Valentina Gianotti

Verified

Valentina verified their affiliation via an institutional email.

Learn more

Verified

Valentina verified their affiliation via an institutional email.

Learn more

• Associate Professor at University of Piemonte Orientale Amedeo Avogadro

The rice husk biomass remaining from the industrial processing of rice constitutes approximately 25 wt% of the edible rice produced, and its disposal is challenging due to its high silica content. Here, we describe the optimization of a single step innovative chemical process for the conversion of rice husk-based biomass into useable products which...

Microplastic pollution is a pervasive global issue affecting various ecosystems. Despite the escalating production and well-documented contamination in both aquatic and terrestrial environments, the research focused on airborne microplastics and their interaction with terrestrial birds remains limited. In this study, we collected fecal sacs from Co...

Microplastic (MP) contamination represents an issue of global concern for both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, but only in recent years, the study of MPs has been focused on freshwaters. Several monitoring surveys have detected the presence of a wide array of MPs differing in size, shape, and polymer composition in rivers and lakes worldwide. B...

The implementation of recycling techniques represents a potential solution to the plastic pollution issue. To date, only a limited number of plastic polymers can be efficiently recycled. In the Italian plastic waste stream, the residual, non-homogeneous fraction is called ‘Plasmix’ and is intended for low-value uses. However, Plasmix can be used to...

The recovery of the polyol component, after glycolysis of polyurethane (PU) foams coming from automotive waste, was investigated. Several separation methods such as simple sedimentation, centrifugation and liquid-liquid extraction, eventually...

Whenever periodic patterning at the nanoscale over a large surface is required, block-copolymers (BCPs) represent an extremely attractive alternative for lithography ¹ and nano-templating, ² because of the low cost, if compared to conventional photolithography, ³ and the high throughput, if compared to serial lithographic processes, such as electro...

Low‐cost photoactive hybrid materials for light management, based on neutral organic molecules intercalated into saponite, were prepared by facile green methods and characterized. TPBI (2‐(2’‐tosylaminophenyl)benzimidazole) was chosen as an organic host dye, envisioning its application as a downconverter in silicon or dye‐sensitized photovoltaic mo...

Physically crosslinked hydrogels consisting of polyacrylamide (Aam) and polyoctadecylacrylate (C18A) blocks, leading to hydrophilic and hydrophobic domains respectively, are prepared by micellar polymerization. A multifunctional monomer (divinylbenzene, DVB), is also employed to create branched chains. The effect of the polymer composition and the...

Antimicrobial resistance related to the misuse of antibiotics is a well-known current topic. Their excessive use in several fields has led to enormous selective pressure on pathogenic and commensal bacteria, driving the evolution of antimicrobial resistance genes with severe impacts on human health. Among all the possible strategies, a viable one c...

Plastic fuel tanks of vehicles are typically made by high density polyethylene (HDPE). The easiness of the dismantling procedure from end-of-life vehicles and the intrinsic recyclability of HDPE allows them to be accounted in principle in the “white list” of recyclable components. However, the strong contamination and odor produced by the volatile...

Microplastics are increasingly pervasive pollutants, particularly abundant in the neuston where they drift with currents. We assessed dietary microplastic ingestion in the Mediterranean storm petrel (Hydrobates pelagicus melitensis), a small pelagic seabird that forages on plankton and inhabit the Mediterranean sea, one of the most polluted seas wo...

Microplastic (MP) contamination is ubiquitous and widespread in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, including remote areas. However, information on the presence and distribution of MPs in high-mountain ecosystems, including glaciers, is still limited. The present study aimed at investigating presence, spatial distribution, and patterns of contamina...

As dramatically experienced in the recent world pandemic, viral, bacterial, fungal pathogens constitute very serious concerns in the global context of human health. Regarding this issue, the World Health Organization has promoted research studies that aim to develop new strategies using natural products. Although they are often competitive with syn...

Organo-modified layered materials characterization poses challenges due to their complexity and how other aspects such as contamination, preparation methods and degree of intercalation influence the properties of these materials. Consequently, a deep understanding of their interlayer organization is of utmost importance to optimize their applicatio...

