Supramolecular Liquid Crystals

I have always been interested in the design and synthesis of supramolecular structures showing liquid crystalline properties and driven by specific non-covalent interactions, such as hydrogen bonding, metal coordination or halogen bonding.

See for example: Adv. Photonics Res. 2022, 3, 2100353.  ACS Mater. Lett. 2019, 1, 589 (Highlighted in Nature Chemistry).  Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2016, 55, 6300.

Photoresponsive Materials

Azobenzene-based supramolecular materials capable of giving highly efficient photoalignment and surface-relief-grating formation are one of my field of research.

See for example: Adv. Mater. 2012, 24, OP345.  J. Mater. Chem. C 2014, 3, 759 (Cover Paper, Most Accessed Paper 2015).

Crystal Engineering

One of my main and principal topic of research has been the design of organic/metallorganic solids with desired shape and function, with a particular focus on fluorinated solids.

See for example: CrystEngComm 2013, 15, 3102  (Hot paper, Most Accessed Paper 2013). Acta Crystallogr. Sect. B 2014, 70, 149 (Most Cited Paper 2014)

Studies of non-covalent Interactions and Aspects of Bonding in Metallorganic Complexes

Recent reseach focus on the theory and quantification of non-covalent interactions in the solid state and in aspects of bonding in ligand-actinide complexes.

See for example: Chem. Asian J. 2023, 18, e202201255. ChemPhysChem 2023, 24, e202200883. CrystEngComm 2021 23, 7324. J. Phys. Chem. B 2019, 123, 9281 (Top 1% Paper, ACS Editor's Choice, Cover Paper) J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2024, 146, 46, 31911–31919.

Collaborations:

Prof. Pierangelo Metrangolo (Politecnico di Milano, Italy); Prof. Massimo Cametti (Politecnico di Milano, Italy); Prof. Luca Catalano (Università di Modena-Reggio Emilia, Italy); Prof. Federica Bertolotti (Università dell'Insubria, Italy); Prof. Emanuele Priola (Università di Torino, Italy); Prof. Arri Priimagi (Tampere University, Finland); Prof. Kari Rissanen (University of Jyvaskyla, Finland); Prof. Michael Giese (University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany); Prof. Jens Voskuhl (University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany)