectronics and energy storage, a deeper understanding of fundamental hydrogengraphite/graphene interactions is required. Atomistic simulations by Molecular Dynamics have proven to be indispensable to illuminate these phenomena. However, severe time-scale limitations restrict them to very fast processes such as reflection, while slow thermal processes such as surface diffusion and molecular desorption are commonly inaccessible. In this work, we could however reach these thermal processes for the first time at time-scales and surface temperatures (1000 K) similar to high-flux plasma exposure experiments during the simulation of multilayer graphene etching by 5 eV H ions. This was achieved by applying the Collective Variable-Driven Hyperdynamics biasing technique, which extended the inter-impact time over a range of six orders of magnitude, down to a more realistic ion-flux of 1023m2s1. The results show that this not only causes a strong shift from predominant ion-to thermally induced interactions, but also significantly affects the hydrogen uptake and surface evolution. This study thus elucidates H ion-graphite/graphene interaction mechanisms and stresses the importance of including long time-scales in atomistic simulations at high surface temperatures to understand the dynamics of the ion-surface system.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000440661700056	Publication Date	2018-05-24
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	0008-6223	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor	6.337	Times cited	4	Open Access	Not_Open_Access: Available from 25.05.2020
	Notes	DIFFER is part of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). K.M.B. is funded as PhD fellow (aspirant) of the FWO-Flanders (Fund for Scientific Research-Flanders), Grant 11V8915N. The computational resources and services used in this work were provided by the VSC (Flemish Supercomputer Center), funded by the FWO and the Flemish Government e department EWI.			Approved	Most recent IF: 6.337
	Call Number	PLASMANT @ plasmant @c:irua:152172			Serial	4993
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	Author	Zhang, Y.-R.; Neyts, E.C.; Bogaerts, A.
	Title	Enhancement of plasma generation in catalyst pores with different shapes			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2018	Publication	Plasma sources science and technology	Abbreviated Journal	Plasma Sources Sci T
	Volume	27	Issue	5	Pages	055008
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Plasma Lab for Applications in Sustainability and Medicine – Antwerp (PLASMANT)
	Abstract	Plasma generation inside catalyst pores is of utmost importance for plasma catalysis, as the existence of plasma species inside the pores affects the active surface area of the catalyst available to the plasma species for catalytic reactions. In this paper, the electric field enhancement, and thus the plasma production inside catalyst pores with different pore shapes is studied with a two-dimensional fluid model. The results indicate that the electric field will be significantly enhanced near tip-like structures. In a conical pore with small opening, the strongest electric field appears at the opening and bottom corners of the pore, giving rise to a prominent ionization rate throughout the pore. For a cylindrical pore, the electric field is only enhanced at the bottom corners of the pore, with lower absolute value, and thus the ionization rate inside the pore is only slightly enhanced. Finally, in a conical pore with large opening, the electric field is characterized by a maximum at the bottom of the pore, yielding a similar behavior for the ionization rate. These results demonstrate that the shape of the pore has a significantly influence on the electric field enhancement, and thus modifies the plasma properties.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000432351700002	Publication Date	2018-05-15
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	1361-6595	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor	3.302	Times cited	11	Open Access	OpenAccess
	Notes	This work was supported by the Fund for Scientific Research Flanders (FWO) (Grant No. G.0217.14N) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. DUT17LK52).			Approved	Most recent IF: 3.302
	Call Number	PLASMANT @ plasmant @c:irua:151546			Serial	4998
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	Author	Nematollahi, P.; Esrafili, M.D.; Neyts, E.C.
	Title	The role of healed N-vacancy defective BC₂N sheet and nanotube by NO molecule in oxidation of NO and CO gas molecules			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2018	Publication	Surface science : a journal devoted to the physics and chemistry of interfaces	Abbreviated Journal	Surf Sci
	Volume	672-673	Issue	672-673	Pages	39-46
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Plasma Lab for Applications in Sustainability and Medicine – Antwerp (PLASMANT)
	Abstract	In this study, the healing of N-vacancy boron carbonitride nanosheet (NV-BC2NNS) and nanotube (NV-BC2NNT) by NO molecule is studied by means of density functional theory calculations. Two different N-vacancies are considered in each of these structures in which the vacancy site is surrounded by either three B-atoms (NB) or by two B- and one C-atom (NBC). By means of the healed BC2NNS and BC2NNT as a support, the removal of two toxic gas molecules (NO and CO) are applicable. It should be noted that the obtained energy barriers of both healing and oxidizing processes are significantly lower than those of graphene, carbon nanotubes or boron nitride nanostructures. Also, at the end of the oxidation process, the pure BC2NNS or BC2NNT is obtained without any additional defects. Therefore, by using this method, we can considerably purify the defective BC2NNS/BC2NNT. Moreover, according to the thermochemistry calculations we can further confirm that the healing process of the NV-BC2NNS and NV-BC2NNT by NO are feasible at room temperature. So, we can claim that this study could be very helpful in both purifying the defective BC2NNS/BC2NNT while in the same effort removing toxic NO and CO gases.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication	Amsterdam	Editor
	Language		Wos	000432614700007	Publication Date	2018-03-08
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	0039-6028	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor	2.062	Times cited	1	Open Access	OpenAccess
	Notes				Approved	Most recent IF: 2.062
	Call Number	UA @ lucian @ c:irua:151478			Serial	5044
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	Author	Heyne, M.H.; de Marneffe, J.-F.; Radu, I.; Neyts, E.C.; De Gendt, S.
