The development of conductive and photoactive organic materials is essential for advancing sustainable energy technologies. In solar cells, these materials enable the creation of flexible, lightweight, and adaptable devices, ideal for integration with portable electronics and IoT technologies, allowing autonomous power supply for sensors and smart devices. In biosensors, they provide high sensitivity and biocompatibility for advanced medical monitoring. In photocatalysis, they facilitate the production of solar fuels, such as hydrogen and methane, using renewable sources like sunlight, water, and CO₂. Their synthesis and characterization open new opportunities for clean energy technologies, supporting the transition to a more sustainable future and reducing dependence on fossil fuels.

The main research activities carried out in the group concern the design of molecular materials capable of expressing conductive properties. The interest is mainly in the development of molecular materials trying to keep synthetic procedures simple and aiming in the direction of reducing the environmental impact of synthesis by reducing the use of particularly polluting starting materials (solvents and reagents) and reducing synthetic steps. The molecular approach allows high control over the purity and properties of the materials themselves. Moreover, by going to modify the functionalization of these molecular materials it is possible to change their characteristics and allow different surface interactions with organic or aqueous environments allowing their use in different devices: solid-state solar cells or biosensors.

Organic molecular materials capable of interacting with light are being developed in the field of photoactive materials. The class of photoactive materials mainly developed are photochromic dyes that are used for special dye-sensitized solar cells to be applied as smart-windows or smart-glasses. In this application, the choice of colour in the two forms is particularly delicate and imposes a major study at the molecular design level. These materials can also act as photosensitizers in the photo(electro)catalytic processes for producing solar fuels from wastewater.

Prof. Norberto Manfredi

ORACLE Lab – U5 Building, 2nd Floor, Room 2036b
MIBSOLAR Lab – U5 Building, Ground Floor, Room T057-T067

• Fully equipped organic synthesis and characterization laboratories. 
• Clean-room labs (MIB-SOLAR and FLEXILAB) for preparation and characterization of photocatalytic and photelectrochemical devices for artificial photosynthesis and photovoltaics.

The Department has signed into a series of agreements for the creation of joint laboratories with other foreign institutions or companies, in which researchers from the Department and foreign researchers or R&D employees share, in addition to their skills, the own research structures displaying new characteristics compared to the two proposing institutes.

In this context, the Department established the joint QUCAT Laboratory (Quantum Nanostructure Photo-Catalysis) with the South China Normal University (SCNU) of Guanzhou (China) for the study of advanced materials, through the departmental laboratory for fabrication and study of semiconductor quantum nanostructures (EpiLab).

The University's commitment to research and innovation, particularly in sectors such as biotechnology and development of new materials, takes a further step forward by interfacing directly with the business world to promote greater integration of industrial and university towards high-quality results. The framework agreement between the university and the leading international company in the development and production of cosmetic products, Intercos S.p.A (https://www.intercos.com/), starts a long-lasting collaboration, not limited to a single project but open to possible developments also in teaching. It is a forward-looking investment, aiming at carrying out a project that has no precedent in this sector at an academic and industrial level. The concentration of human and technological resources, made possible by a shared environment and the availability of cutting-edge tools, offers the possibility to achieve excellent scientific results at national and international level. The general guidelines for the development of the activities, the analysis and the definition of the operational projects are entrusted to a Technical Scientific Committee which includes, on an equal basis, representatives of the University and Intercos.