Alberto Mannu

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• Doctor of Philosophy
• Researcher at University of Brescia

The purification of waste cooking oils (WCOs) through clay-based adsorption is an established recycling method, yet the relationship between clay composition and adsorption efficiency remains an area of active research. The aim of the present research work was to assess the performance of Maghnia bentonite in WCO decoloration and to gain informatio...

The use of bentonite for recycling vegetable oils presents challenges, as even minor variations in the clay composition and structure can lead to significant differences in its ability to retain various chemical groups. This study investigates the structure–activity relationship of four bentonites—two hydrophilic and two hydrophobic (both in commer...

The use of bentonite for recycling vegetable oils presents challenges, as even minor variations in the clay composition and structure can lead to significant differences in its ability to retain various chemical groups. This study investigates the structure-activity relationship of four bentonites—two hydrophilic and two hydrophobic (both in commer...

Over the past 130 years, Fischer-Speier esterification has been established as the benchmark method for synthesizing esters from organic acids and alcohols. The reaction’s versatility, arising from the vast combinations of starting materials and the numerous catalytic alternatives to the traditional H2SO4, has maintained its relevance, with a stead...

The development of new materials for the controlled release of molecules represents a topic of primary importance in medicine, as well as in food science. In recent years, eutectic solvents have been applied as releasing media due to their improved capacity to interact with specific molecules, offering a broad range of tunability. Nevertheless, the...

The current industrial process for recycling Waste Cooking Oils (WCOs) into vegetable lubricants relies on basic decantation and filtration methods, lacking the scientific foundation needed for technical optimization and sustainability. This research addresses these limitations by thoroughly evaluating the technical and environmental impacts of ben...

The development of new materials for the controlled release of molecules represents a topic of primary importance in medicine as well as in food science. Herein, three eutectic systems respectively composed by choline chloride and ethylene glycol (1:2 molar ratio), methyltriphenylphosphonium bromide and ethylene glycol (molar ratio 1:5), and cholin...

Twelve samples of waste cooking oil (WCO) were prepared by four different deep-frying procedures. The edible and the waste oil samples were characterised by Raman spectroscopy, revealing few and almost negligible differences between them. Therefore, the possibility of classifying the different groups of samples by extracting valuable data from the...

Featured Application Featured Application: A Design of Experiments approach and multivariate analysis can help to understand the complex relationship between the chemical profile and the extraction conditions in the preparation of liqueurs such as the myrtle alcoholic drink. Abstract Preparation of myrtle liqueur through ethanol-based extraction i...

Five benches of used vegetable oils were prepared by deep frying of commercial edible vegetable oil. Raman analyses of original and waste samples revealed few and small differences between samples. Nevertheless, statistical multivariate analysis, in particular unsupervised principal component analysis (PCA) followed by supervised partial least squa...

The treatment of used vegetable oil (UVO) with seven different adsorbents and through two different procedures (stirring and gravity filtration) was explored. Important differences in terms of density, turbidity, electrical resistance, free fatty acids (FFAs) content and relative fatty acid distribution were observed. Different outcomes were shown...

Cold extraction methods with ethanol applied to the flavedo of Citrus fruits have been commonly applied for the preparation of several liquors. In order to obtain the extraction optimization and then the best ratio of functional ingredients in the extract, the flavedo of Citrus grandis Osbeck (pummelo) was subjected to a maceration with absolute et...

Due to the ever-increasing worldwide interest in the exploitation of waste vegetable oils, the development of analytical tools able to detect their adulteration with edible oils, is considered a priority for the scientific and industrial community. In this work, edible and waste vegetable oils have been analysed by Fourier Transform-InfraRed (FT-IR...

Reducing the impact of human activity on the environment and, in general, on Earth, represents the most challenging target of the next years [...]

The treatment of used vegetable oils (UVOs) with clays represents a pivotal step in their industrial recycling process as well as one of the most challenging topics for researchers. In particular, cheap, effective, and sustainable powders need to be explored in order to develop new processes which produce beneficial results in relation to economic...

Three ternary mixtures composed by choline chloride (ChCl), ethylene glycol (EG), and a second hydrogen bond donor (HBD) as ethanol (A), 2-propanol (B), and glycerol (C) were studied in terms of composition related to the band gap energy (BGE). A Design of Experiments (DoE) approach, and in particular a Simple Lattice three-components design, was e...

