Current position
Associate Professor in Inorganic Chemistry at the Department of Chemistry «Giacomo Ciamician», Bologna University
PI of theENERCUBE Laboratory at the Centre for Research on Environment, Energy and the Sea (CRAEM, Marina di Ravenna)
Institutional roles
Director of the II level Master in Battery Ecodesign
Since 2024 Secretary General of theInternational Society of Electrochemistry (ISE) .
Since 2025 Vice Director of the Interdepartmental Industrial Research Center for Renewable Energy, Environment, Sea and Energy (CIRI-FRAME: Centro Interdipartimentale per la Ricerca Industriale – Fonti Rinnovabili, Ambiente, Mare ed Energia)
Since 2024 Member of the Coordination Committee for the Framework Agreement with Industry UNIBO- COESIA
2019-2020 Chair (Vice-Chair in 2015-2016 and Chair Elect in2017-2018) of Division 3 - Electrochemical Energy Storage and Conversion of The International Society of Electrochemistry .
2018-2025 Delegate of the Department of Chemistry «Giacomo Ciamician» for the Interdepartmental Industrial Research Center for Renewable Energy, Environment, Sea and Energy (CIRI-FRAME: Centro Interdipartimentale per la Ricerca Industriale – Fonti Rinnovabili, Ambiente, Mare ed Energia)
Since 2018 Member of the “University of Bologna Third Mission” panel of the Department of Chemistry «Giacomo Ciamician» University of Bologna (Delegate to “University of Bologna Third Mission” of the Department of Chemistry «Giacomo Ciamician» in 2017).).
2018-2019 Member of the “International relations and Outreach” panel of the Department of Chemistry «Giacomo Ciamician» University of Bologna.
• Member of REPRISE, the register of expert peer reviewers for italian scientific evaluation
•2020-2023 Management Board Member of GISEL, the Italian group for electrochemical energy storage
•Member of the Battery European Partnership Association BEPA Technical Working Group 5 “Sustainability”.
National Scientific Qualifications as Full Professor (2018) : Inorganic chemistry (03/B1-CHIM/03), Principles of Chemistry for Applied Technologies (03/B2-CHIM/07), Physical Chemistry (03/A2-CHIM/02), Chemical engineering (09/D2)
Research Activities
Electrochemistry, chemical physical characterization and synthesis of materials (nanostructured and porous carbons, transition metal oxides, electronically conducting polymers, organic electrolytes including room temperature ionic liquids) for energy storage and/or conversions systems (Supercapacitors, Li-ion batteries, Li/O2 batteries, PEMF fuel cells) for transportation, stationary and portable applications (flexible, thin micro-supercapacitors) and for microbial fuel cells for water treatment. DIntegration of supercapacitors in electronics and energy harvesters for low- and self-powered devices: electrolyte gated transistors/micro-supercapacitor and microbial fuel cells/supercapacitors. evelopment of sustainable manufacturing, recylcing and upcylgling processes.
AAA Researcher UNIBO VRA Area 3 Classification.
Publications –162 peer-review papers on international Journals and Proceedings, 10 Book Chapters (on invitation), one encyclopedic entry, 4 patents, and by more than 290 participations in Conferences. h-Index 46, more than 7700 citations (Scopus).
Education and work experience
•1996 Degree in Chemistry (Bologna University, Single cycle degree/Combined Bachelor and Master)
•1997 Chemist National qualification (University of Bologna)
•2002 PhD in Chemical Science with a thesis on “Electrochemistry of materials for energy conversion and storage” (Bologna University).
•2002 Specialization Degree in “Chemical methods of Control and Analysis” with a thesis on “X-ray diffraction for the analysis of capacity fading of spinel lithium manganese oxide electrodes” (Bologna University).
•1997-2008, Msc, PhD and Postdoc Fellowships and Research Contracts on “Lithium-polymer batteries for transportation” (by Arcotronics Italia S.p.A.), “Polymer materials for supercapacitors” (Bologna University) and on “Electrochemistry of materials for energy conversion and storage”
• 2008-2019 Researcher in Inorganic Chemistry at the Department of Chemistry «Giacomo Ciamician».
•2019 Intellectual Property Protection – Module of the Cotuse in Jobleader Innovation Management R&D – 12nd Edition– Fondazione CUOA, Vicenza
•2019 Cambridge Certificate in Advanced English: CEFRL: Level C1.
•2018-2025 Co-founder of t UNIBO Spin Off Bettery S.r.l. (www.bettery.eu)
Periods Abroad
• Since 2013 Visiting periods as Senior Researcher at the Advanced Electroactive Materials Laboratory of the Ecole Polytechnique Montreal (Department of Engineering Physics
• 2015 -016 Visiting periods as Senior researcher at the Chemical & Biological Engineering Department, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
• 2018 and 2019 Visiting Professor at University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa under Erasmus Plus Staff Mobility for Teaching program, OBJECTIVE: Training of Master, PhD and post-doc students on materials and devices for energy storage and conversion within the Water – Energy Nexus.
