Research

Chemistry of Water, Air and Soil Compartments

The group carries out studies aimed at understanding the main processes and mechanisms that define the chemistry of the water, air and soil compartments. Particular attention is paid to the role that sunlight has as a forcing of environmental processes both in the aqueous phase (with particular attention to the photoinduced self-purification processes of water), and in the atmosphere. Moreover, the role that human activities have in disrupting environmental equilibrium is studied

Technologies and Innovative Materials for Depollution

Advanced oxidative processes (e.g., the processes of heterogeneous photocatalysis on semiconductors) for the removal of pollutants both in aqueous compartments (industrial or civil wastewater), and in the atmosphere (reduction of gaseous pollutants). Developing active, selective, and energy efficient heterogeneous catalytic processes is the key to a sustainable future and this is the reason why heterogeneous catalysis is at the center of the chemicals and energy industries. The design, testing, and implementation of robust and selective heterogeneous catalytic processes based on insights from fundamental studies is of crucial importance.

Environmental Monitoring of Pollutants

  • Determination of pollutants in any matrix.

  • Analysis, management and sampling of permanent or highly volatile gaseous species

  • Qualitative and quantitative characterization of the content of inorganic species (also in trace) in real matrices.


Materials ans Processes for the Hydrogen Generation and carbon dioxide reduction

Hydrogen is an ideal fuel from many perspectives. In fact, it is not toxic, its resources are abundant and it is a "clean" fuel as it produces no emissions (for example, when used in a fuel cell) and it can also be produced from renewable resources.

The CO2 capture (storage and/or reuse) and its transformation, perhaps within a single production cycle as a fuel or a fine chemical product, is one of the essential and necessary actions to reduce the CO2 environmental concentration, thus mitigating the increase in temperature projected for the forthcoming decades. It is also a low-cost starting point for the generation of fuels that respond to the requirement of "carbon neutrality".

Environmental Analytical chemistry

  • development of methods for sample pretreatment and analysis of organic and inorganic contaminants in environmental and food matrices, using advanced substrates and liquid/gas chromatographic and ICP-MS techniques;

  • synthesis and application of ceramic components and bio-based supports (i.e biochar) with hierarchical porosity in selected environmental topics (hybrid adsorption/photodegradation for pollutant removal from wastewaters);

  • optimization of analytical protocols for the extraction and identification of microplastics in environmental and food matrices;

  • determination of hexavalent chromium in different matrices (soils, sediment, waters, cosmetics) development of analytical protocols for the determination of micropollutants in urban, industrial wastes, biomasses and wastewaters to be valorized within the context of circular economy;

  • data collection and processing by advanced statistical tools (i.e. principal components design) and chemometrics approaches, such as experimental design technique