Three ternary mixtures composed by choline chloride (ChCl), ethylene glycol (EG) and a second hydrogen bond donor (HBD) as ethanol (A), 2-propanol (B), and glycerol (C) were studied in terms of composition related to the band gap energy (BGE). A Design of Experiments (DoE) approach, and in particular a Simple Lattice three-components design, was em...

Deep Eutectic Systems (DESs) are obtained by combining Hydrogen Bond Acceptors (HBAs) and Hydrogen Bond Donors (HBDs) in specific molar ratios. Since their first appearance in the literature in 2003, they have shown a wide range of applications, ranging from the selective extraction of biomass or metals to medicine, as well as from pollution contro...

The selective formation of the heterocyclic salt ((1,4-dioxane-2,5-diyl)-bis-(methylene))-bis-(triphenylphosphonium) chloride was observed when epichlorohydrin and triphenylphosphine were reacted in CH2Cl2 at room temperature. Slow evaporation from a mixture of ethanol and ethyl acetate allows to isolate monocrystals of the heterocyclic phosphonium...

The production of saffron spice generates large quantities of plant by-products: over 90% of the plant material collected is discarded, and a consideration fraction of this waste is plant stamens. This work investigated the chemical composition and the antimicrobial activities of the non-polar fraction extracted from four different saffron flower s...

The employment of easily affordable ruthenium(II)-complexes as pre-catalysts in the transfer hydrogenation of carbonyl compounds in deep eutectic media is described for the first time. The eutectic mixture tetrabutylammonium bromide/formic acid = 1/1 (TBABr/HCOOH = 1/1) acts both as reaction medium and hydrogen source. The addition of a base is req...

The structural features derived by the UV-VIS spectroscopical analysis of five ternary eutectic systems containing choline chloride as Hydrogen Bond Acceptor (HBA), and ethylene glycol and a second Hydrogen Bond Donor (HBD, water, glycerol, methanol, ethanol, and 2-propanol), have been determined and described in terms of band gap and Urbach energi...

The Deep Eutectic Solvents/Systems (DESs) choline chloride:urea (xChCl = 0.33) and choline chloride:glycolic acid (xChCl = 0.5) were investigated using viscosity-corrected 35Cl NMR spectroscopy and molecular dynamics simulations to probe the role of chloride as a function of water content. Three Cl− solvation regimes are revealed, with high-symmetr...

The unprecedented Nazarov cyclization of a model divinyl ketone using phosphonium-based Deep Eutectic Solvents as sustainable non-innocent reaction media is described. A two-level full factorial Design of Experiments was conducted for elucidating the effect of the components of the eutectic mixture and optimizing the reaction conditions in terms of...

Films with different morphology can be obtained by mixing fish gelatin, Tara gum and glycerol in different ratio and by subjecting the Tara gum to a ball milling treatment before its use. The amount of the plasticizer glycerol, as well as the type of Tara gum employed (as received or milled) resulted, from SEM and AFM analyses, to strong influencin...

Wine comprises a beloved food and human companion since the early times of humans on earth. In this study, wine samples of different type (red, white, and rosé) and variety (Agiorgitiko, Augoustiatis, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Vlahiko, Assyrtiko, Chardonnay, Debina, Moschofilero, Vidiano, Syrah plus Mandilari, and Xinomavro) were subjected to phys...

The development of analytical techniques for characterizing food samples, especially for the wine industry, is a main topic of research. Regarding the classification of wines based on their geographical origin, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy represents a fast and effective tool for determining chemical fingerprints. Herein, a ¹³C NMR...

A relevant improvement of the cultivar conditions of Rosmarinus officinalis L. in desert areas was achieved by a specific combination between an irrigation system and soil conditioner. A drastic reduction in water employment was obtained without affecting the quality of the plants, which was determined by monitoring the growth parameters and essent...

A fast, economic, and eco-friendly methodology for the wine variety and geographical origin differentiation using ¹³C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) data in combination with machine learning was developed. Wine samples of different grape varieties cultivated in different regions in Greece were subjected to ¹³C NMR analysis. The relative integrals...