	Title	Thermal recrystallization of short-range ordered WS₂ films			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2018	Publication	Journal of vacuum science and technology: A: vacuum surfaces and films	Abbreviated Journal	J Vac Sci Technol A
	Volume	36	Issue	5	Pages	05g501
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Plasma Lab for Applications in Sustainability and Medicine – Antwerp (PLASMANT)
	Abstract	The integration of van der Waals materials in nanoelectronic devices requires the deposition of few-layered MX2 films with excellent quality crystals covering a large area. In recent years, astonishing progress in the monolayer growth of WS2 and MoS2 was demonstrated, but multilayer growth resulted often in separated triangular or hexagonal islands. These polycrystalline films cannot fully employ the specific MX2 properties since they are not connected in-plane to the other domains. To coalesce separated islands, ultrahigh-temperature postdeposition anneals in H2S are applied, which are not compatible with bare silicon substrates. Starting from the deposition of stoichiometric short-ordered films, the present work studies different options for subsequent high-temperature annealing in an inert atmosphere to form crystalline films with large grains from stoichiometric films with small grains. The rapid thermal annealing, performed over a few seconds, is compared to excimer laser annealing in the nanosecond range, which are both able to crystallize the thin WS2. The WS2 recrystallization temperature can be lowered using metallic crystallization promoters (Co and Ni). The best result is obtained using a Co cap, due to the circumvention of Co and S binary phase formation below the eutectic temperature. The recrystallization above a critical temperature is accompanied by sulfur loss and 3D regrowth. These undesired effects can be suppressed by the application of a dielectric capping layer prior to annealing. A SiO2 cap can suppress the sulfur loss successfully during annealing and reveals improved material quality in comparison to noncapped films Published by the AVS.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication	New York, N.Y.	Editor
	Language		Wos	000444033200002	Publication Date	2018-07-05
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	0734-2101	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor	1.374	Times cited	2	Open Access	Not_Open_Access
	Notes				Approved	Most recent IF: 1.374
	Call Number	UA @ lucian @ c:irua:153671			Serial	5134
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	Author	Khalilov, U.; Vets, C.; Neyts, E.C.
	Title	Catalyzed growth of encapsulated carbyne			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2019	Publication	Carbon	Abbreviated Journal	Carbon
	Volume	153	Issue		Pages	1-5
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Plasma Lab for Applications in Sustainability and Medicine – Antwerp (PLASMANT)
	Abstract	Carbyne is a novel material of current interest in nanotechnology. As is typically the case for nanomaterials, the growth process determines the resulting properties. While endohedral carbyne has been successfully synthesized, its catalyst and feedstock-dependent growth mechanism is still elusive. We here study the nucleation and growth mechanism of different carbon chains in a Ni-containing double walled carbon nanotube using classical molecular dynamics simulations and ﬁrst-principles calculations. We ﬁnd that the understanding the competitive role of the metal catalyst and the hydrocarbon is important to control the growth of 1-dimensional carbon chains, including Ni or H-terminated carbyne. Also, we ﬁnd that the electronic property of the Ni-terminated carbyne can be tuned by steering the H concentration along the chain. These results suggest catalyst-containing carbon nanotubes as a possible synthesis route for carbyne formation.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000485054200001	Publication Date	2019-07-01
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	0008-6223	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor	6.337	Times cited		Open Access	Not_Open_Access
	Notes	Fund of Scientific Research Flanders (FWO), Belgium, 12M1318N 1S22516N ; Flemish Supercomputer Centre VSC; Hercules Foundation; Flemish Government; University of Antwerp; The authors gratefully acknowledge the ﬁnancial support from the Fund of Scientiﬁc Research Flanders (FWO), Belgium, Grant numbers 12M1318N and 1S22516N. The work was carried out in part using the Turing HPC infrastructure of the CalcUA core facility of the Universiteit Antwerpen, a division of the Flemish Supercomputer Centre VSC, funded by the Hercules Foundation, the Flemish Government (department EWI) and the University of Antwerp.			Approved	Most recent IF: 6.337
	Call Number	PLASMANT @ plasmant @c:irua:160695			Serial	5187
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	Author	Heyne, M.H.; Marinov, D.; Braithwaite, N.; Goodyear, A.; de Marneffe, J.-F.; Cooke, M.; Radu, I.; Neyts, E.C.; De Gendt, S.
