Davide Carboni

University of Sassari | UNISS · Department of Biomedical Sciences

Carbon dots (CDs) have attracted much attention for applications in photonics and optoelectronics because of their high emission efficiency and ease of synthesis. Although studies in solution are well established, solid-state applications are less common because of optical quenching phenomena that critically affect CDs. Here, we report the synthesi...

Carbon dots (C‐dots) obtained from D‐glucose have attracted great interest because of their properties and as a model for understanding the synthesis process and the origin of photoluminescence in carbon‐based nanostructures. Synthesising C‐dots under hydrothermal conditions has become one of the most common methods for their preparation. Understan...

The scientific community is actively engaged in the development of innovative nanomaterials with broad‐spectrum virucidal properties, particularly those capable of producing reactive oxygen species (ROS), to combat upcoming pandemics effectively. The generation of ROS capable of inhibiting viral activity on high‐touch surfaces can prove an effectiv...

The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants requires close monitoring to prevent the reoc-currence of a new pandemic in the near future. The Omicron variant, in particular, is one of the fastest-spreading viruses, showing a high ability to infect people and evade neutralization by anti-bodies elicited upon infection or vaccination. Therefore, the search f...

The phosphorescence of boric acid (BA, H3BO3) at room temperature is a puzzling phenomenon subject to controversial interpretations although the role of structural defects has not yet been considered. Heat treatments of boric acid cause its transformation into the metaboric phase and amorphous boron oxide (B2O3). The structural changes after therma...

The design of functional coatings for touchscreens and haptic interfaces is of paramount importance for smartphones, tablets, and computers. Among the functional properties, the ability to suppress or eliminate fingerprints from specific surfaces is one of the most critical. We produced photoactivated anti-fingerprint coatings by embedding 2D-SnSe2...

Designing the architecture of l-lysine-based polymeric structures is a highly challenging task that requires careful control of the amino acid reactive groups. Conventional processes to obtain branched polylysine need several steps and the addition of specific catalysts. In the present work, to gain a better understanding and control of the formati...

Microporous organic-inorganic hybrid silica films have been designed as active platforms to realise a styrene gas sensor. The microporous film has been synthesized by using tetraethylorthosilicate and phenyltriethoxysilane as precursors and a triblock copolymer (Pluronic F127) as a template for the pores. Multilayer films have been employed to incr...

A highly sensitive and selective Raman sensor has been developed by combining molecularly imprinted cavities, silver nanoparticles, and graphene oxide into a hybrid organic-inorganic film. The molecular imprinted nanocomposite material is an advanced platform that exhibits Graphene-mediated Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering. The sensing layers have...

This chapter wishes to provide the reader with some examples of composite materials obtained through integration of carbon-based nanostructures, graphene and carbon dots, into mesoporous materials and some of the issues thereof. After a brief introduction to the chemistry of graphene and its derivatives, relevant for understanding the problems asso...

Graphene oxide – silver nanoparticle composites (GO-Ag) have been developed as a stable Raman sensing system. The Ag loading and concentration of GO-Ag dispersion have been optimized as a function of the Raman response. The silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) have been well dispersed and anchored to the GO surface. The system has shown an excellent enhan...

Advanced optical applications of fluorescent carbon dots (C-dots) require highly integrated host-guest solid-state materials with a careful design of C-dots – matrix interface to control the optical response. We have developed a new synthesis based on the grafting of an organo-functional silane (3-glycidyloxypropyltrimethoxysilane, GPTMS) on amino-...

A selective sensing platform for the organophosphate paraoxon, a highly toxic organic pollutant, has been designed and tested on water samples. A porous hybrid organic–inorganic film, synthesised using tetraethoxysilane, 1,8-bis(triethoxysilyl) octane and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide, has been molecularly imprinted with a structural analogue of p...

The application of titania materials to gas sensing devices based on thin films are of limited utility because they only operate at a high working temperature and exhibit in general a low sensitivity. To overcome these constraints, a new type of oxygen sensor based on mesoporous titania thin films working at room temperature under UV irradiation ha...

