Phd in ELECTRICAL, MATERIALS, RAW MATERIALS AND NANOTECHNOLOGY
ENGINEERING

email: francesca.scaramuzzo@uniroma1.it
phone: +39 06 4976 6978
building: RM017
room: 1-14

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY
- 04/05/2020 – currently: Fixed-term Assistant Professor (RTD-A, according to Italian Law n. 240/2010), Department SBAI, Sapienza University of Rome
- 01/06/2013 – 31/05/2014, 01/10/2015 – 30/09/2016, 01/05/2017 - 31/10/2017, 01/02/2018 -31/01/2019, 01/03/2019 – 29/02/2020: Post-doctoral Fellow, Department SBAI, Sapienza University of Rome
- 01/06/2014 – 31/05/2015: Post-doctoral Fellow, “Guido Donegani” Foundation, Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei
- 01/05/2010 – 30/04/2011, 01/05/2011 – 30/04/2013: Post-doctoral Fellow, Department of Chemical Sciences - University of Padova
- 02/05/2012 – 29/05/2012: Visiting Post-doc Researcher (Short Term Scientific Mission, COST Action CM1005, Supramolecular Chemistry in Water), Department of Chemistry – Nanoscience Center – University of Jyvaskyla – Finland

EDUCATION HISTORY
- 08/07/2010 and 21/12/2009: PhD in Chemical Sciences, University of Twente - Enschede (Paesi Bassi) and Sapienza University of Rome (Joint research doctoral thesis project, with final defences in both the Institutions). Supervisors: Prof. Jurriaan Huskens, Prof. Mario Barteri. Thesis: Functionalization of Inorganic Surfaces: from the Synthesis of New Monolayers to the Immobilization of Biological Material
- 27/10/2006: MS graduation in Chemistry - Sapienza University of Rome - 110 / 110, cum laude
- 15/07/2004: BS graduation in Chemistry - Sapienza University of Rome - 110 / 110, cum laude
- 07/2001: High school leaving qualification, Liceo Scientifico G.B.Scorza (Cosenza) - 100/100

PUBLICATION RECORD
Publications on peer-reviewed journals indexed on Scopus database: Publications = 40, Citations = 391, H-index = 10
• 32 research papers (8 as first author, 3 of which also as corresponding author)
• 2 reviews
• 3 conference papers (1 as first author and corresponding author)
• 3 editorials (1 as first author)

Other publications:
• 2 book chapters (1 as first author)
• 3 Technical reports resulting from an agreement between the Italian Ministry for Economic Development and ENEA Research Center

Active participant to 35 national and international Congresses and training schools:
• 14 oral communications (1 invited)
• 12 poster presentations (2 of which selected for flash presentation)
• 17 co-authored oral or poster communications presented by co-workers

RESEARCH INTERESTS
My research interests deal with different materials chemistry topics, going from the synthesis of inorganic materials (either bulk or nanostructured) for energy, to the functionalization of inorganic surfaces for biomedical application, to coordination compounds chemistry for molecular recognition. All these interests grew up working in different Italian and international groups and they have always been developed with a well-defined personal imprint.
At the moment, I work on materials chemistry for energy. In detail, I am interested in the electrochemical synthesis of TiO2 nanotube and nanowire arrays in polar organic solvents. The optimized reaction conditions (e.g. cell geometry, anodic bath composition, potential applied, post-synthetic thermal treatment) allow to obtain the perfect control of morphology and crystal structure (J. Phys.Chem. C 2017, 121, 24871). I successfully used these materials for water splitting (Chem. Eng. Trans. 2014, 41, 223; J. Appl. Electrochem. 2015, 45, 727) and developed an innovative method to obtain multilayers of nanotubes with different diameter on Ti and ITO (AIP Conf. Proc. 2015, 1667, 020005). Moreover, I work on the development of electrode nanomaterials for lithium-ion and lithium-sulfur batteries (Materials 2018, 11, 56; Appl. Sci. 2019, 9, 1913; J. Electroanal. Chem. 2020, 870, 114239), even derived from waste materials (Solid State Ionics 2018, 324, 20), with the goal of optimizing the production on kilo-scale.
During my PhD, I studied and applied the main techniques for functionalization of inorganic surfaces. In detail, I successfully functionalized Au surfaces with organic molecules, biological macromolecules and cells (J. Phys. Chem. B 2009, 113, 15895; J. Biomed. Mat. Res. A 2009, 91, 370). Moreover, I synthesized organic molecules for functionalization of monolayers on silica, performing click reactions in order to obtain a reactive platform for amines (Chem. Commun. 2010, 46, 4193). More recently, I moved from functionalization of surfaces to synthesis, functionalization and characterization of core-shell nanoparticles for theragnostic applications (Biomatter 2014, 4, e29507; Clin. Nucl. Med. 2015, 40, e-104; AIP Conf. Proc. 2016, 1749, 020006; Int. J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 13, 659; Nanoscale 2017,9, 5671; J. Magn. Magn. Mater. 2020, 516, 167299). Within long-standing collaborations, I also characterize functionalized inorganic surfaces, metallic and polymeric nanoparticles via atomic force microscopy, both in air and in fluid, for energy and molecular recognition (Materials 2017, 10, 258; Colloids Surf. A 2017, 532, 125; Microchem. J. 2018, 138, 430; Appl. Surf. Sci. 2018, 445, 404; Int. J. Biol. Macromol. 2020, 146, 790; Mater. Sci. Eng C, 2020, 117, 111337; ACS Appl. Nano Mater. 2021, 4, 2930; Coll. Surf. B 2021, 203, 111727).
Finally, especially during my post-doc at the University of Padova, I worked on Zn(II) and Co(II) organometallic complexes based on tris(2-pyridylmethyl)amine ligands in order to obtain self-assembling and cage-like structures for molecular recognition and hydrogen production (Dalton Trans. 2016, 45, 14764; J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2017, 139, 6456; RSC Adv., 2018, 8, 19494; Dalton Trans. 2020, 49, 10011). In this field, besides developing abilities concerning organic synthesis, I studied induced chirality via circular dichroism spectroscopy and rationalized the obtained results using multivariate statistical analysis techniques (Chem. Eur. J. 2013, 19, 16809; Eur. J. Org. Chem. 2017, 1438; Chirality 2019, 31, 375).