	Title	A route towards the fabrication of 2D heterostructures using atomic layer etching combined with selective conversion			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2019	Publication	2D materials	Abbreviated Journal	2D Mater
	Volume	6	Issue	3	Pages	035030
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Plasma Lab for Applications in Sustainability and Medicine – Antwerp (PLASMANT)
	Abstract	Heterostructures of low-dimensional semiconducting materials, such as transition metal dichalcogenides (MX2), are promising building blocks for future electronic and optoelectronic devices. The patterning of one MX2 material on top of another one is challenging due to their structural similarity. This prevents an intrinsic etch stop when conventional anisotropic dry etching processes are used. An alternative approach consist in a two-step process, where a sacrificial silicon layer is pre-patterned with a low damage plasma process, stopping on the underlying MoS2 film. The pre-patterned layer is used as sacrificial template for the formation of the top WS2 film. This study describes the optimization of a cyclic Ar/Cl-2 atomic layer etch process applied to etch silicon on top of MoS2, with minimal damage, followed by a selective conversion of the patterned Si into WS2. The impact of the Si atomic layer etch towards the MoS2 is evaluated: in the ion energy range used for this study, MoS2 removal occurs in the over-etch step over 1-2 layers, leading to the appearance of MoOx but without significant lattice distortions to the remaining layers. The combination of Si atomic layer etch, on top of MoS2, and subsequent Si-to-WS2 selective conversion, allows to create a WS2/MoS2 heterostructure, with clear Raman signals and horizontal lattice alignment. These results demonstrate a scalable, transfer free method to achieve horizontally individually patterned heterostacks and open the route towards wafer-level processing of 2D materials.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000468335500004	Publication Date	2019-04-23
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	2053-1583	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor	6.937	Times cited		Open Access	Not_Open_Access
	Notes				Approved	Most recent IF: 6.937
	Call Number	UA @ admin @ c:irua:160229			Serial	5266
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	Author	Grubova, I.Y.; Surmeneva, M.A.; Huygh, S.; Surmenev, R.A.; Neyts, E.C.
	Title	Effects of silicon doping on strengthening adhesion at the interface of the hydroxyapatite-titanium biocomposite : a first-principles study			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2019	Publication	Computational materials science	Abbreviated Journal	Comp Mater Sci
	Volume	159	Issue	159	Pages	228-234
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Plasma Lab for Applications in Sustainability and Medicine – Antwerp (PLASMANT)
	Abstract	In this paper we employ first-principles calculations to investigate the effect of substitutional Si doping in the amorphous calcium-phosphate (a-HAP) structure on the work of adhesion, integral charge transfer, charge density difference and theoretical tensile strengths between an a-HAP coating and amorphous titanium dioxide (a-TiO2) substrate systemically. Our calculations demonstrate that substitution of a P atom by a Si atom in a-HAP (a-Si-HAP) with the creation of OH-vacancies as charge compensation results in a significant increase of the bonding strength of the coating to the substrate. The work of adhesion of the optimized Si-doped interfaces reaches a value of up to -2.52 J m(-2), which is significantly higher than for the stoichiometric a-HAP/a-TiO2. Charge density difference analysis indicates that the dominant interactions at the interface have significant covalent character, and in particular two Ti-O and three Ca-O bonds are formed for a-Si-HAP/a-TiO2 and one Ti-O and three Ca-O bonds for a-HAP/a-TiO2. From the stress-strain curve, the Young's modulus of a-Si-HAP/a-TiO2 is calculated to be about 25% higher than that of the a-HAP/a-TiO2, and the yielding stress is about 2 times greater than that of the undoped model. Our calculations therefore demonstrate that the presence of Si in the a-HAP structure strongly alters not only the bioactivity and resorption rates, but also the mechanical properties of the a-HAP/a-TiO2 interface. The results presented here provide an important theoretical insight into the nature of the chemical bonding at the a-HAP/a-TiO2 interface, and are particularly significant for the practical medical applications of HAP-based biomaterials.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000457856900023	Publication Date	2018-12-18
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	0927-0256	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor	2.292	Times cited	1	Open Access	Not_Open_Access
	Notes				Approved	Most recent IF: 2.292
	Call Number	UA @ admin @ c:irua:157480			Serial	5272
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	Author	Brault, P.; Chamorro-Coral, W.; Chuon, S.; Caillard, A.; Bauchire, J.-M.; Baranton, S.; Coutanceau, C.; Neyts, E.
	Title	Molecular dynamics simulations of initial Pd and PdO nanocluster growth in a magnetron gas aggregation source			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2019	Publication	Frontiers of Chemical Science and Engineering	Abbreviated Journal	Front Chem Sci Eng
	Volume	13	Issue	2	Pages	324-329
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Plasma Lab for Applications in Sustainability and Medicine – Antwerp (PLASMANT)
	Abstract	Molecular dynamics simulations are carried out for describing growth of Pd and PdO nanoclusters using the ReaxFF force field. The resulting nanocluster structures are successfully compared to those of nanoclusters experimentally grown in a gas aggregation source. The PdO structure is quasi-crystalline as revealed by high resolution transmission microscope analysis for experimental PdO nanoclusters. The role of the nanocluster temperature in the molecular dynamics simulated growth is highlighted.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000468848400009	Publication Date	2019-03-26
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	2095-0179	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor	1.712	Times cited	3	Open Access	Not_Open_Access
	Notes				Approved	Most recent IF: 1.712
	Call Number	UA @ admin @ c:irua:160278			Serial	5276
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	Author	Nematollahi, P.; Neyts, E.C.