Green synthesis is one of the hot topics in the chemistry of hybrid organic–inorganic materials. A alcohol-free sol–gel process has been developed to prepare optically transparent hybrid films from an epoxy bearing alkoxide, [2-(3,4-epoxy-cyclohexyl)-ethyl]-trimethoxysilane (ECTMS). The synthesis is simple and effective because only two components,...

Enhancement of Raman scattering signal through graphene is an important property that could be exploited for producing innovative sensing devices with advanced properties. Because the enhancement of Raman scattering is due only to a chemical mechanism, the amplification of the signal is lower than that one produced by excitation of localized surfac...

This chapter wishes to provide the reader with some examples of composite materials obtained through integration of carbon-based nanostructures, graphene and carbon dots, into mesoporous materials and some of the issues thereof. After a brief introduction to the chemistry of graphene and its derivatives, relevant for understanding the problems asso...

The controlled growth of Ag nanoparticles into graphene–TiO2 mesoporous films has been triggered by hard X-ray exposure provided by a synchrotron storage ring. The kinetic process has been studied by UV–visible spectroscopy as a function of the X-ray dose and compared to the nanoparticle growth induced in a bare mesoporous titania matrix. The graph...

Catalytic core–shell nanoparticles were obtained by coating an iron oxide core with a hybrid organic–inorganic silica shell using vinyl-triethoxy-silane and amino-propyl-triethoxy-silane. The amino group was further functionalised with arginine, used as catalytic moiety for the inactivation of organophosphate pesticides through hydrolysis. By explo...

Graphene/silica nanocomposites in the form of highly porous aerogels are obtained for the first time by integrating a novel approach for the production of low defectivity graphene with a two-step route for the synthesis of silica-based monolith. Differently from the other synthetic methods, the use of co-gelation of dispersed phase and matrix follo...

In article 1500802 adaptive surface wrinkles, which exhibit a peristaltic motion and a size selective transportation of micro objects on bilayered soft materials under thermal stimulus, are described by Yasuaki Tokudome, Masahide Takahashi, and co-workers. The bilayered materials are made of thermo-responsive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) an...

Adaptive surface wrinkles are demonstrated to exhibit a peristaltic motion and a size-selective transportation of micro-objects under thermal stimulus. The bilayered materials made of thermoresponsive poly(N-iso-propylacrylamide) and hybrid silica form responsive wrinkles of submillimeter dimensions with temperature variation. This hydrogel-based a...

Hard X-rays, deriving from a synchrotron light source, have been used as an effective tool for processing hybrid organic–inorganic films and thick coatings up to several micrometres. These coatings could be directly modified, in terms of composition and properties, by controlled exposure to X-rays. The physico-chemical properties of the coatings, s...

Graphene sheets increase the Raman signal through a chemical enhancement mechanism which gives rise to graphene-mediated enhanced Raman scattering (GERS). The low enhancement factor and the surface available for analysis are, however, a limitation on the application of graphene-mediated enhanced Raman scattering (ERS). We have, therefore, developed...

The present review is focused on a specific class of nanocomposites obtained through integration of graphene, or carbon-based nanomaterials (such as carbon nanodots), with mesoporous inorganic or hybrid materials, obtained via template assisted self-assembly. The task of integrating graphene and carbon nanodots with a self-assembly process is still...

The in situ observation of a sol-to-gel transition in fast evaporating systems is a challenging task and the lack of a suitable experimental design, which includes the chemistry and the analytical method, has limited the observations. We synthesise an acidic sol, employing only tetraethylorthosilicate, SiCl4 as catalyst and deuterated water; the ab...

A new type of mesostructured hybrid organic-inorganic film has been synthesised by evaporation-induced self-assembly using 3-glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane as precursor and a tri-block copolymer, Pluronic F127, as template. The chemistry has been tuned to form in the sol bridged polysilsesquioxanes that self-organize into ordered lamellar structur...

