Congratulations to our PhD student, Elisa Rossi, for the publication entitled "Catalytic Fabric Recycling: Glycolysis of Blended PET with Carbon Dioxide and Ammonia." This work presents a practical, scalable approach for recycling PET and PET/cotton fabrics using catalytic glycolysis with ammonium bicarbonate (NH4HCO3). The catalytic method outperformed conventional acid/base and metal catalysis, enabling selective recovery and upcycling of cotton-based materials on a large scale (up to 213 g).
Congratulations to our Ph.D. student Andrea Giovanelli for winning one of the best presentations at Macrogiovani 2023, an event organised by "Associazione Italiana di Scienze e Tecnologie delle Macromolecole" (AIM) in Catania. The title of his presentation was "Solid State NMR characterisation of a model Anion Exchange Membrane". The urgent need of a green transition requires new strategies for the production and conservation of energy.
Congratulations to our PhD student Carlo Marotta for the publication of a book chapter entitled “Exploiting the Chemical Diversity of Metal Compounds as a Source of Novel Anti-COVID-19 Drugs”. This chapter is part of the 24th volume of the series Metal Ions in Life Sciences (MILS), which is entitled “Targeted Metallo-Drugs: Design, Development, and Modes of Action”. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the scientific community has been extensively researching new antiviral agents that could be used for the treatment of this disease.
Congratulations to our PhD student Ester Giorgi for the recent scientific publication entitled “Mechanistic Evaluations of the Effects of Auranofin Triethylphosphine Replacement with a Trimethylphosphite Moiety” in Inorganic Chemistry. A panel of four gold(I) complexes has been recently synthesized and characterized, taking inspiration from the well-known clinical compound auranofin. The aim of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of the strength and stability of the P–Au bond by conducting an extensive investigation on relevant biological models.
Congratulations to our PhD student Elisa Rossi for the recent publication "Theoretical insights into the reversible CO2 absorption by ethylene glycol/KOH/boric acid low temperature transition mixture". In this work Density Functional Theory calculations were performed to study the speciation of components in the mixture and the absorption/desorption mechanisms, providing reasonable hypotheses explaining the experimentally demonstrated reversible CO2 capture.
Congratulations to our PhD student Andrea Roggi for his publication entitled "SBS-based AEM for water electrolysis via NMP" in Polymers. Nitroxide Mediated Polymerization (NMP) was employed for the synthesis of VBC/Sty-graft copolymers starting from a commercial thermoplastic elastomer, namely the Styrene-Butadiene-Styrene (SBS) tri-block copolymer. The synthesized copolymers were used for the preparation of Anion Exchange Membranes (AEMs) for water electrolysis after the conversion of the grafted moieties into ionic sites with Trimethylamine (TMA).