	Title	Direct methane conversion to methanol on M and MN₄ embedded graphene (M = Ni and Si): a comparative DFT study			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2019	Publication	Applied surface science	Abbreviated Journal	Appl Surf Sci
	Volume	496	Issue	496	Pages	143618
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Plasma Lab for Applications in Sustainability and Medicine – Antwerp (PLASMANT)
	Abstract	The ever increasing global production and dispersion of methane requires novel chemistry to transform it into easily condensable energy carriers that can be integrated into the chemical infrastructure. In this context, single atom catalysts have attracted considerable interest due to their outstanding catalytic activity. We here use density functional theory (DFT) computations to compare the reaction and activation energies of M and MN4 embedded graphene (M = Ni and Si) on the methane-to-methanol conversion near room temperature. Thermodynamically, conversion of methane to methanol is energetically favorable at ambient conditions. Both singlet and triplet spin state of the studied systems are considered in all of the calculations. The DFT results show that the barriers are significantly lower when the complexes are in the triplet state than in the singlet state. In particular, Si-G with the preferred spin multiplicity of triplet seems to be viable catalysts for methane oxidation thanks to the corresponding lower energy barriers and higher stability of the obtained configurations. Our results provide insights into the nature of methane conversion and may serve as guidance for fabricating cost-effective graphene-based single atom catalysts.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000488957400004	Publication Date	2019-08-12
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	0169-4332	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor	3.387	Times cited	2	Open Access
	Notes				Approved	Most recent IF: 3.387
	Call Number	UA @ admin @ c:irua:163695			Serial	6294
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	Author	Fukuhara, S.; Bal, K.M.; Neyts, E.C.; Shibuta, Y.
	Title	Accelerated molecular dynamics simulation of large systems with parallel collective variable-driven hyperdynamics			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2020	Publication	Computational Materials Science	Abbreviated Journal	Comp Mater Sci
	Volume	177	Issue		Pages	109581
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Plasma Lab for Applications in Sustainability and Medicine – Antwerp (PLASMANT)
	Abstract	The limitation in time and length scale is a major issue of molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. Although several methods have been developed to extend the MD time scale, their performance usually deteriorates with increasing system size. Therefore, an acceleration method which is applicable to large systems is required to bridge the gap between the MD simulations and target phenomena. In this study, an accelerated MD method for large system is developed based on the collective variable-driven hyperdynamics (CVHD) method [K.M. Bal and E.C. Neyts, 2015]. The key idea is to run CVHD in parallel with rate control and accelerate multiple possible events simultaneously. Using this novel method, carbon diﬀusion in bcc-iron bicrystal with grain boundary is examined as an application for practical materials. Carbon atoms reaching at the grain boundary are trapped whereas carbon atoms in the bulk region diﬀuse randomly, and both dynamic regimes can be simultaneously accelerated with the parallel CVHD technique.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000519576300001	Publication Date	2020-02-08
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	0927-0256	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor	3.3	Times cited		Open Access
	Notes	JSPS, J22727 ; Japan Society for the Promotion of Science; This work was supported by Grant-in-Aid for Scientiﬁc Research (B) (No.19H02415) and Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Research Fellow (No.18J22727) from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), Japan. S.F. was supported by JSPS through the Program for Leading Graduate Schools (MERIT). Data availability The data required to reproduce these ﬁndings are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.			Approved	Most recent IF: 3.3; 2020 IF: 2.292
	Call Number	PLASMANT @ plasmant @c:irua:166773			Serial	6333
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	Author	Khalilov, U.; Neyts, E.C.
	Title	Mechanisms of selective nanocarbon synthesis inside carbon nanotubes			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2021	Publication	Carbon	Abbreviated Journal	Carbon
	Volume	171	Issue		Pages	72-78
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Plasma Lab for Applications in Sustainability and Medicine – Antwerp (PLASMANT)
	Abstract	The possibility of conﬁnement effects inside a carbon nanotube provides new application opportunities, e.g., growth of novel carbon nanostructures. However, the understanding the precise role of catalystfeedstock in the nanostructure synthesis is still elusive. In our simulation-based study, we investigate the Ni-catalyzed growth mechanism of encapsulated carbon nanostructures, viz. double-wall carbon nanotube and graphene nanoribbon, from carbon and hydrocarbon growth precursors, respectively. Speciﬁcally, we ﬁnd that the tube and ribbon growth is determined by a catalyst-vs-feedstock competition effect. We compare our results, i.e., growth mechanism and structure morphology with all available theoretical and experimental data. Our calculations show that all encapsulated nanostructures contain metal (catalyst) atoms and such structures are less stable than their pure counterparts. Therefore, we study the puriﬁcation mechanism of these structures. In general, this study opens a possible route to the controllable synthesis of tubular and planar carbon nanostructures for today’s nanotechnology.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000598371500009	Publication Date	2020-09-02
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	0008-6223	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record
	Impact Factor	6.337	Times cited		Open Access	OpenAccess
	Notes	Fund of Scientific Research Flanders, 12M1318N ; Universiteit Antwerpen; Flemish Supercomputer Centre; Hercules Foundation; Flemish Government; The authors gratefully acknowledge the ﬁnancial support from the Fund of Scientiﬁc Research Flanders (FWO), Belgium, Grant number 12M1318N. The work was carried out in part using the Turing HPC infrastructure of the CalcUA core facility of the Universiteit Antwerpen (UA), a division of the Flemish Supercomputer Centre (VSC), funded by the Hercules Foundation, the Flemish Government (department EWI) and the UA, Belgium.			Approved	Most recent IF: 6.337
	Call Number	PLASMANT @ plasmant @c:irua:172459			Serial	6414
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	Author	Bal, K.M.; Fukuhara, S.; Shibuta, Y.; Neyts, E.C.
	Title	Free energy barriers from biased molecular dynamics simulations			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2020	Publication	Journal Of Chemical Physics	Abbreviated Journal	J Chem Phys
	Volume	153	Issue	11	Pages	114118
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Plasma Lab for Applications in Sustainability and Medicine – Antwerp (PLASMANT)
	Abstract	Atomistic simulation methods for the quantification of free energies are in wide use. These methods operate by sampling the probability density of a system along a small set of suitable collective variables (CVs), which is, in turn, expressed in the form of a free energy surface (FES). This definition of the FES can capture the relative stability of metastable states but not that of the transition state because the barrier height is not invariant to the choice of CVs. Free energy barriers therefore cannot be consistently computed from the FES. Here, we present a simple approach to calculate the gauge correction necessary to eliminate this inconsistency. Using our procedure, the standard FES as well as its gauge-corrected counterpart can be obtained by reweighing the same simulated trajectory at little additional cost. We apply the method to a number of systems—a particle solvated in a Lennard-Jones fluid, a Diels–Alder reaction, and crystallization of liquid sodium—to demonstrate its ability to produce consistent free energy barriers that correctly capture the kinetics of chemical or physical transformations, and discuss the additional demands it puts on the chosen CVs. Because the FES can be converged at relatively short (sub-ns) time scales, a free energy-based description of reaction kinetics is a particularly attractive option to study chemical processes at more expensive quantum mechanical levels of theory.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000574665600004	Publication Date	2020-09-21
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	0021-9606	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor	4.4	Times cited		Open Access
	Notes	Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, 19H02415 18J22727 ; Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, 12ZI420N ; This work was supported, in part, by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) (Grant No. 19H02415) and Grant-in-Aid for a JSPS Research Fellow (Grant No. 18J22727) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), Japan. K.M.B. was funded as a junior postdoctoral fellow of the FWO (Research Foundation – Flanders), Grant No. 12ZI420N. S.F. was supported by JSPS through the Program for Leading Graduate Schools (MERIT). The computational resources and services used in this work were provided by the HPC core facility CalcUA of the Universiteit Antwerpen, and VSC (Flemish Supercomputer Center), funded by the FWO and the Flemish Government. The authors are grateful to Pablo Piaggi for making the pair entropy CV code publicly available.			Approved	Most recent IF: 4.4; 2020 IF: 2.965
	Call Number	PLASMANT @ plasmant @c:irua:172456			Serial	6420
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	Author	Fukuhara, S.; Bal, K.M.; Neyts, E.C.; Shibuta, Y.
	Title	Entropic and enthalpic factors determining the thermodynamics and kinetics of carbon segregation from transition metal nanoparticles			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2021	Publication	Carbon	Abbreviated Journal	Carbon
	Volume	171	Issue		Pages	806-813
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Plasma Lab for Applications in Sustainability and Medicine – Antwerp (PLASMANT)
	Abstract	The free energy surface (FES) for carbon segregation from nickel nanoparticles is obtained from advanced molecular dynamics simulations. A suitable reaction coordinate is developed that can distinguish dissolved carbon atoms from segregated dimers, chains and junctions on the nanoparticle surface. Because of the typically long segregation time scale (up to ms), metadynamics simulations along the developed reaction coordinate are used to construct FES over a wide range of temperatures and carbon concentrations. The FES revealed the relative stability of different stages in the segregation process, and free energy barriers and rates of the individual steps could then be calculated and decomposed into enthalpic and entropic contributions. As the carbon concentration in the nickel nanoparticle increases, segregated carbon becomes more stable in terms of both enthalpy and entropy. The activation free energy of the reaction also decreases with the increase of carbon concentration, which can be mainly attributed to entropic effects. These insights and the methodology developed to obtain them improve our understanding of carbon segregation process across materials science in general, and the nucleation and growth of carbon nanotube in particular.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000598371500084	Publication Date	2020-09-25
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	0008-6223	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor	6.337	Times cited		Open Access	OpenAccess
	Notes	Scientific Research, 19H02415 ; JSPS, 18J22727 ; Japan Society for the Promotion of Science; JSPS; JSPS; FWO; Research Foundation; Flanders, 12ZI420N ; This work was supported by Grant-in-Aid for Scientiﬁc Research (B) (No.19H02415) and Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Research Fellow (No.18J22727) from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), Japan. S.F. was supported by JSPS through the Program for 812			Approved	Most recent IF: 6.337
	Call Number	PLASMANT @ plasmant @c:irua:172452			Serial	6421
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	Author	Nematollahi, P.; Neyts, E.C.
	Title	Direct oxidation of methane to methanol on Co embedded N-doped graphene: Comparing the role of N₂O and O₂ as oxidants			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2020	Publication	Applied Catalysis A-General	Abbreviated Journal	Appl Catal A-Gen
	Volume	602	Issue		Pages	117716-10
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Plasma Lab for Applications in Sustainability and Medicine – Antwerp (PLASMANT)
	Abstract	In this work, the effects of N-doping into the Co-doped single vacancy (Co-SV-G) and di-vacancy graphene flake (Co-dV-G) are investigated and compared toward direct oxidation of methane to methanol (DOMM) employing two different oxidants (N2O and O-2) using density functional theory (DFT) calculation. We found that DOMM on CoN3-G utilizing the N2O molecule as oxygen-donor proceeds via a two-step reaction with low activation energies. In addition, we found that although CoN3-G might be a good catalyst for methane conversion, it can also catalyze the oxidation of methanol to CO2 and H2O due to the required low activation barriers. Moreover, the adsorption behaviors of CHx (x = 0-4) species and dehydrogenation of CHx (x = 1-4) species on CoN3-G are investigated. We concluded that CoN3-G can be used as an efficient catalyst for DOMM and N-2O reduction at ambient conditions which may serve as a guide for fabricating effective C/N catalysts in energy-related devices.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000554006800046	Publication Date	2020-06-27
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	0926-860x	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor	5.5	Times cited		Open Access
	Notes	; This work was performed with the financial support from the Doctoral Fund of the Antwerp University (NO. BOFLP33099). All the simulations are performed on resources provided by the high-performance computing center of Antwerp University. ;			Approved	Most recent IF: 5.5; 2020 IF: 4.339
	Call Number	UA @ admin @ c:irua:171219			Serial	6485
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	Author	Grubova, I.Y.; Surmeneva, M.A.; Surmenev, R.A.; Neyts, E.C.
	Title	Effect of van der Waals interactions on the adhesion strength at the interface of the hydroxyapatite-titanium biocomposite : a first-principles study			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2020	Publication	RSC advances	Abbreviated Journal
	Volume	10	Issue	62	Pages	37800-37805
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Plasma Lab for Applications in Sustainability and Medicine – Antwerp (PLASMANT)
	Abstract	Hydroxyapatite (HAP) is frequently used as biocompatible coating on Ti-based implants. In this context, the HAP-Ti adhesion is of crucial importance. Here, we report ab initio calculations to investigate the influence of Si incorporation into the amorphous calcium-phosphate (a-HAP) structure on the interfacial bonding mechanism between the a-HAP coating and an amorphous titanium dioxide (a-TiO2) substrate, contrasting two different density functionals: PBE-GGA, and DFT-D3, which are capable of describing the influence of the van der Waals (vdW) interactions. In particular, we discuss the effect of dispersion on the work of adhesion (W-ad), equilibrium geometries, and charge density difference (CDD). We find that replacement of P by Si in a-HAP (a-Si-HAP) with the creation of OH vacancies as charge compensation results in a significant increase in the bond strength between the coating and substrate in the case of using the PBE-GGA functional. However, including the vdW interactions shows that these forces considerably contribute to the W-ad. We show that the difference (W-ad – W-ad(vdW)) is on average more than 1.1 J m(-2) and 0.5 J m(-2) for a-HAP/a-TiO2 and a-Si-HAP/a-TiO2, respectively. These results reveal that including vdW interactions is essential for accurately describing the chemical bonding at the a-HAP/a-TiO2 interface.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000583523300025	Publication Date	2020-10-14
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN		ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor		Times cited		Open Access
	Notes	; The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Russian president's grant MK-330.2020.8 and BOF Fellowships for International Joint PhD students funded by University of Antwerp (UAntwerp, project number 32545). The work was carried out at Tomsk Polytechnic University within the framework of Tomsk Polytechnic University Competitiveness Enhancement Program grant and in part using the Turing HPC infrastructure of the CalcUA core facility of the UAntwerp, a division of the Flemish Supercomputer Centre (VSC), funded by the Hercules Foundation, the Flemish Government (department EWI) and the UAntwerp, Belgium. ;			Approved	Most recent IF: NA
	Call Number	UA @ admin @ c:irua:173603			Serial	6499
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	Author	Yi, Y.; Wang, X.; Jafarzadeh, A.; Wang, L.; Liu, P.; He, B.; Yan, J.; Zhang, R.; Zhang, H.; Liu, X.; Guo, H.; Neyts, E.C.; Bogaerts, A.
