From Ordered Titania to MXenes: How Electrochemistry Creates Functional Nanomaterials
3 novembre 2026
Electrochemistry is not only a tool for studying interfacial processes, but also a powerful route
for synthesizing, transforming, and functionalizing nanomaterials with tailored morphology,
composition, and properties. This seminar will present two representative material families, ordered
titanium dioxide nanotube arrays and two-dimensional metal carbides known as MXenes, and show
how electrochemical methods enable their design for energy- and environment-related applications.
The first part will focus on self-organized TiO₂ nanotube arrays (TNAs) prepared by
electrochemical anodization of titanium. This scalable approach allows control over nanotube
diameter, length, wall thickness, ordering, and surface morphology through the choice of electrolyte
and anodization conditions. The resulting one-dimensional architectures offer high accessible surface
area, chemical stability, tunable semiconducting properties, and favourable charge transport. These
characteristics make TiO₂ nanotubes attractive for photoelectrochemical water splitting,
photocatalytic pollutant degradation, electrochemical sensing, and functional coatings.
The seminar will discuss selected strategies to extend the performance of pristine titania
nanotubes, including the incorporation of conducting polymers and the cycle-controlled deposition
of metal oxides and metal sulfides using Successive Ionic Layer Adsorption and Reaction (SILAR),
Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) and thermal annealing in hydrogen atmosphere induces partial
reduction and enhances conductivity. Such modifications can improve light harvesting, charge
separation, conductivity, catalytic activity, and selectivity toward target analytes. The nanotube
architecture can therefore serve as a versatile platform for constructing functional heterostructures.
The second part will introduce MXenes, an emerging family of two-dimensional transition-metal
carbides and nitrides, typically produced by selective removal of the A-element from layered MAX
phases. Electrochemical approaches offer opportunities for controlled MXene synthesis without HF
usage, delamination, surface engineering, and integration into functional electrodes. With their high
electrical conductivity, hydrophilicity, layered structure, and tunable surface chemistry, MXenes are
highly promising for electrochemical sensing, energy storage, catalysis, and photoelectrochemical
systems.
Despite their different structures and electronic properties, TiO₂ nanotubes and MXenes share a
crucial feature: their performance is strongly governed by interfaces. By linking ordered oxide
nanotubes with conductive two-dimensional materials, this seminar will demonstrate how
electrochemistry enables the rational design of advanced nanomaterials for sustainable energy
conversion, environmental remediation, and chemical sensing.
|
Frontiers in Radical Cross-Coupling: Electrocatalysis, Stereoretentive Transformations, and Applications in Drug Synthesis
29 ottobre 2026
Radical cross-coupling has emerged as a powerful strategy for facilitating the construction of complex
molecular architectures from simple and readily available building blocks. Advances in nickel electrocatalysis
have expanded this reactivity to the efficient assembly of medicinally relevant structures, including PROTAC
scaffolds and highly substituted small rings.1,2
More recently, hydrazide-based precursors have challenged a long-standing paradigm in radical chemistry:
“freely generated carbon-centered radicals lose their chiral information on the picosecond timescale (10–12 s)”,
making enantioretentive intermolecular radical cross-coupling exceptionally challenging. These radical
precursors can transfer stereochemical information from chiral starting materials into newly formed C–C bonds
with high fidelity.3-4 This discovery opens new opportunities to harness the power and simplicity of radical
chemistry for the streamlined synthesis of enantioenriched molecules.
|
AI MODELS THAT MASTER MATERIALS PHYSICS
13/10/2026
Machine learning is transforming the way we perform simulations to predict and understand the properties of materials.
Traditional "physics-informed" models build symmetry, smoothness, and other physical priors into the mathematical structure of the model to guide learning. In this talk, I'll explore how much physics we really need to include when teaching machines the quantum behavior of matter. I'll contrast models constrained by physical assumptions with emerging, unconstrained approaches that learn physical relationships directly from data. These models can reach, and sometimes exceed, the accuracy and efficiency of their physics-based counterparts, though they require some
care to avoid unphysical results. I'll illustrate these ideas using PET-MAD, a lightweight, data-driven model that learns across the periodic table, providing accurate predictions of the microscopic properties of materials that include a quantification of the model uncertainties
|
Corso pratico di AFM- ON-LINE
16/07/2026
This introductory course provides a practical overview of Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) as a versatile tool for studying the morphology and mechanical properties of materials, tissues, and living cells. The course will discuss when AFM is the appropriate experimental choice, the types of biological questions it can address, and the characteristics that cellular samples should have to enable reliable AFM measurements. Practical aspects of sample preparation, probe selection, and experimental design will also be introduced.
