The main activity of M. Clelia Righi and her collaborators is to develop and apply computational protocols to study materials for technological applications.
She has experience in several methods to predict materials properties on multi-scales, they include Density Functional Theory, kinetic Monte-Carlo, classical and ab-initio molecular dynamics, high throughput.
The wide range of handled methods allows M. Clelia Righi and her collaborators to predict several material properties and phenomena, such as: structural, electronic, mechanical and vibrational properties of condensed matter, transition states and energy barriers, materials growth, chemical reactions at surfaces and interfaces, cleavage and shear strengths of hundreds solid interfaces.
Among different applications, M. Clelia Righi is particularly active in tribology, i.e., the science of adhesion, friction and lubrication. She devotes her research efforts for improving materials to reduce friction, with the hope of contributing to the global challenges of reducing energy losses and CO2 emissions.