	Title	Plasma-Catalytic Ammonia Reforming of Methane over Cu-Based Catalysts for the Production of HCN and H₂at Reduced Temperature			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2021	Publication	Acs Catalysis	Abbreviated Journal	Acs Catal
	Volume	11	Issue	3	Pages	1765-1773
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Plasma Lab for Applications in Sustainability and Medicine – Antwerp (PLASMANT)
	Abstract	Industrial production of HCN from NH3 and CH4 not only uses precious Pt or Pt−Rh catalysts but also requires extremely high temperatures (∼1600 K). From an energetic, operational, and safety perspective, a drastic decrease in temperature is highly desirable. Here, we report ammonia reforming of methane for the production of HCN and H2 at 673 K by the combination of CH4/NH3 plasma and a supported Cu/silicalite-1 catalyst. 30% CH4 conversion has been achieved with 79% HCN selectivity. Catalyst characterization and plasma diagnostics reveal that the excellent reaction performance is attributed to metallic Cu active sites. In addition, we propose a possible reaction pathway, viz. E-R reactions with N, NH, NH2, and CH radicals produced in the plasma, for the production of HCN, based on density functional theory calculations. Importantly, the Cu/silicalite-1 catalyst costs less than 5% of the commercial Pt mesh catalyst.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000618540300057	Publication Date	2021-02-05
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	2155-5435	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor	10.614	Times cited		Open Access	OpenAccess
	Notes	Universiteit Antwerpen, 32249 ; China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, 2015M580220 2016T90217 ; PetroChina Innovation Foundation, 2018D-5007-0501 ; National Natural Science Foundation of China, 21503032 ; We acknowledge ﬁnancial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China [21503032], the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation [grant numbers 2015M580220 and 2016T90217, 2016], the PetroChina Innovation Foundation [2018D-5007-0501], and the TOP research project of the Research Fund of the University of Antwerp [grant ID 32249].			Approved	Most recent IF: 10.614
	Call Number	PLASMANT @ plasmant @c:irua:175880			Serial	6675
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	Author	Berdiyorov, G.R.; Khalilov, U.; Hamoudi, H.; Neyts, E.C.
	Title	Effect of chemical modification on electronic transport properties of carbyne			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2021	Publication	Journal Of Computational Electronics	Abbreviated Journal	J Comput Electron
	Volume		Issue		Pages
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Plasma Lab for Applications in Sustainability and Medicine – Antwerp (PLASMANT)
	Abstract	Using density functional theory in combination with the Green’s functional formalism, we study the effect of surface functionalization on the electronic transport properties of 1D carbon allotrope—carbyne. We found that both hydrogenation and fluorination result in structural changes and semiconducting to metallic transition. Consequently, the current in the functionalization systems increases significantly due to strong delocalization of electronic states along the carbon chain. We also study the electronic transport in partially hydrogenated carbyne and interface structures consisting of pristine and functionalized carbyne. In the latter case, current rectification is obtained in the system with rectification ratio up to 50%. These findings can be useful for developing carbyne-based structures with tunable electronic transport properties.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000617664900001	Publication Date	2021-02-13
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	1569-8025	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor	1.526	Times cited		Open Access	OpenAccess
	Notes	Computational resources were provided by the research computing facilities of Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute. Calculations are also conducted using the Turing HPC infrastructure of the CalcUA core facility of the Universiteit Antwerpen, a division of the Flemish Supercomputer Centre VSC, funded by the Hercules Foundation, the Flemish Government (department EWI) and the University of Antwerp. U. Khalilov gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Fund of Scientific Research Flanders (FWO), Belgium, Grant number 12M1315N.			Approved	Most recent IF: 1.526
	Call Number	PLASMANT @ plasmant @c:irua:176169			Serial	6708
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	Author	Izadi, M.E.; Bal, K.M.; Maghari, A.; Neyts, E.C.