The second part of the course will focus on the main AFM-based mechanical characterization techniques. Students will learn the principles of force spectroscopy and how force–distance curves can be used to quantify parameters such as adhesion, stiffness, indentation, and Young's modulus. The course will also introduce microrheology, which enables the investigation of the viscoelastic behavior of cells, and Quantitative Imaging (QI) mode, a force-curve-based imaging technique that acquires a complete force–distance curve at every pixel, allowing the simultaneous reconstruction of cell topography together with spatial maps of mechanical properties while minimizing lateral forces on soft biological samples. Throughout the course, examples will illustrate how these approaches can be applied to investigate living cells under physiological conditions.
The course will be delivered by Valeria Cassina, PhD, and Riccardo Campanile, PhD, from the Università di Milano-Bicocca. The training will start at 9:30 on 16/07/2026 and can be accessed using the following Webex link: https://unimib.webex.com/meet/valeria.cassina
|
DNA-Based Molecular Machines
30/06/2026
DNA is well known to be a genetic molecule with double helix structures. DNA is evolved in nature to follow a simple and precise Watson-Crick pairing rule to encode enormous genetic information in living things. Nevertheless, DNA is not only a carrier of genetic information, but can be regarded a type of molecular information materials. DNA molecules have been exploited as a building block to encode various types of structures that are not present in nature. More recent advances show that nucleic acids-based information materials are increasingly being used for applications including bioimaging, drug delivery and micro-nano fabrication. In this talk I will introduce the use of nucleic acids-based information materials for developing molecular machines.
|
Molecular Imprinting Strategies for Sensors and Assays
26/06/2026
The synthesis of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIP) has established itself as an indispensable tool in generating biomimetic sensors, i.e. systems that aim at implementing bioanalogous recognition abilities into artificial materials. The focus of research has shifted towards implementing MIPs into sensors and assays that are inherently useful for real-life
applications, which has brought substantial attention to questions such as reproducibility and obustness of MIP-based sensors. Especially radically polymerized systems pose a substantial challenge here: the inherently statistical polymerization process makes it difficult to achieve robust synthesis. This seminar talk will highlight two aspects that the group in Vienna has been utilizing to improve applicability in recent years: implementing controlled radical polymerization for generating surface-imprinted thin films and solid-phase synthesis to obtain so-called “MIP nanobodies”, as pioneered in the groups for S. Piletsky in Leicester and K. Haupt in Compiègne. It will cover different analytes ranging from small molecules and eptides to nanoand microsized structures.
|
Tailoring Multifunctional Materials through Chemical Design and Structural Control
24/06/2026
Recent advances in synthetic organic chemistry and materials science have enabled the development of functional organic materials whose properties can be rationally engineered through molecular design and structural control. However, the preparation of highly pure materials, the expansion of their chemical functionality, and the precise control of long-range structural order remain challenging. In this talk, these aspects will be discussed through two representative case studies:
Carbon Dots (CDs) and Covalent Organic Frameworks (COFs). CDs are photoluminescent carbon nanoparticles synthesized from small organic molecules through solvothermal methods. Despite the simplicity and accessibility of their preparation, the properties often reported for novel CDs can arise from molecular impurities that are not removed during
purification. In our recent work, we introduced advanced characterization protocols to reveal these inconsistencies and establish new quality standards for the field. Building on this expertise, we expanded this synthetic methodology to access novel chiral CDs, which were successfully employed as catalytic platforms for organic transformations by exploiting both the core and surface functionalities of the nanoparticles.In parallel, COFs provide an ideal platform to investigate how structural order impacts material properties. COFs are crystalline porous polymers that are typically obtained as polycrystalline materials. Our recent efforts have enabled the development of synthetic methodologies for the growth
of single-crystalline imine-based COFs.[3,4] Access to highly ordered materials enabled us to elucidate
how crystallinity influences their properties and performance in targeted applications.