A relevant improvement of the cultivar conditions of Rosmarinus officinalis L. in desert areas was achieved by a specific combination between irrigation system and soil conditioner. A drastic reduction of water employment was obtained without affect the quality of the plants, determined by monitoring growth parameters and essential oil characterist...

An integrated approach, based on quantitative transmission mode powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) combined with multivariate statistical analysis, has been applied to cellulose obtained from three different sources to correlate the mercerization degree and crystallinity with the cellulose type, temperature, and reaction time. The effects of the exper...

The employment of used vegetable oils (UVOs) as raw materials in key sectors as energy production or bio-lubricant synthesis represents one of the most relevant priorities in the European Union (EU) normative context. In many countries, the development of new production processes based on the circular economy model, as well as the definition of fut...

Salvia verbenaca is a perennial herbaceous plant well appreciated as medicinal herb which can be found in Mediterranean area, Europe, Africa and Asia. In this study, S. verbenaca flowers and leaves were collected in six different geographical areas of Sardinia (Italy). Information about the variation of the chemical composition of plants grown in d...

The identification and quantification of free fatty acids (FFA) in edible and non-edible vegetable oils, including waste cooking oils, is a crucial index to assess their quality and drives their use in different application fields. NMR spectroscopy represents an alternative tool to conventional methods for the determination of FFA content, providin...

UV–VIS spectroscopy analysis of six mixtures containing choline chloride or triphenylmethylphosphonium bromide as the hydrogen bond acceptor (HBA) and different hydrogen bond donors (HBDs, nickel sulphate, imidazole, d-glucose, ethylene glycol, and glycerol) allowed to determine the indirect and direct band-gap energies through the Tauc plot method...

Recently, the interest in converting waste cooking oils (WCOs) to raw materials has grown exponentially. The driving force of such a trend is mainly represented by the increasing number of WCO applications, combined with the definition, in many countries, of new regulations on waste management. From an industrial perspective, the simple chemical co...

The reduction of ketones through homogeneous transfer hydrogenation catalyzed by transition metals is one of the most important routes for obtaining alcohols from carbonyl compounds. The interest of this method increases when opportune catalytic precursors are able to perform the transformation in an asymmetric fashion, generating enantiomerically...

The optical properties of nine choline-based Deep Eutectic Solvents (DESs) of the type choline+X− (X− = chloride or acetate)/Y (Y = ethylene glycol, glycolic or levulinic acid) were studied by measuring their band gap through the UV-VIS-based Tauc method. All the considered systems showed a direct optical transition. A correlation between band gap...

Multivariate Surface Responding Analysis (SRA) was employed for optimize the water treatment procedure of Waste Cooking Oils (WCOs) in terms of density and flash point temperature. The simultaneously effect of pH, oil/water ratio, temperature, time and of their combinations on the process outcome were elucidated and exploited for enhance the qualit...

Dear Colleagues, We are currently facing important challenges in many aspects of our life, from food demand to energy production and from exploitability of resources to climate change. We can observe as general trend in modern industry in the reconversion of existing processes and the design of new ones on the basis of the circular economy concept...

Efficient renewable and non-toxic absorbents can now be designed to eliminate air pollutants such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from confined atmospheres. New hybrid materials result from the combination of Deep Eutectic Systems (DES) with well-known VOCs capture agents like β-cyclodextrin (βCD). Yet, a question arises: does βCD retain its e...

Samples of sunflower Waste Cooking Oils (WCOs) subjected to several cycles of frying were treated with water under four different combinations of temperature and pH. Several aspects of the chemical composition of edible, non-treated and processed samples was determined by three different analytic techniques: headspace Solid-Phase Microextraction (H...

Waste Cooking Oils (WCOs) are a mixture of exhausted vegetable oils, by-products of the food chain, which arise from private kitchens and catering industries. Most of WCOs are originated from cooking processes, usually by deep frying. The amount of available WCOs is impressive: only in the European Union (EU), more than 4 million tons of WCOs are p...

The consideration towards waste cooking oils is changing from hazardous waste to valuable raw material for industrial application. During the last 5 years, some innovative processes based on the employment of recycled waste cooking oil have appeared in the literature. In this review article, the most recent and innovative applications of recycled w...

The chemical composition and the color of samples of waste cooking oils (WCOs) were determined prior to and after filtration on two different pads of bentonite differing in particle size. The volatile fraction was monitored by headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) coupled with gas-chromatography, while the variation of the composition of...