	Title	Reaction mechanisms of C(³P_J) and C⁺(²P_J) with benzene in the interstellar medium from quantum mechanical molecular dynamics simulations			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2021	Publication	Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics	Abbreviated Journal	Phys Chem Chem Phys
	Volume	23	Issue	7	Pages	4205-4216
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Plasma Lab for Applications in Sustainability and Medicine – Antwerp (PLASMANT)
	Abstract	While spectroscopic data on small hydrocarbons in interstellar media in combination with crossed molecular beam (CMB) experiments have provided a wealth of information on astrochemically relevant species, much of the underlying mechanistic pathways of their formation remain elusive. Therefore, in this work, the chemical reaction mechanisms of C(<sup>3</sup>P<sub>J</sub>) + C<sub>6</sub>H<sub>6</sub>and C<sup>+</sup>(<sup>2</sup>P) + C<sub>6</sub>H<sub>6</sub>systems using the quantum mechanical molecular dynamics (QMMD) technique at the PBE0-D3(BJ) level of theory is investigated, mimicking a CMB experiment. Both the dynamics of the reactions as well as the electronic structure for the purpose of the reaction network are evaluated. The method is validated for the first reaction by comparison to the available experimental data. The reaction scheme for the C(<sup>3</sup>P<sub>J</sub>) + C<sub>6</sub>H<sub>6</sub>system covers the literature data,<italic>e.g.</italic>the major products are the 1,2-didehydrocycloheptatrienyl radical (C<sub>7</sub>H<sub>5</sub>) and benzocyclopropenyl radical (C<sub>6</sub>H<sub>5</sub>–CH), and it reveals the existence of less common pathways for the first time. The chemistry of the C<sup>+</sup>(<sup>2</sup>P<sub>J</sub>) + C<sub>6</sub>H<sub>6</sub>system is found to be much richer, and we have found that this is because of more exothermic reactions in this system in comparison to those in the C(<sup>3</sup>P<sub>J</sub>) + C<sub>6</sub>H<sub>6</sub>system. Moreover, using the QMMD simulation, a number of reaction paths have been revealed that produce three distinct classes of reaction products with different ring sizes. All in all, at all the collision energies and orientations, the major product is the heptagon molecular ion for the ionic system. It is also revealed that the collision orientation has a dominant effect on the reaction products in both systems, while the collision energy mostly affects the charged system. These simulations both prove the applicability of this approach to simulate crossed molecular beams, and provide fundamental information on reactions relevant for the interstellar medium.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000621595300016	Publication Date	2021-01-18
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	1463-9076	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor	4.123	Times cited		Open Access	OpenAccess
	Notes	Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, 12ZI420N ; Ministry of Science Research and Technology; Universiteit Antwerpen; The financial support from the Iran Ministry of Science, Research and Technology and PLASMANT Research Group University of Antwerp is highly acknowledged by the authors. K.M.B. was funded as a junior postdoctoral fellow of the FWO (Research Foundation – Flanders), Grant 12ZI420N. The computational resources and services used in this work were provided by the HPC core facility CalcUA of the Universiteit Antwerpen, and VSC (Flemish Supercomputer Center), funded by the FWO and the Flemish Government.			Approved	Most recent IF: 4.123
	Call Number	PLASMANT @ plasmant @c:irua:176672			Serial	6742
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	Author	Bogaerts, A.; Neyts, E.C.; Guaitella, O.; Murphy, A.B.
	Title	Foundations of plasma catalysis for environmental applications			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2022	Publication	Plasma Sources Science & Technology	Abbreviated Journal	Plasma Sources Sci T
	Volume		Issue		Pages
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Plasma Lab for Applications in Sustainability and Medicine – Antwerp (PLASMANT)
	Abstract	Plasma catalysis is gaining increasing interest for various applications, but the underlying mechanisms are still far from understood. Hence, more fundamental research is needed to understand these mechanisms. This can be obtained by both modelling and experiments. This foundations paper describes the fundamental insights in plasma catalysis, as well as efforts to gain more insights by modelling and experiments. Furthermore, it discusses the state-of-the-art of the major plasma catalysis applications, as well as successes and challenges of technology transfer of these applications.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000804396200001	Publication Date	2022-03-21
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	0963-0252	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor	3.8	Times cited		Open Access	OpenAccess
	Notes	H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, 823745 ; H2020 European Research Council, 810182 ; We acknowldege financial support from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme (Grant Agreement No. 810182 – SCOPE ERC Synergy project) and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No. 813393 (PIONEER).			Approved	Most recent IF: 3.8
	Call Number	PLASMANT @ plasmant @c:irua:188539			Serial	7070
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	Author	Nematollahi, P.; Neyts, E.C.
	Title	Distribution pattern of metal atoms in bimetal-doped pyridinic-N₄ pores determines their potential for electrocatalytic N₂ reduction			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2022	Publication	Journal Of Physical Chemistry A	Abbreviated Journal	J Phys Chem A
	Volume	126	Issue	20	Pages	3080-3089
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Plasma Lab for Applications in Sustainability and Medicine – Antwerp (PLASMANT)
	Abstract	Doping two single transition-metal (TM) atoms on a substrate host opens numerous possibilities for catalyst design. However, what if the substrate contains more than one vacancy site? Then, the combination of two TMs along with their distribution patterns becomes a design parameter potentially complementary to the substrate itself and the bimetal composition. In this study, we investigate ammonia synthesis under mild electrocatalytic conditions on a transition-metal-doped porous C24N24 catalyst using density functional theory (DFT). The TMs studied include Ti, Mn, and Cu in a 2:4 dopant ratio (Ti2Mn4@C24N24 and Ti2Cu4@N-24(24)). Our computations show that a single Ti atom in both catalysts exhibits the highest selectivity for N-2 fixation at ambient conditions. This work is a good theoretical model to establish the structure-activity relationship, and the knowledge earned from the metal-N-4 moieties may help studies of related nanomaterials, especially those with curved structures.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000804119800003	Publication Date	2022-05-12
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	1089-5639; 1520-5215	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record
	Impact Factor	2.9	Times cited		Open Access	OpenAccess
	Notes				Approved	Most recent IF: 2.9
	Call Number	UA @ admin @ c:irua:189023			Serial	7146
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