|
From Graphene to Gold: Functional Carbon Materials, Nanoparticle Synthesis, Biosensor Development, and Advanced Composites for Collaborative Research
23/06/2026
This presentation outlines the research expertise and collaborative potential of Emine Kayhan (Assoc. Prof, Uşak University), spanning functional carbon nanomaterials, metal nanoparticle synthesis and functionalization, biosensor development, and advanced composite materials. The central theme of this talk is the synthesis and functional engineering of carbon-based nanomaterials — from large-area, transparent graphene films grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) to graphene oxide and graphene quantum dots — and their integration into energy, sensing, and catalytic systems. This background encompasses palladium nanoparticles supported on chemically derived graphene for hydrogen generation, CoFe₂O₄ and Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles on carbon supports for lithium-ion and lithium-air batteries, and PdNi nanoparticles on SnO₂-C composites for electrocatalytic applications. Building on this foundation, recent work focuses on graphene quantum dot-based optical biosensor systems for rapid and portable detection of foodborne pathogens such as Salmonella spp., developed within an active TÜBİTAK project. The presentation will also cover advances in composite materials engineering — including glass fiber-reinforced polyester composites with tailored flameretardant and radiation-shielding properties — as well as photochromic bismuth tungstate ceramics synthesized under controlled temperature conditions. The overarching aim of this presentation is to identify synergistic collaboration opportunities with researchers at Tor Vergata who study on complementary applications: our group brings expertise in nanomaterial synthesis and functionalization — carbon materials, metal and metal oxide nanoparticles, functional composites — while prospective partners may contribute in areas such as advanced biosensor fabrication, electrochemical characterization, device integration, dental or biomedical applications.
|
Many-Body Effects on Quasiparticles: from Excitons to Phonons in 2D Materials
22/06/2026
Crystal elementary excitations, such as phonons, excitons and plasmons, and their momentum dispersions, are a fundamental topic in condensed matter physics. All these quasiparticles can be referred to as charged excitations, as they constitute the poles of the density-density response function $\chi$. Momentum-dependent electron energy-loss spectroscopy (q-EELS) has recently proven to be a pivotal tool for investigating charge excitations in suspended low-dimensional (2D) materials using a transmission electron microscope. In this seminar, I will discuss recent advances in the interpretation of low-momentum q-EELS measurements, along with advances in the calculation of electron-energy losses with manybody perturbation theory, required as electron interaction is enhanced in freestanding 2D materials. Such theoretical schemes are then applied to the study of the fine-structure exciton branch of monolayer hBN, then to the phonon dispersions and linewidths of graphene optical branches with excitonic effects near the Brillouin zone center ($\Gamma$) and corners (K), a regime relevant for transport graphene properties.
|
Self-assembled Chemosensor Arrays
22/06/2026
The cross-reactive receptors of the mammalian olfactory systems allow the detection of multiple odorant molecules simultaneously. The obtained recognition information is data-processed, resulting in the discrimination of odor based on pattern recognition. Such sophisticated recognition fashions in Mother Nature are promising designs for powerful pattern recognition-driven chemical sensing. Real samples such as body fluids, foods and drinks, and environmental water contain various invisible analytes with different structural geometries, sizes, and charges. Therefore, efficient receptor designs
are required, considering the above features of analytes in real-sample analysis. Biogenic receptors, including enzymes and antibodies, are the representative materials that allow selective recognition against specific analytes, based on the lock-and-key models. Meanwhile, synthetic receptors are designed by molecular recognition chemistry, which offers superior cross-reactivity to selective recognition. Chemosensors comprising synthetic receptors and indicators enable visualization of analyte recognition information through changes in colorimetric and/or fluorescent properties. Chemosensors
on an array show various optical properties depending on the types of analytes and their concentrations, which are referred to as fingerprint-like responses. With pattern recognition techniques, optical chemical information can be visualized qualitatively and quantitatively. In this regard, molecular self-assemblies serve as driving forces for obtaining various optical patterns derived from assembly and disassembly in chemical sensing. To date, the author has developed selfassembled chemosensors for pattern recognition and revealed the applicability of this concept to various chemical sensing in water environments. The strategies for chemosensor designs based on molecular self-assembly for multi-component analysis will be introduced in the presentation.
|
|