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Publications
Publications (77)
The advancement of photovoltaic (PV) technology is critical for sustainable energy production, with silicon‐based solar cells being the most prevalent due to their efficiency and cost‐effectiveness. In recent years, the use of materials to change the color of conventional silicon‐based PV cells, materials that can be laminated or not during the con...
The integration of photovoltaic technologies within agricultural settings, also known as agrivoltaics, is attracting increasing attention as a sustainable approach to ensure both clean energy and food supply. The success of this strategy relies on the development of innovative materials that can selectively convert specific wavelengths into energy...
Climate change mitigation on a global scale will only be possible through the achievement of ambitious decarbonisation goals, requiring an energy transition that involves switching from fossil fuels to clean fuels such as hydrogen. The photocatalytic approach is one of the most studied methods for directly converting sunlight into hydrogen. In this...
With the aim to propose innovative antimicrobial agents able to not only selectively inhibit bacterial carbonic anhydrases (CAs) but also to be photoactivated by specific wavelengths, new heptamethine-based compounds decorated with a sulfonamide moiety were synthesized by means of different spacers. The compounds displayed potent CA inhibition and...
Two novel organic sensitizers for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSC), called TP1 and TP2, based on the electron-poor thieno[3,4-b]pyrazine (TPz) π-bridge and the electron-rich N,N-bis(4-(hexylthio)phenyl)aniline (TPA) were designed following two different approaches: the classical D-A-π-A design and a symmetric structure with double anchoring functi...
Luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) are a class of optical devices able to harvest, downshift, and concentrate sunlight, thanks to the presence of emitting materials embedded in a polymer matrix. Use of LSCs in combination with silicon-based photovoltaic (PV) devices has been proposed as a viable strategy to enhance their ability to harvest diff...
A straightforward synthetic protocol featuring direct C–H arylations as key steps has been optimized to prepare two benzo-2,1,3-thiadiazole (BTD)-based organic fluorophores. Their light absorption and emission properties, as well as their affinity with poly(methyl methacrylate) as the chosen polymer matrix, were found to be suitable for application...
Abstract During the last decade, perovskite solar technologies underwent an impressive development, with power conversion efficiencies reaching 25.5% for single junction devices, and 29.8% for Silicon‐Perovskite tandem configurations. Even though research mainly focused on improving the efficiency of perovskite photovoltaics (PV), stability and sca...
Optical Antennas (OAs) based on Fluorescent Concentrators (FCs) promise a revolution in the deployment of Visible Light Communication (VLC) and Optical Wireless Communication (OWC), due to their inherent advantages over conventional receivers in terms of exceedingly larger field of view (FoV) and optical gain (OG). Whilst FC-based OAs have been dem...
Among the photovoltaic technologies adopted in the building‐integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) sector, Dye‐Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSCs) appear very attractive because of unique features like tunable color and good transparency. However, the prospect of their low‐cost fabrication is realistic only if reliable and scalable processes under real manufac...
Luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) are devices designed to efficiently collect both direct and diffuse solar radiation and concentrate it on photovoltaic cells to foster their use in building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV). The optimization of LSC performances involves the adjustment of both the fluorophore and the guest polymer matrix. On thi...
Organic fluorophores have found broad application as emitters in luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) for silicon photovoltaics. In particular, the preparation of organic conjugated systems with intense light-harvesting ability, emissions in the deep-red and NIR regions, and large Stokes shift values represent a very challenging undertaking. Here...
Herein, we report on the development of a waste minimization/valorization methodology applied to the representative benchmark Sonogashira cross-coupling reaction performed in a continuous-flow reactor, featuring a continuous-flow downstream membrane organic/aqueous separator to recover medium and products with minimal waste. The protocol is based o...
Three different Pd⁰‐based heterogeneous catalysts were developed and tested in the Cassar–Heck reaction (i. e., copper‐free Sonogashira reaction) aiming at the definition of a waste minimized protocol. The cross‐linked polymeric supports used in this investigation were designed to be adequate for different reaction media and were decorated with dif...
In light of the ever-growing demand of modern electronics for wearable integrated optoelectronic devices, Fiber-shaped Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells (FDSSCs) have gained increasing interest over the last years as suitable energy production systems for the development of the next generation of smart products. To fulfill the wearable concept, it is impo...
The Cover Feature shows the hydroformylation of allylbenzene under micellar and microwave catalysis. In their Full Paper, F. Migliorini et al. report a sustainable methodology for the microwave‐assisted hydroformylation of terminal alkene in water taking advantages from micellar catalysis. The experimental data shows the key role played by the form...
Organic Near‐Infrared luminophores have found broad application as functional materials, but the development of efficient NIR emitters is still a challenging goal. Here we report on a new class of thieno[3,4‐b]pyrazine‐based NIR emitting materials with Aggregation Induced Emission (AIE) properties. The dyes feature a donor–acceptor–donor (D−A−D) st...
It is here reported a fully sustainable and generally applicable protocol for the regioselective hydroformylation of terminal alkenes, using cheap commercially available catalysts and ligands, in mild reaction conditions (70 °C, 9 bar, 40 min). The process can take advantages from both micellar catalysis and microwave irradiation to obtain the line...
Three new fluorophores (BBT2-4) with a D-A-D structure characterised by the common benzo[1,2-d:4,5-d′]bisthiazole (BBT) as acceptor core (A) and different donor groups (D) were designed and synthesised for use in thin-film luminescent solar concentrators (LSC). The optical and spectroscopic properties of the new dyes were analysed both in solution...
In this paper, we present the design and synthesis of three organic dyes specially developed for the fabrication of dye-sensitized solar cells for application on greenhouses cladding. The dyes (BTD-DTP1-3) are based on a benzothiadiazole (BTD)-dithienopyrrole (DTP) scaffold, and were assembled by using direct arylation reactions, allowing to reduce...
A series of catechol-based sensitizers, Cat-I to Cat-XV, for a possible application in type II DSSCs is presented. The electronic structures and excited state properties of free and bound to (TiO2)9 dyes have been analysed and compared by means of Density Functional Theory (DFT) and Time Dependent DFT (TDDFT) methods. In particular, the effect of i...
Photocatalytic hydrogen production has recently emerged as a promising process for the long-term storage of solar energy. In this work, we studied the application to H2 generation of a series of heterogeneous photocatalysts obtained by sensitizing Pt/TiO2 nanoparticles with ten different D-π-A organic dyes containing the benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazole...
A new series of symmetrical organic dyes containing an indigo central core decorated with different electron donor groups have been prepared, starting from Tyrian Purple and using the Pd-catalyzed Stille-Migita coupling process. The effect of substituents on the spectroscopic properties of the dyes has been investigated theoretically and experiment...
Ascorbic acid has a unique role in the prevention and treatment of a large number of chronic diseases, including skin disorders but it can hardly penetrate the skin due to its solubility in water and its high instability. This study explored the formation of phosphatidylcholine-based vesicles upon addition of ascorbyl octanoate or decanoate, and th...
The prediction of ground-state redox potentials by quantum chemical methods has a prominent role in the rational design of novel organic photosensitizers both for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) and photocatalytic systems for the production of H2. Indeed, the ground-state redox potential of the photosensitizers is one of the key parameters to id...
New generation photovoltaic devices have attracted much attention in the last decades since they can be efficiently manufactured employing abundant raw materials and with less-energy intensive processes. In this context, the use of powerful environmental assessment is pivotal to support the fine-tuning of solar cells fabrication and hit the target...
Organic photosensitizers especially designed for producing semitransparent dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) for greenhouse integration were prepared by introduction of different heterocyclic moieties into the thiazolo[5,4-d]thiazole- molecular scaffold. The aim was that of improving their light absorption capability in the green part of the visib...
Conversion of sunlight into chemical energy has been the subject of intense research efforts in recent years, due to the possibility to store the enormous amount of energy continuously provided by the Sun in the form of useful “solar fuels”. To allow such process, suitable photocatalysts are required, which are usually obtained by combination of di...
A simple and environmentally benign procedure for the synthesis of secondary amines in water has been developed. Combining Ru3(CO)12, tetraphenylcyclopentadienone and a small quantity of TGPS-750-M surfactant, primary and secondary alcohols were alkylated at N employing equimolar amounts of aromatic amines in water. The reaction occurs under microw...
Fiber-shaped Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSFs) represent one of the most interesting technologies aimed at the light harvesting and the production of electricity for wearable applications. In order to boost DSSFs commercialization, their production costs and environmental impact must be reduced. To this end, a suitable strategy could be to build t...
Dye-sensitized photocatalytic hydrogen generation is emerging as a promising process to produce fuels using a clean and abundant energy source such as sunlight. In the first part of this work, three organic dyes featuring a dithieno[3,2-b:2′,3′-d]silole heterocyclic unit (OB1-3), bearing different substituents on various parts of the molecular scaf...
Cross-coupling reactions have played a key role in producing numerous types of π-conjugated small molecules having appealing properties for practical applications in organic electronics, especially in the field of photovoltaics. The main advantages of such synthetic methodology are the compatibility with many types of functional groups and the flex...
The design, synthesis, and characterization of a new class of blue-colored thiophene-substituted Pechmann dyes are reported. Due to a distinguishing blue coloration and the capability to absorb light in one of the most photon-dense regions of the solar spectrum, such compounds are of great interest for application as photoactive materials in organi...
In this work, we present for the first time the synthesis and characterization of potential DSSC organic sensitizers whose cyanoacrylic acceptor/anchoring group was modified by replacement of oxygen with one or more sulfur atoms. Using known carboxylic acid dye DF15 as a reference, their TD‐DFT computational analysis indicated that oxygen‐sulfur su...
The present study reports on a simple preparation strategy of a hybrid catalyst, TiO2/HKUST-1, containing TiO2 anatase nanoparticles (NPs) with tailored morphology and photocatalytic activity coupled with a porous metal-organic framework (MOF), namely HKUST-1, as an advanced material for the CO2 photocatalytic reduction. In detail, TiO2/HKUST-1 cat...
In this study, we report on the synthesis of new organic fluorophores containing either the benzo[1,2-d:4,5-d']bisthiazole or the dithieno[3,2-b:2',3'-d]silole heterocyclic unit, and on their application for the fabrication of luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) made of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) thin films. In solution, the new compounds...
Interest in the modulation of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) metabolome is gaining great momentum because of its therapeutic potential in different human disorders. Suppression of nicotinamide salvage by nicotinamide phosphoribosyl transferase (NAMPT) inhibitors, however, gave inconclusive results in neoplastic patients because several met...
The preparation and spectroscopic characterization of some symmetrical small molecules containing the disubstituted (E)-3,3′-bifuranylidene-2,2′-dione chromophore (the so-called Pechmann lactone) and featuring an extended conjugation are reported. The synthetic approach of such compounds is based on the Stille–Migita coupling reaction, which is car...
D-π-A dyes have received a special attention in the field of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). In this kind of molecules, the acceptor group (A) generally acts as an anchor, enabling the adsorption of the dye onto the metal oxide substrate (TiO2) and providing a good electron injection. The search for new anchors represents a critical factor for...
Donor-acceptor dyes are a well-established class of photosensitizers, used to enhance visible light harvesting in solar cells and in direct photocatalytic reactions, such as H2 production by photoreforming of sacrificial electron donors (SEDs). Amines - typically triethanolamine (TEOA) - are commonly employed as SEDs in such reactions. Dye-sensitiz...
