Ir. Nicolas Fosseur

Nicolas Fosseur is graduated in 2023 from the Bruface program from the École Polytechnique de Bruxelles (Université Libre de Bruxelles, ULB and Vrije Universiteit Brussel, VUB, Belgium). His master thesis project focused on the functionnalization and improvment of Iron Oxide Nanoparticles (IONPs) for environmental applications such as metals valorization or depollution. This combined chemical synthesis, nanoparticles characterization and adsorption aspects.

Nicolas Fosseur is enrolled in a PhD which focus is given at understanding the cristallization mechanisms of TiO2 and the impact of doping element on the crystal structure deposited with an atmospheric pressure plasma.

Nicolas Fosseur is supervising master students on their master’s thesis and MA1 projects

Tuning the crystallinity of TiO2 coatings synthesized by an atmospheric pressure dielectric barrier discharge in a single step process

Titanium dioxide in its anatase form is of significant interest nowadays due to numerous properties such as biocompatibility, photoactivity under ultraviolet irradiation, or corrosion resistance. In this paper, titanium dioxide (TiO2) films are synthesized with a controlled substrate temperature going up to 673 K. Crystalline anatase was synthesized in a low power atmospheric pressure dielectric barrier discharge in a single step process. The effect of deposition parameters (plasma gas, the voltage input, precursor flow, deposition time, and substrate temperature) on the crystal size, crystallinity, and coating morphology was studied. It shows that the crystal size can be tuned, that the layers can have a transition from hydrophilicity to hydrophobicity, and that the coating morphology can be modified by optimizing these parameters. Finally, it is found that crystalline anatase TiO2 can be grown at a substrate temperature as low as 523 K in an atmospheric pressure plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition process.