The importance of lithium in modern industry is proven by a staggering triplication of the market for Li-based batteries, valued at $30b in 2017 and expected to reach $100b by 2025. Lithium is used as nanoparticles, particularly for batteries and electronics applications. Presently, lithium nanoparticles are manufactured using induction thermal pla...

Equimolar blends of a partly deuterated hydroxy terminated poly(styrene d8-st-methyl methacrylate) copolymer with average molecular weight (Mn) of 11200 g•mol−1 and a hydroxy terminated poly (styrene-st-methyl methacrylate) copolymer with Mn...

In the present study, a reliable and robust method was developed to quantify the molecular weight discrimination that can occur in grafting to reactions via indirect MALDI-TOF quantification of the molecular weights of grafted chains by comparing the characteristics of the polymeric material before the grafting reaction with those of the unreacted...

Plastic contamination by micro(nano)plastics represents one of the main threats that ecosystems have currently to face with. The impact of micro(nano)plastics on organisms and ecosystems is not fully understood, neither in the field not in the laboratory, because of the lack of analytical methods that allow to accurately detect and quantify the exp...

Essential oils are widely recognized as natural alternatives to pharmaceutical antibacterial and antifungal agents. With respect to standard pharmaceutics, the advantages of essential oils are their (i) low production costs, (ii) lack of chemical and biochemical drawbacks that are intrinsic to the synthetic production process and (iii) good toleran...

Low-cost, environmentally friendly and easily applicable coating for Mg alloys, able to resist in real world conditions, are studied. Coatings already used for other metals (aluminum, steel) and never tested on Mg alloy for its different surface and reactivity were deposited on AM60 magnesium alloys to facilitate their technological applications, a...

A polystyrene homopolymer with a narrow molecular weight distribution (Mn = 2.3 ± 0.3 kg/mol, Ð = 1.05 ± 0.01) and end-terminated with a phosphorus containing moiety has been used to form P δ-layers embedded into a SiO2 matrix. The amount of P atoms in the δ-layers has been stepwise increased from ∼5 × 1013 to ∼1.6 × 1014 atoms/cm2 by repeated dopi...

Recent studies have documented the presence of microplastics (MPs) in remote areas, including soils or sediments collected in mountain and glacier environments, but information on their presence in snow is scant. The present study aimed at exploring the presence of MPs in residual snow collected in four locations of the Aosta Valley (Western Italia...

Blends with different compositions of a partly deuterated hydroxy terminated poly(styrene d8-st-methyl methacrylate) copolymer with average molecular weight (Mn) of 11200 g mol-1 and a hydroxy terminated poly(styrene-st-methyl methacrylate) copolymer...

Partly deuterated hydroxy-terminated poly(styrene d 8-r-methyl methacrylate) statistical copolymers with different molecular weights were grafted to a silicon substrate. Then, fully hydrogenated hydroxy-terminated poly(styrene-r-methyl methacrylate) statistical copolymers were spun over the pregrafted substrate and let to react at 250°C following t...

Copolymers of styrene (STY) and methylmetacrylate (MMA) are widely employed due to the low price of the starting monomers coupled with their synthetic versatility. A chromatographic method was developed for the simultaneous determination of the conversion degree of the single components of the polymer during the copolymerization reaction and the co...

In this paper, we report a study on the use of a linear triblock copolymer based on styrene and ethylene/butylene (SEBS) and a polypropylene (PP)-based olefin block copolymer (OBC) for improving the impact strength of a recycled polypropylene (PP) from packaging waste. Talc was used as a reinforcing filler in order to prepare a material suitable fo...

The orientation of block copolymer (BCP) features in thin films can be obtained by spin-coating a BCP solution on a substrate surface functionalized by a polymer brush layer of the appropriate random copolymer (RCP). Although this approach is well-established, little work reporting the amount and the distribution of residual solvent in the polymer...

This paper deal with the synthesis and characterization of a new class of magnetic molecularly imprinted (MIP) particles, with selective recognition properties for Zearalenone (ZEN), an estrogenic mycotoxin. These particles present a multishell structure, comprising a magnetic core, constituted by spherical aggregates of magnetite nanoparticles (Fe...

Magnetic materials in sample preparation for shotgun phosphoproteomics offer several advantages over conventional systems, as the enrichment can be achieved directly in solution, but they still suffer from some drawbacks, due to limited stability and selectivity, which is supposed to be affected by the hydrophilicity of the polymeric supports used...

Polystyrene samples with different molar mass and narrow polydispersity index were prepared by nitroxide mediated polymerization using N-tert-Butyl-N-[1-diethylphosphono(2,2-dimethylpropyl)] nitroxide (SG1) as radical controller and phosphorous containing moiety, and their doping performances were studied. In contrast to what observed for conventio...

The exact recipe to prepare the ancient Maya Blue (MB), an incredibly resistant and brilliant pigment prepared from indigo (dye) and Palygorskite (clay), is lost to the ages. To unravel the key features of the MB formation process, several inorganic‐dye couples were heated to 200 °C and cooled to RT, to investigate their reactivity and the diffusio...

Polyethylene glycol-based nanocomposites containing an organo-modified hydrotalcite with loadings ranging from 0.5 to 5 wt.% were prepared by melt mixing performed just above the melting point of the polymer matrix. In these conditions, the dispersion of the nanofiller within the polymer matrix was quite homogeneous as revealed by TEM analyses. The...

Low-ordered carbon/layered double hydroxide (LDH) nanocomposites were prepared by rehydration of the oxides produced by calcination of an organic LDH. While the memory effect is a widely recognized effect on oxides produced by inorganic LDH, it is unprecedented from the calcination/rehydration of organic ones. Different temperatures (400, 600, and...

The study of wine evolution during bottle aging is an important aspect of wine quality. Ten different red wines (Vitis vinifera) from Piedmont region were analysed 3 months after bottling and after a further 48 month conservation in a climate controlled wine cellar kept at a constant/controlled temperature of 12 °C. Two white wines (Vitis vinifera)...

A graphene-containing LDH was prepared by re-hydration of the oxides produced by the calcination of an organic LDH. While the memory effect is a widely recognized effect on oxides produced by inorganic LDHs, it is unprecedented from the calcination/re-hydration of organic ones. Different temperatures (400, 600 and 1100 °C) were tested, on the basis...

Boron-terminated polystyrene with molecular weight ranging from 1800 to 18000 g/mol were synthesized for p-type doping of silicon substrates through spin-on technique. Several polymers were prepared using the ARGET-ATRP method using tert-butyl 2-bromoisobutyrate as initiator, changing monomer to initiator ratio and the reaction time. After polymeri...

Phosphorus terminated polystyrene polymers with molar mass ranging from 2 to 25 kg/mol and narrow molar mass distribution were synthesized by Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization (ATRP) followed by phosphorylation reaction. Polymers were grafted onto a native silicon oxide surfaces of a silicon wafers by Rapid Thermal Processing (RTP). The self-lim...

A fully calibrated and validated TGA-GC–MS is proposed for the quantitative analysis of diethylphosphate- end capped polymers. It allows the determination of the amount of phosphorous in polymeric samples and also thedetermination of the number of repeating units per chain end. Since no sample pretreatments are required polymeric films supported on...

This work describes the synthesis of a new hybrid magnetic materials for batch enrichment of phosphopeptides. This materials exploits the advantages of magnetic solid phase extraction combined with the most employed approach for phosphopeptide enrichment, the Ti⁴⁺ immobilized metal affinity chromatography (Ti-IMAC). To obtain this hybrid magnetic m...

The aim of this work is to obtain block copolymer brushes by a combined grafting to and grafting from approach. A new strategy was employed in which the second block re-growths starting from a homopolymer brush layer obtained by the grafting to approach. In detail, polystyrene samples with molecular weight ranging from 2.5 to 13 kg/mol and narrow m...

The Natural rubber (NR) biodegradation by three microorganisms has been evaluated: a yeast (Rhodotorula mucilaginosa) and a bacterium (Pseudomonas sp.), isolated in a liquid culture from soil, and a filamentous fungus (Alternaria alternata), isolated on a solid culture from an NR surface, were tested. The biodegradation was conducted for four month...

An effective bottom-up technology for precisely controlling the amount of dopant atoms tethered on silicon substrates is presented. Polystyrene and poly(methyl methacrylate) polymers with narrow molecular weight distribution and end-terminated with a P containing moiety were synthesized with different molar mass. The polymers were spin coated and s...

Barbera is one of the most common red grape in Italy, found in almost every region of the country. The widespread market of the corresponding wine deserves studies on its traceability and authenticity. To this end, the ¹H-NMR database of several wine metabolites was built using spectra recorded in a wine-like matrix containing ethanol and tartaric...

An hyphenated method based on thermal gravimetric, gas chromatographic and mass spectrometric analyses (TGA-GC-MS) is proposed for the quantitative analysis of diethylphosphate-end capped polymers with varying chain length, in bulk and as ultra thin film. The method fully calibrated and validated, revealed a powerful and affordable tool in the dete...

Functional hydroxyl terminated poly(styrene-r-methyl methacrylate) P(S-r-MMA) copolymers (RCPs) are becoming key materials to control the substrate wetting characteristics not only for the conventional polystyrene-b-poly(methyl methacrylate) (PS-b-PMMA) block copolymers (BCPs) but also for high  BCPs systems. This paper reports on the thermal stab...

The work describes the preparation of a new magnetic phase for batch enrichment of phosphopeptides. The material exploits the advantages of magnetic solid phase extraction and couples them with the most employed approach for phosphopeptide enrichment, i.e. Ti⁴⁺-IMAC. In order to immobilize Ti⁴⁺ ions on the surface of the magnetite nanoparticles, th...

Hydrotalcites are layered double hydroxides (LDHs) of the anionic clay family. They can be obtained by synthesis, with high purity and controlled stoichiometry but with much larger preparation efforts and costs with respect to natural ores. Their properties can be tailored by changing the metals of the layer, or by inserting proper inorganic or org...

The self-assembly (SA) of DiBlock Copolymers (DBCs) based on the phase separation into different morphologies of small size and high-density features is widely investigated as patterning and nanofabrication technique. The integration of the conventional top-down approaches with the bottom-up SA of DBCs discloses the possibility to address the gap i...

The cover image, by Katia Sparnacci et al., is based on the Research Article High temperature surface neutralization process with random copolymers for block copolymer self‐assembly, DOI: 10.1002/pi.5285.

Block copolymers (BCPs) are emerging as a cost-effective nanofabrication tool to complement conventional optical lithography because they self-assemble in highly ordered polymeric templates with well-defined sub-20-nm periodic features. In this context, cylinder-forming polystyrene-block-poly(methyl methacrylate) BCPs are revealed as an interesting...

The Liquid Assisted Grinding (LAG) method for the fast and facile preparation of organic-intercalated Layered Double Hydroxide (LDH) nanocomposites allowing the production of low cost, stable and efficient functional materials, is here employed to rationalize the features of the organic compounds that most likely undergo easy intercalation. LAG met...

Hydroxyl terminated P(S-r-MMA) random copolymers (RCPs), with molecular weight (Mn) spanning from 1700 up to 69000 g · mol−1 and equal styrene unit content, were grafted at different temperatures onto a silicon oxide surface and subsequently used to study the orientation of nanodomains with respect to the substrate, in cylinder forming PS-b-PMMA bl...

A series of 1,3-diarylated imidazo[1,5-a]pyridine derivatives were synthesized in high yields by a one-pot, three components, condensation of phenyl(pyridin-2-yl)methanone with several aldehydes in the presence of ammonium acetate. These compounds were characterized by spectroscopic and crystallographic techniques and their optical properties were...

