Massimo SgarziUniversità Ca' Foscari Venezia | UNIVE · Department of Molecular Science and Nanosystems
Massimo Sgarzi
PhD in Chemistry
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47
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Introduction
Synthesis and characterization of nanostructured materials and nanocomposite for the photocatalytic degradation and the adsorption of organic and inorganic pollutants contained in wastewater
Additional affiliations
Education
January 2011 - December 2013
October 2006 - September 2008
September 2003 - September 2006
Publications
Publications (47)
Colloidal lignin particles (CLPs) emerge as a sustainable alternative to traditional, fossil-based emulsion stabilizers. However, effectively outperforming the conventional ingredients requires addressing the challenges posed by lignin heterogeneity and structural complexity. In this study, one-step acetone fractionation was applied to softwood and...
Free‐standing, highly transparent and flexible films are obtained from solvent casting of aqueous colloidal dispersions of surface‐deacetylated chitin nanocrystals. The Young's modulus and the water absorption of the films is further modulated by the addition of three natural polyphenols, i.e., epigallocatechingallate, tannic acid and one lignosulf...
In contrast to conventional non‐biobased adsorbents, lignin emerges as a cost‐effective and environmentally benign alternative for water treatment. This study identifies unexpected and unpredicted multifunctional properties of lignin nanoparticles (LNPs). LNPs, which are prepared by simple physical processes, demonstrated for the first time to beha...
Water pollution is a growing concern for mankind due to its harmful effects on humans, animals and plants. Usually, several pollutants are present in wastewater. For example, dyes and antibiotics are found in wastewater because of their widespread use in factories and hospitals. However, one single technique, e.g. either adsorption or photocatalysi...
Solar-driven photocatalysis is of great interest in terms of a sustainable use of energy and its application in wastewater treatment. The UV light-driven photogeneration of H2O2 by solar irradiation is an advanced strategy for the treatment of bacteria and recalcitrant pollutants in wastewater, but suffers from low efficiencies. In this work, a sol...
We investigated the formation of the conductive network of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in alkali-activated nanocomposites for sulfate-sensing applications. The matrix was a one-part blend of fly ash and ground granulated blast-furnace slag, activated by sodium silicate and water. Sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate was used as the surfactant for dispersion...
The photocatalytic degradation of the wastewater dye pollutant methylene blue (MB) at ZnO nanostructured porous thin films, deposited by direct current (DC) reactive magnetron sputtering (RMS) on Si substrates, was studied. It was observed that over 4 photocatalytic cycles (0.3 mg/L MB solution, 540 min UV irradiation) the rate constant k of MB deg...
Contaminated water coming from industrial waste often contains bacteria, antibiotics, and dyes. The multifunctional nanocomposites in article 2200076 by Nadia Licciardello, Gianaurelio Cuniberti, and co‐workers, adsorb dyes, photodegrade antibiotics under visible light, and are antimicrobial, resulting in decontaminated water. The nanocomposites ca...
Nowadays sustainable nanotechnological strategies to improve the efficiency of conventional agricultural practices are of utmost importance. As a matter of fact, the increasing use of productive factors in response to the growing food demand plays an important role in determining the environmental impact of agriculture. In this respect, low-efficie...
Concrete infrastructures are susceptible to corrosion in acidic environments; therefore, the constituent material should be engineered to sense the onset of ion penetration and propagation into the critical sites of the structure. Based on this concept, an intelligent alkali activated chemiresistor has been designed to sense the presence and concen...
Adsorption and advanced oxidation processes, especially photocatalysis, are amongst the most common water treatment methodologies. Unfortunately, using each of these techniques independently does not fully eliminate the pollutants of diverse nature, which are present in wastewater. Here, an avenue for multifunctional materials for water treatment i...
The photocatalytic approach is known to be one of the most promising advanced oxidation processes for the tertiary treatment of polluted water. In this paper, β-NaYF4/TiO2 composite films have been synthetized through a novel sol–gel/spin-coating approach using a mixture of β-diketonate complexes of Na and Y, and Yb3+, Tm3+, Gd3+, Eu3+ as doping io...
The inventors propose an easy and versatile method for the preparation of photosensitive polymer nanocomposites, which guarantees a stable embedment of nanofillers in the polymer matrix and the creation of multifunctional materials.
The extensive use of non-degradable microplastics in a wide plethora of daily life products is causing serious pollution problems. More ecofriendly solutions are therefore urgently needed. In this context, the use of lignin, a largely available aromatic polymer, may represent a viable option. Due to the self-assembly ability of its molecules, ligni...