The consideration towards waste cooking oils is changing from hazardous waste to valuable raw material for industrial application. During the last 5 years, some innovative processes based on the employment of recycled waste cooking oil have appeared in the literature. In this review article, the most recent and innovative applications of recycled w...

Samples of sunflower Waste Cooking Oils (WCOs) subjected to several cycles of frying were treated with water under four different combinations of temperature and pH. The variation of the chemical composition of the oil samples was monitored through headspace Solid-Phase Microextraction (HS-SPME) coupled with gas-chromatographic technique (GC), 1 H...

The consideration toward Waste Cooking Oils (WCOs) is changing from hazardous waste to valuable raw material for industrial application. During the last five years some innovative processes based on the employment of recycled WCO have appeared in the literature. In the present review article, the most recent applications of recycled Waste Cooking O...

The synthesis of heteroleptic monomeric cationic Rh(I) bis-diphosphine complex [Rh(dppe)(dppp)]Cl (dppe = 1,2-bis-(diphenylphosphino)ethane and dppp = 1,3-bis-(diphenylphosphino)propane) was achieved by reaction between the neutral dimeric complex [Rh2(dppe)2(μ2-Cl)2] and the dppp ligand. The corresponding complex [Rh(dppe)(dppp)]BF4 was instead ob...

Background: In a previous study, we synthesised a new spiroketal derivative, inspired to natural products, that has shown high antiproliferative activity, potent telomerase inhibition and proapoptotic activity on several human cell lines. Objective: This work focused on the study of in vivo antitumor effect of this synthetic spiroketal on a muri...

The employment of clays in industry and on laboratory scale is still of interest, despite their long history. The chemical-physical characteristics of such materials are strongly related to their geographical origin and the availability of proper characterization techniques is of great importance in order to gain as more information about their beh...

The natural-like spiroketal, 2-hydroxy-8-methyl-1,7-dioxaspiro[5.5]undec-3-en-5-one (1) has been synthesised and has shown a potent antitumor activity against human tumor cells of different nature and histotype. We have now performed studies to verify its in vivo activity on a murine melanoma model and in vitro studies to shed some light on the mec...

The employment of clays in industry and on laboratory scale is still of interest, despite their long history. The chemical-physical characteristics of such material are strongly related to their geographical origin and the availability of proper characterization techniques is of great importance in order to gain as more information about their beha...

The employment of clays in industry and on laboratory scale is still of interest, despite their long history. The chemical-physical characteristics of such material are strongly related to their geographical origin and the availability of proper characterization techniques is of great importance in order to gain as more information about their beha...

A pulsed gradient spin echo (PGSE) experiment on [Rh2(1,3-bis-(diphenylphosphino)-propane)2(μ2-Cl)2] complex has been conducted in order to shed light on the supposed monomerisation process of [Rh2(diphosphine)2(μ2-Cl)2] complexes in solution. Such a process should generate a 14-electron [Rh(diphosphine)Cl] complex, which has only been postulated t...

Neutral dimeric rhodium diphosphine complexes are often employed as catalytic precursors in the presence of the solvent CH2Cl2. The possibility of a collateral reaction between the solvent and the catalytic precursor is never considered as the activation of CH2Cl2 by [Rh2(PP)2 (μ2-Cl)2] complexes is reputed difficult and uncommon. Herein we report...

Neutral dimeric [Rh2(PP)2(m2-X)2] (X = halogen or OH) and cationic monomeric [Rh(PP)(solv.)2]+ complexes are often employed as catalytic precursors in several reaction protocols. The behavior in solution of such precursors and their ability to generate active catalytic species is related to the diphosphine (PP), to the solvent, to the temperature,...

we report the synthesis of a new member of pincer family, containing the PSCSP motif and its employment as pincer ligand in the presence of Ni and Rh. In addition Ni(II) pincer complex 2, containing the corresponding POCSP ligand has been reported for the first time and tested in Kumada cross-coupling reactions of aryl halides and ptolylmagnesium b...

Clarification of waste recycled cooking oil (WCO) is very important in order to refine the intermediate regenerated base resulting from the previous steps.. Bentonite has been historically employed as a filling material for oil refining filters due to its easy availability and its cheap price. In the present communication our early results from the...

