Dipartimento die Chimica "G. Ciamician"
Università degli Studi di Bologna (CIAM), Italy [Professor V. Balzani]
Main Role in the Project: The Bologna research group, taking advantage of a long-term background in inorganic and organic spectroscopy, photochemistry and electrochemistry, has gained considerable expertise in the design and investigation of supramolecular species under the photo-physical, photochemical and electrochemical viewpoint, with the main objective of realising prototypes of molecular-level devices and machines. Moreover, photochemical and electrochemical methods are essential not only to investigate the behaviour of such systems in solution, but also to study their organization on solid supports such as surfaces, mesoporous materials and nanoparticles, or in biological-type environments like membranes.
Principal Scientist: Prof. Balzani is professor for General and Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Bologna since 1972. From 1978 to 1988, he hold an appointment as director of the CNR-Institute of Photochemistry and High-Energy Radiation of Bologna and from 1988 to 1992 as president of the “European Association of Photochemistry”. His research work deals with supramolecular compounds and their involvement in electron transfer reactions. Thereby, he de novo designed model systems for photosynthesis, light-driven devices and information processing systems. He is the author of more than 400 papers in refereed journals, three monographs (e.g., “Molecular Devices and Machines”) and is the editor of a five-volume work dealing with electron transfer in chemistry. His work was broadly recognized by a multitude of international awards and prices.