In this work, the properties of zinc oxide (ZnO) low-dimensional conductive oxide nanostructures in the aspect of their potential applications in microelectronics, in toxic gas sensing, as well as in water remediation, have been determined. ZnO nanostructured porous thin films deposited by DC reactive sputtering (RS) have been deposited on Si subst...
A waste-originated one-part alkali-activated nanocomposite is introduced herein as a novel thermoelectric material. For this purpose, single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) were utilized as nanoinclusions to create an electrically conductive network within the investigated alkali-activated construction material. Thermoelectric and microstructure c...
Ag nanoparticles decorated-TiO 2 P25 are a viable alternative for the degradation, through a rutile-mediated mechanism, of fluoroquinolone-based antibiotics under visible light irradiation and, at the same time, for bacteria inactivation in water.
The focus of present research is the establishment of a practical procedure for effective incorporation of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) into alkali-activated materials (AAMs) with the aim of mechanical reinforcement. Investigated composite in this work was an alkali-activated matrix composed of fly ash (FA) and ground-granulated blast fur...
Stepwise self-assembly processes using new lanthanide metalloligands (Ln-MLs) and silver salts have been successfully applied to isolate 4f-4d heterometallic coordination networks of four different structural types. In particular, the new lanthanide tetrakis-chelate complexes NEt4[Ln(L1)4] [HL1 = 1,3-bis(4′-cyanophenyl)-1,3-propanedione; Ln = Eu (1...
Photocrosslinkable diacetylenes have been used for the biocompatibilisation of upconverting nanoparticles (UCNPs). In their Communication (DOI: 10.1002/anie.201811003), T. Joshi, H. Stephan, K. Zarschler, and co‐workers demonstrate that biomolecular corona‐resistant UCNPs can be generated by first coating the UCNP surface with a mixture diacetyleni...
Durch Licht vernetzbare Diacetylene machen aufwärtskonvertierende Nanopartikel (UCNPs) biokompatibel. In ihrer Zuschrift (DOI: 10.1002/ange.201811003) demonstrieren T. Joshi, H. Stephan, K. Zarschler und Mitarbeiter, dass UCNPs, die keine Biomolekülkorona anlagern, erhalten werden können, indem die UCNP‐Oberfläche zuerst mit einer Mischung von Diac...
We demonstrate a novel strategy for preparing hydrophilic upconverting nanoparticles (UCNPs) by harnessing the photocrosslinking ability of diacetylenes (DAs). Replacement of the hydrophobic oleate coating on the UCNPs with 10,12‐pentacosadiynoic acid (PCDA), followed by overcoating with diacetylene phospholipid and subsequent photocrosslinking und...
We demonstrate a novel strategy for preparing hydrophilic upconverting nanoparticles (UCNPs) by harnessing the photocrosslinking ability of diacetylenes (DAs). Replacement of the hydrophobic oleate coating on the UCNPs with 10,12‐pentacosadiynoic acid (PCDA), followed by overcoating with diacetylene phospholipid and subsequent photocrosslinking und...
Pure hexagonal (β-phase) NaYF4-based hydrophobic upconverting nanoparticles (UCNPs) were surface-modified with o-phospho-L-threonine (OPLT), alendronic acid, and PEG-phosphate ligands to generate water-dispersible UCNPs. Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy was used to establish the presence of the ligands on the UCNP surface. These UCNPs...
We report a simple one-pot method for the rapid preparation of sub-10 nm pure hexagonal (β-phase) NaYF4-based upconverting nanoparticles (UCNPs). Using Therminol® 66 as a co-solvent, monodisperse UCNPs could be obtained in unusually short reaction times. By varying the reaction time and reaction temperature, it was possible to control precisely the...
A systematic study of a series of diaza-18-crown-6 8-hydroxyquinoline (DCHQ) chemosensors, devoted to Mg(II) ion detection, was performed. Functionalization of DCHQ by peripheral substituents allowed the development of novel all-solid-state optodes via inclusion inside PVC-based polymeric films. The influence on the DCHQ-based optode response of th...
Magnesium plays a crucial role in many physiological functions and pathological states. Therefore, the evolution of specific and sensitive tools capable of detecting and quantifying this element in cells is a very desirable goal in biological and biomedical research. We developed a Mg²⁺-selective fluorescent dye that can be used to selectively dete...