Recycling of waste cooking oil represents a source of convenient raw materials for industry. Within the large number of products derived from the treatment of waste cooking oil, eco-friendly lubricants grown in importance during the last years. Recycling process for such application consists usually of acid or basic degumming followed by a filtrati...

Boiling Point, Melting Point, Density, Solubility in Water and Flash Point are furnished for a selection of 45 common solvents.

The synthesis, the enantiomeric separation and the characterization of new simple spiroketal derivatives has been performed. The synthesised compounds have shown a very high anticancer activity. Cell proliferation assay showed that they induce a remarkable inhibition of cell proliferation in all cell lines treated, depending on culture time and con...

Seven commercial Moroccan honeys were considered for chemical characterisation. Volatile fraction, total polyphenols content, antioxidant and antiradical activities were evaluated by employing different analytical methodologies. Several physical parameters such as refractive index, pH, water content, solids content and colour were measured. Volatil...

Il concetto di risparmio energetico, fino a qualche anno fa tema di interesse esclusivo delle grandi aziende, viene oggi applicato a diversi aspetti della nostra vita quotidiana. In particolare nel settore abitativo i margini per una riduzione degli sprechi di energia sono considerevoli, anche solamente considerando degli interventi migliorativi a...

An unexpected reaction of pyridine with acetyl chloride to give N-acetyl-1,2 and 1,4-dihydropyridyl acetic acid (1,2) in high yield and regioselectivity has been reported. The key step is the formation of a zwitterionic pyridinium ketene enolate. The effect of different activating agents on the reaction yield and selectivity has been studied. Plati...

Evaluation of oocytes quality after cryoconservation

Acetyl chloride reacts with pyridine to give a mixture of N-acetyl-1,4- and 1,2-dihydropyridyl acetic acid (1a,b) after water quenching. The reactioninvolves the formation of a zwitterionic ketene enolate intermediate which results from deprotonation of the acetyl moiety of the in situ formed N-acetyl pyridinium ion. The effect on the reaction outc...

The preparation of a series of half-sandwich ruthenium complexes, [RuCl2(η6-p-cymene)(P*)] (P* = SPMeRR′) and [RuCl2(κ-P*-η6-arene)], containing P-stereogenic phosphines is reported. The borane-protected Pstereogenic phosphines have been obtained by addition of the (H3B)PMe2R (R = t-Bu (1), Cy (2), Fc (3))/sec-BuLi/ (−)-sparteine adduct to benzyl h...

Five Ru(II) neutral complexes C of the type [RuCl2(η6-arene)(P)] (P = monodentate phosphorus ligand) have been prepared: C1 (arene = p-cymene, P = PPh3); C2 (arene = p-cymene, P = (R)-Monophos); C3 (arene = p-cymene, P = (S)-Ph-Binepine); C4 (arene = benzene, P = PPh3); and C5 (arene = benzene, P = (S)-Ph-Binepine). These complexes have been screen...

A family of eight neutral, pseudotetrahedral piano-stool ruthenium complexes C, of the type [RuCl2(p-cymene)(PArPhR)] (Ar = 1-naphthyl, 9-phenanthryl and 2-biphenylyl; R = Me, i-Pr, OMe, –CH2SiMe3 and –CH2SiPh3) have been prepared and characterised, including the X-ray crystal structure for C6 (Ar = 2-biphenylyl; R = i-Pr). These complexes catalyse...

Two groups of P-stereogenic monodentate phosphines containing pendant groups bearing functionalities capable of having secondary interactions, PArPhR (Ar = 2-[(2′,6′-dimethoxy)-1,1′-biphenylyl] and R = OMe (6) or Me (8)) and PMeR(CH2R′) (13, R = t-Bu or 14 R = Fc and R′ = SiMe3 (a), SiMe2Ph (b) or CH2(2-naphthyl) (c)) have been prepared in enantiom...

Alcune applicazioni della polimerizzazione frontale.

Reduction of 1,2-diaryl-substituted ethenes with Na metal in dry THF allowed easy access to a variety of 1,2-diaryl-1,2-disodiumethanes. These diorganometallic intermediates were elaborated into the corresponding 1,2-diarylethanes (aqueous work up), or cycloalkylated with 1,3-dichloropropanes. The last reaction led to a highly diastereoselective sy...