A one-pot approach making use of a zinc oxide sol precursor and 14 carbon quantum dots, together with a partially fluorinated block copolymer as 15 templating agent, has been used to synthesize a porous matrix characterized by 16 interesting energy transfer properties. The choice of the fluorinated surfactant for 17 inducing the porosity into the i...

Silica mesoporous nanocomposite films containing graphene nanosheets and gold nanoparticles have been prepared via a one-pot synthesis using silicon tetrachloride, gold(III) chloride tetrahydrate, a 1-N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone dispersion of exfoliated graphene and Pluronic F127 as a structuring agent. The composite films have shown Graphene-mediated Su...

The possibility of extending the technological applications of photocatalytic mesoporous titania films relies upon the capability of lowering the processing temperature while maintaining its functional properties. Here we present a synthesis of mesoporous titania films, which makes use of a partially fluorinated surfactant Zonyl FS300 as a mesostru...

Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparti-cles of magnetite have been grafted on the surface of a hybrid organic–inorganic film prepared using an organically modified alkoxide, 3-glycidoxypropyltri-methoxysilane, as precursor. A solventless synthesis of the hybrid films at high pH has been employed and the surface chemistry of the deposited films has...

Hybrid films prepared from 3-glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane have been widely used as organic–inorganic materials for several applications. Tailoring the coating surface should disclose new possibilities of applications in biomaterials as functional interfaces for cells and enzymes. In this work we have designed the synthesis of 3-glycidoxypropyltr...

The present work is aimed at developing a titania-based mesoporous film with catalytic properties toward organophosphate pesticides by combining two different approaches: the molecular imprinting and the self-assembly with a supramolecular template. The mesoporosity of the material has been obtained by using a tri-block copolymer (Pluronic F127) as...

Nanotechnologies are an emerging and multidisciplinary field of research, which is re-cently knowing a growing interest because of the basic and applied scientific break-through. Despite a deep understanding of the nanoscience is far to be achieved, the debate about the impact of nano-objects in everyday life is gradually involving both the scienti...

A new method for the preparation of fluorescent mesoporous La–Ce phosphate films by spin coating is reported here. The structure is obtained by a pore-confined synthesis involving an in situ growth of La 0.5 Ce 0.5 PO 4 nanoparticles inside the pores of a mesoporous silica thin film and the subsequent partial sintering. The removal of the sacrifici...

Molecular imprinting has grown considerably over the last decade with more and more applications being developed. The use of this approach for the generation of enzyme-mimics is here reviewed with a particular focus on the most recent achievements using different polymer formats such as microgels and nanogels, beads, membranes and also silica nanop...

A published model for revealing solvent effects on the ring-closing metathesis (RCM) reaction of diethyl diallylmalonate 7 has been evaluated over a wider range of conditions, to assess its suitability for new applications. Unfortunately, the model is too flexible and the published rate constants do not agree with experimental studies in the litera...

In the RCM reactions of a series of simple α,ω-dienes, the relative order of reactivity has been unambiguously determined showing that cyclohexene forms faster than cyclopentene or cycloheptene. 1,5-Hexadiene inhibits the RCM of 1,7-octadiene; 1,5-hexadiene cannot progress to the RCM product (cyclobutene) but forms an unexpectedly stable cyclic η(2...

The molecular-imprinting approach was used to obtain a nanogel preparation capable of catalysing the cross-aldol reaction between 4-nitrobenzaldehyde and acetone. A polymerisable proline derivative was used as the functional monomer to mimic the enamine-based mechanism of aldolase type I enzymes. The diketone template used to create the cavity was...

The present work furnishes an innovative preparation of substituted indoles based on tandem hydroformylation, where the chemo- and the regio-selectivities are good, so the yield of the reaction. The novelty has been established in the four-step transformation of substituted alpha nitrocinnamaldehydes into desired indoles in a one-pot reaction. Unde...