The fluorescent ligand () based on the N2S2 pyridinophane macrocycle and the 7-nitrobenzo[1,2,5]oxadiazole (NBD) fluorogenic fragment has been synthesized to coordinate Pd(II) ions. Loaded on dye-doped silica nanoparticles, can be used as a ratiometric fluorescent chemosensor for Pd(II) in water with high selectivity toward other metal ions includi...
We report here the synthesis of a new thio-aza macrocyclic chemosensor based on the 2,5diphenyl[1,3,4]oxadiazole in which two thioether groups were inserted in a macrocycle with the aim to make it suitable for the coordination of soft and heavy metal ions. In acetonitrile solution, the fluorescence of the chemosensor changes upon addition of differ...
This work was devoted to the development of a new type of lipid-based (cubosomes) theranostic nanoparticles able to simultaneously host camptothecin, a potent anti-cancer drug, and a squarein-based NIR emitting fluorescent probe. Furthermore, to confer these nanoparticles targeting abilities, they were dispersed using mixtures of Pluronic F108 and...
Dye-doped near infrared-emitting silica nanoparticles (DD-NIRsiNPs) represent a valuable tool in bioimaging, because they provide sufficient brightness, resistance to photobleaching and consist of hydrophilic non-toxic materials. Here, we report the development of multiple dye-doped NIR emitting siNPs (mDD-NIRsiNPs), based on silica–PEG core–shell...
The present study investigated the analytical capabilities of a new fluorescent chemosensor, named DCHQ5, a phenyl derivative belonging to the family of diaza-crown-hydroxyquinolines, for the quantitative assessment of total intracellular Mg content. The results obtained were compared to the analytical performances of DCHQ1 - the parent probe of th...
A new turn-on Cu2+ fluorescent sensor (CST) having a trehalose moiety, which confers a relatively large solubility in water, has been synthesized. The chemosensor is therefore suitable for studies in aqueous solution. Full potentiometric and UV-vis characterization evidence that at physiological pH CST forms with Cu2+ a species with a 1:1 stoichiom...
Despite several types of fluorescent sensing molecules have been proposed and examined to signal Hg(2+) ion binding, the development of fluorescence-based devices for in-field Hg(2+) detection and screening in environmental and industrial samples is still a challenging task. Herein, we report the synthesis and characterization of three new coumarin...
The quinoline urea derivatives 1,3-di(quinolin-5-yl)urea (DQ5U), 1-phenyl-3-(quinolin-6-yl)urea (PQ6U), 1-(isoquinolin-5-yl)-3-phenylurea (PiQ5U) and 1-phenyl-3-(3,5-bis(pyrid-2-yl)-1,2,4-triazol-4-yl)urea (PPT4U) have been synthesised and structurally characterized by powder and single crystal X-ray diffraction. Their gelator behaviour in the form...
We have recently developed an optimised synthetic strategy for the preparation of chemosensors based on the diaza-18-crown-6 hydroxyquinoline structure. This flexible approach allows to obtain a variety of substituted derivatives with improved fluorescence, metal ion binding, uptake and localisation properties. In this context, we have focused our...
This review aims to give an overview on the state of the art in the precise context of metal complexes-based ECL dyes directly adsorbed on, included in or interacting with nanoparticles of various nature. Electrogenerated chemiluminescence, or electrochemiluminescence (ECL), is the process through which species generated at electrodes undergo homog...
Although magnesium is essential for a number of biological processes crucial for cell life, its distribution and intracellular compartmentalization have not been thoroughly elucidated yet, mainly because of the inadequacy of the available techniques to map intracellularmagnesium distribution. For this reason, particular interest has been recently r...
Fancy a copper? A sensing system for copper(I) ions, based on the interplay between a "classical" chemosensor and a fluorescent silica nanoparticle, is presented (see scheme). The occurrence of properly designed energy transfer processes and the observed increase of the affinity of the nanosystem towards Cu + improve sensor performance at low metal...
The field of nanoparticles is amazingly many-sided and consequently their applications range between many different areas from industry to bio-analysis and catalysis. In particular, luminescent nanoparticles attract close attention in the areas of biology, medical diagnosis and therapy, where they already find many applications. In this so fascinat...
N,N'-bis-((8-hydroxy-7-quinolinyl)methyl)-1,10-diaza-18-crown-6 ether 1a and its analogue 1c are known as fluorescent sensors of magnesium in living cells. With the aim to investigate the effects of the substitution pattern on the photophysical properties of ligands 1 and their metal complexes, we developed an efficient microwaves enhanced one-pot...