Binary homopolymer blends of two hydroxyl-terminated polystyrene (PS-OH) and polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA-OH) homopolymers (Mn ~ 16000 g mol−1) were grafted on SiO2 substrates by high-temperature (T > 150 °C), short-time (t < 600 s) thermal treatments. The resulting brush layer was tested to screen preferential interactions of the SiO2 substrate wi...

Hydroxyl-terminated P(S-r-MMA) random copolymers with molecular weight ranging from 1.7 to 69 kg/mol and a styrene unit fraction of 61% were grafted onto a silicon oxide surface and subsequently used to study the orientation of domains with respect to the substrate, in cylinder-forming PS-b-PMMA block copolymer thin films. When the thickness (H) of...

New low-cost photoactive hybrid materials based on organic luminescent molecules inserted into hydrotalcite (layered double hydroxides; LDH) were produced, which exploit the high-throughput liquid-assisted grinding (LAG) method. These materials are conceived for applications in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) as a co-absorbers and in silicon pho...

Block copolymers (BCPs) self-assembly is expected to complement conventional optical lithography for the fabrication of next generation microelectronic devices. In this regard, silicon-containing BCPs with a high Flory-Huggins interaction parameter (χ) are extremely appealing since they form high-resolution nanostructures with characteristic dimens...

In the present paper, a reliable and rugged thermogravimetry–gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (TGA–GC–MS) method was developed to determine the composition of ultrathin films consisting of binary blends of functional polystyrene (PS) and polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) grafted to a silicon wafer. A general methodology will be given to address the...

This study correlates the antioxidant composition profiles and the overall antioxidant capacities of 36 Italian red wine samples. The samples were fully characterized by chromatographic and spectrophotometric techniques. The overall antioxidant capacity was determined by titrating a solution of the semistable free radical DPPH (1,1-diphenyl-2-picry...

High nitrogen concentration in wastewaters requires treatments to prevent the risks of eutrophication in rivers, lakes and coastal waters. The use of constructed wetlands is one of the possible approaches to lower nitrate concentration in wastewaters. Beyond supporting the growth of the bacteria operating denitrification, plants can directly take u...

The liquid-assisted grinding (LAG) method was employed for the preparation of low cost, stable, and efficient functional materials, based on organic molecules intercalated into hydrotalcite (LDH). LAG is here exploited to produce hybrid materials with facile preparation methods, low solvent consumption, short reaction times, and high yields, and to...

Binary homopolymer blends of two hydroxyl-terminated polystyrene (PS-OH) and polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA-OH) homopolymers (Mn ∼ 16000 g mol(-1)) were grafted on SiO2 substrates by high-temperature (T > 150 °C), short-time (t < 600 s) thermal treatments. The resulting brush layer was tested to screen preferential interactions of the SiO2 substrate...

Layered double hydroxides (LDHs) are versatile materials used for intercalating bioactive molecules in the fields of pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals and cosmetics, with the purpose of protecting them from degradation, enhancing their water solubility to increase bioavailability and improving their pharmacokinetic properties and formulation stabilit...

Perpendicularly oriented lamellar forming block copolymers are promising candidates for the fabrication of high aspect ratio nanostructures either by means of direct pattern transfer to the underlying substrate or by sequential infiltration processes. In this work, highly ordered lamellar grains (ξ > 500 nm) were produced by thermally treating the...

Hydroxyl terminated P(S-r-MMA) random copolymers (RCPs) with molecular weight (Mn) spanning from 1700 up to 69000 g·mol-1 and styrene unit fraction of approximately 61 % were grafted onto a silicon oxide surface and subsequently used to study the orientation of nanodomains with respect to the substrate, in cylinder forming PS-b-PMMA block copolymer...

This study is focused on the characterization of typical salami produced in Alessandria province (North West of Italy). Seventeen small or medium salami producers from this area were involved in the study and provided the samples investigated. The aim is double and consists in obtaining a screening of the characteristics of different products and f...