The cross-coupling reaction of organic electrophiles with organostannanes, traditionally known as the Stille reaction, has found renewed interest in the preparation of new organic materials such as conjugated polymers, organic semiconductors and photoactive molecules for use in organic
photovoltaics. Moreover, a very recent field in which the Still...
A series of organic D-π-A dyes, endowed with different silicon-based anchoring groups, has been prepared to assess the stability of such anchoring moieties on nanocrystalline TiO2 in dye-sensitized solar cells. Due to the difficulties encountered in finding a reliable and robust preparation protocol to obtain pure trialkoxysilanes, replacement with...
In this article, we present studies concerning the efficiency enhancement of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) containing cocktails of organic donor-π-acceptor (D-π-A) dyes (L0 and L1) and a squaraine sensitizer (SQ2) by means of the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) effect induced by gold nanorods (GNRs) embedded within the semiconductor...
Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have attracted significant interest in the last few years as effective low-cost devices for solar energy conversion. We have analyzed the excited state dynamics of several organic dyes bearing both cyanoacrylic acid and siloxane anchoring groups. The spectroscopic properties of the dyes have been studied both in s...
A synthetic sequence for the preparation of fully conjugated, 2,7-disubstituted fluorazone (9H-pyrrolo[1,2-a]indol-9-one) derivatives was developed, comprising Elming-Clauson-Kaas type pyrrole formation, POCl3-mediated ring closure, selective halogenation and elongation of the conjugate backbone via cross-coupling reactions. As a proof of principle...
Partially hydrogenated pyrazino[2,1-a]isoquinoline derivatives, such as praziquantel, have been the subject of significant research efforts in the field of medicinal chemistry, thanks to their antihelmintic, antiprotozoal, and antifungal activities. Nevertheless, methods for their efficient synthesis (and especially for their stereoselective prepar...
Thiazolo[5,4-d]thiazoles (TzTzs) are fused bicyclic heteroaromatic compounds characterized by a rigid planar backbone and an extended -conjugated electronic structure. Although they have been known for many decades, interest in their properties and applications has begun to increase only recently, after their incorporation into a series of active m...
Two new organic dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) sensitizers bearing regioisomeric carboxyl-N-methylpyridinium moieties were prepared and fully characterized. Based on TD-DFT calculations, they were anticipated to show a significantly red-shifted absorption spectrum compared to normal carboxypyridines and other regioisomeric pyridinium salts. Altho...
Several attempts were performed to use efficient organic dyes for DSSCs as building integrated (BIPV) windows, that could substitute the more toxic Ru complexes. For this particular application transparency in the 500nm – 600nm is a stringent demand that in most cases implied the use a co-sensitizing NIR dye in addition to a dye sensitizer in the v...
A small set of thiazolo[5,4-d]thiazole-based D-π-A organic dyes, endowed with bis-pentylpropylenedioxythiophene (ProDOT) moieties in the π-spacer, was designed with the aid of computational analysis, synthesized and characterized. The presence of bulky and electronrich ProDOT groups beside the electronpoor thiazolothiazole unit induced optimal phys...
Thiazolo[5,4-d]thiazoles are fused bicyclic heteroaromatic compounds characterized by a rigid planar backbone and an extended π-conjugated electronic structure. Although they have been known for many decades, interest in their properties and applications has increased only recently, following their incorporation into a series of active materials us...
Background & Aims
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignancies worldwide. Although hepatectomy and transplantation have significantly improved survival, there is no effective chemotherapeutic treatment for HCC and its prognosis remains poor. Sustained activation of telomerase is essential for the growth and progression of H...
Three new thiazolo[5,4-d]thiazole-based organic dyes have been designed and synthesized for employment as DSSC sensitizers. Alternation of the electronpoor thiazolothiazole unit with two propylenedioxythiophene (ProDOT) groups ensured very intense light absorption in the visible region (ε up to 9.41×104 M−1 cm−1 in THF solution). The dyes resulted...