Two strategies are envisioned to improve the thermal stability of the grafted layer and to allow the processing of the random copolymer/block copolymer system at high temperature. From one side, a high temperature thermal treatment of a commercial α-hydroxyl ω-TEMPO functional random copolymer, namely TR58, leads to the formation of a stabilized la...

Layered double hydroxides are versatile materials used for intercalating bioactive molecules, both in pharmaceutical and cosmetic fields, with the purpose of protecting them from degradation, enhancing their water solubility to increase bioavailability, and/or obtaining modified release properties. The crystal chemistry of hydrotalcite-like compoun...

A model photosensitizer (D5) for application in dye-sensitized solar cells has been studied by a combination of XRD, theoretical calculations, and spectroscopic/chemometric methods. The conformational stability and flexibility of D5 and molecular interactions between adjacent molecules were characterized to obtain the driving forces that govern D5...

This work reports experimental findings about the evolution of lateral ordering of lamellar microdomains in symmetric PS-b-PMMA thin films on featureless substrates. Phase separation and microdomain evolution are explored in a rather wide range of temperatures (190-340 °C) using a rapid thermal processing (RTP) system. The maximum processing temper...

The pattern coarsening dynamics in symmetric polystyrene-b-polymethylmethacrylate (PS-b-PMMA) block copolymer thin films under conventional thermal treatments is extremely slow, resulting in limited correlation length values even after prolonged annealing at relatively high temperatures. This study describes the kinetics of symmetric block copolyme...

The self-assembly of asymmetric polystyrene-b-polymethylmethacrylate (PS-b-PMMA) block copolymer based nanoporous thin films over a broad range of molar mass (Mn) between 39k g∙mol-1 and 205k g∙mol-1 is obtained by means of a simple thermal treatment. In the case of standard thermal treatments, the self-assembly process of block copolymers is hinde...

Tailoring surface energies is the key factor to control the orientation of nanoscopic structures in thin block copolymer (BCP) films. In the general frame of the "grafting to" approach, this paper reports on the use of Rapid Thermal Processing (RTP) technology to perform flash grafting reactions of a hydroxyl terminated poly(styrene-r-methylmethacr...

The phase behaviour in thin films of an asymmetric polystyrene-b-polymethylmethacrylate (PS-b-PMMA) block copolymer with a molecular weight of 39 kg mol(-1) was assessed at a wide range of temperatures and times. Cylindrical PMMA structures featuring a diameter close to 10 nm and perpendicularly oriented with respect to the substrate were obtained...

This study addresses the thermal stability and degradation path of symmetric and asymmetric PS-b-PMMA block copolymers, widely employed to generate templates for nanopatterned materials, and of the associated P(S-r-MMA) random copolymers, through a combination of TGA and TGA-GC-MS techniques. The monomer evolution under isothermal and dynamic condi...

Self-assembling block copolymers generate nanostructured patterns which are useful for a wide range of applications. In this paper we demonstrate the capability to control the morphology of the self-assembling process of PS-b-PMMA diblock copolymer thin films on unpatterned surfaces by means of fast thermal treatment performed in a rapid thermal pr...

Sulfonylurea herbicides are extensively widespread for the protection of a variety of crops and vegetables because of their low application rates, high selectivity and low persistency in the environment; unfortunately, their low persistence does not always correspond to a lower toxicity, since new species potentially more toxic and stable than the...

The work is devoted to understand how cheese making factors can influence the quality of cheese along ripening. The study is focused on a semi-hard cheese (Toma). Three parameters (type of milk, of curd and of starter bacteria) were studied by a full factorial experimental design, providing a set of eight cheese samples characterised, after one and...

Recently, Chinese-made mechanical staplers with lower price respect to American-made ones have been introduced in clinical practice. In literature, small case series compare the clinical outcomes of different staplers concluding that the new stapler devices perform as well as the American ones. The aim of this study is to compare with an ultrastruc...

The environmental interest of sulfonylurea herbicides was derived from the possibility of diffusion and penetration of these herbicides in the deepest layers of the ground, in particular in sandy or clay-poor soils, up to the ground waters; another interest of the study is their natural degradation pathway which leads to the formation of new specie...