A microwave-assisted preparation of symmetrical thiazolo[5,4-d]thiazoles from the corresponding aldehydes is presented. The two-step reaction sequence comprises the condensation of aldehydes with dithiooxamide followed by oxidation/aromatization with 1,4-benzoquinone derivatives. The new procedure provides the desired products in good yields and in...
Three novel organic dyes (DF13A-C) carrying regioisomeric carboxypyridine anchoring groups were synthesized by means of a multistep synthetic sequence involving a Pd-catalyzed Stille coupling as the key step. The new compounds underwent full spectroscopic, electrochemical, and computational characterization, and their properties were compared with...
The ability of Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory (TD-DFT) to provide excited state geometries and reproduce emission energies of organic D-p-A dyes designed for DSSC applications is evaluated. The performance of six functionals (CAM-B3LYP, MPW1K, omega B97X-D, LC-BLYP, LC-omega PBE, and M06-HF) in combination with three basis sets (cc-pVDZ,...
Many pharmaceutical agents contain piperazines or oxopiperazines as part of their core structures. The presence of substituents on these heterocycles has a significant influence on the biological activity, thus the search for efficient routes to control the substitution at different ring positions is of crucial and particular significance, especial...
We report a joint experimental and computational study into the spectroscopic properties of a prototypical D5 organic dye, both in solution and adsorbed on a TiO2 surface, with the aim of modeling and quantifying the UV/Vis spectral shifts that occur in the different explored environments. Going from the dye in solution to dye-sensitized TiO2 , var...
A D-π-A organic dye carrying a pyridine-N-oxide 2-carboxylic acid anchoring group (BC1) was synthesized together with two analogs lacking the N-oxide (BC2) or the carboxylic acid moiety (BC3). The distribution and energy of their molecular orbitals was determined, and modelling of their spectroscopic properties was performed through a TD-DFT comput...
Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have received considerable attention in the last decade because of their
good efficiency coupled with low cost of production. To increase the performances of such devices it is
important to develop effective organic photosensitizers with optimal chemical structures and, to this
end, compouds featuring DepeA archite...
TThiazole-based dyes proved to be efficient organic sensitizer in thin dye-sensitized solar cells. Gold nanoparticles were used for enhancing cell efficiency, transparency and simple fabrication conditions to building integrated photovoltaic cells
Four new D-π-A organic dyes incorporating either a thiazolo[5,4-d]thiazole bicyclic system (TTZ1–2) or a benzo[1,2-d:4,5-d′]bisthiazole tricyclic unit (BBZ1–2) have been synthesized and fully characterized. The key steps of the synthesis include an efficient MW-assisted preparation of the thiazolo[5,4-d]thiazole core and selective functionalization...
An unusual thiazolo[5,4-d ]thiazole sensitizer for dye-sensitized solar cells, Tetrahedron Letters (2013), doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tetlet.2013.05.059 This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will u...
Gemcitabine is the standard of care for metastatic and nonresectable pancreatic tumors. Phase II and III trials have not demonstrated efficacy of recently developed reagents, compared with gemcitabine alone; new chemotherapic agents are needed. Ninety percent of pancreatic tumors have telomerase activity, and expression correlates with tumor stage....
The present research is focused on automation, miniaturization, and system interaction with high throughput for multiple and specific Direct Immersion-Solid Phase Microextraction/Fast Gas Chromatography analysis of the urinary ketones. The specific Mass Spectrometry instrumentation, capable of supporting such the automated changeover from Negative...
For Abstract see ChemInform Abstract in Full Text.
The preparation of a chiral phosphoramidite ligand anchored to a Merrifield resin has been studied and its use in the copper-catalysed heterogeneous enantioselective conjugate addition of ZnEt2 to 2-cyclohexenone investigated. The insoluble polymer bound ligand could be recovered quantitatively by filtration, affording e.e. values in the range 65–8...