Awards
•2015 Canada-Italy Innovation Award: “TransCapacitor: a new frontier towards self-sustained and low-power electronics” joint project of the University of Bologna (Italy) and the Ecole Polytechnique Montreal (Quebec)
•2015 Springer Poster Prize – GEI 2015 “Giornate dell’elettrochimica Italiana” Poster title “An integrated electrolyte gated-transistor/micro-supercapacitor device” by J. Sayago, C. Santato, F. Cicoira, C. Arbizzani, F. Soavi.
•2018 Awarded by the President of the Senate of the Italian Republic with the “PREMIO DEI PREMI” COTEC-Fondazione per l’innovazione.
StartUp competitions
• Participation with the Battery team to the second edition of UNIBO Launch Pad. As winner we have participated to the acceleration program Technology Venture Launch Program (TVLP), Silicon Valley (10 -28 July 2017);
• 2017 Winner of the 2nd Prize of StartCup Emila Romagna and AlmaCube Specia prize, of the 2nd Prize of Nuove Idee Nuove Imprese – Innovative StartCup contest, winner of the Premio Nazionale Innovazione-PNICube – Category Cleantech&Energy.
• 2018 Winner of the Global Social Venture Competition, of the ASSODEL StartUp Award, and of TERNA Next Energy – Cariplo Factory competition. Mentorship from PoliHub (Milan)
•2018-2019: Climate-KIC Startup Accelerator Italy 2018-2019 – stage 1, stage 2, and stage 3.
• 2019 H2020 SME Instrument Phase 1-NESSOX project.
• 2019 Winner of Raw Material Battery Challenge–EIT Raw Materials, project “RAMBO: Raw Materials for Batteries using Oxygen”.
Projects since 2017
• 2017-2019 PI of the Research Mobility Project “Electronic properties of nanostructured materials for energetics” under the Executive Bilateral Program Italy-Quebec 2017-2019- Ministero degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione Internazionale .
• 2018-2020 PI of the Italy/South Africa Joint Research Programm ISARP "Integration of High Power Energy Storage Systems for Sustainable Water and Renewable Sources Management" -Ministero degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione Internazionale – Ministero dell’Ambiente.
• 2018 PI DUCATI Energia - third party contract “Study of materials and production processes of electrodes for commercial supercapacitors”.
• 2018-2023 UNIBO Team Member of the FETOPEN-01-2016-2017 Project MAGNIFY (From nano to macro: a groundbreaking actuation technology for robotic systems)
• 2019 PI Fondazione CARISBO Project (2019) Bando “Ricerca”-“Biomasses and biopolimers
for the development of electrochemical energy storage/conversion systems”
• 2019-2021 PI of the Project “Cathodes of lithium metal batteries” Accordo di Programma Ministero dello Sviluppo Economico – ENEA Piano Triennale di Realizzazione 2019-2021
• 2020 PI of ENI -UNIBO Research contract 2020 “Study of novel cathodes for next generation lithium batteries”
• 2020-2023 UNIBO team leader of the LC-BAT-9-2020 Project HyFlow “Development of a sustainable hybrid storage system based on high power vanadium redoxflow battery and supercapacitor – technology”(RIA,Proposal number: 963550,)
• 2020-2023 UNIBO team leader of the project “In situ diagnosis tools for lithium ion batteries” Subvention de projets de recherche IET – Appel à projets 2020, Polytechnique Montreal – University of Bologna.
• 2020-2023 UNIBO team member of the Portable Chargers for Soldiers" – THOR, NATO Science for Peace and Security Programme, Multi-Year Project Application
• 2020-2021 PI of “New generation of electrochemical energy storage systems”- Progetto Alte Competenze per la Ricerca e il Trasferimento Tecnologico POR FSE 2014/2020 - REGIONE EMILIA ROMAGNA
• 2020-2021 Member of the Italian team of the CNR (Italy)- CNRST (Morocco) Biliateral project “Green Supercapacitors”
• 2020-2021 UNIBO team leader of the Project "Study of ion insertion and evolution of the electric double layer in ion-gated metal oxide transistors operating under different gatingmechanisms" (NSERC: Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada,CNMS2020-B-00495) Oak Ridge National Laboratorycenter For Nanophase Materials Sciences - Polytechnique Montreal – University of Bologna.
• 2022-2024 UNIBO team leader of the Project BattValue : Skilled learners for battery value chain in Europe, EIT Raw Materials KAVA8.
• 2022-2024. UNIBO team leader of the research line LA3.6 “LIB cathode priduction processes designed for direct recyling” (Processi produttivi di catodi di LIB disegnati per il “direct recycling”) of “Progetto Integrato Tecnologie di accumulo elettrochimico e termico” del PIANO TRIENNALE DI REALIZZAZIONE 2022-2024 DELLA RICERCA DI SISTEMA ELETTRICO NAZIONALE, Ministero dell’Ambiente e della Sicurezza Energetica-ENEA-RSE-CNR.
• 2023-2025. PI the bilateral Italy-South Africa Project (Progetto di Grande Rilevanza Italia-Sudafrica (2023-2025) ISARP- RELY “Transformation of REcovered/recycled spent Lithium-ion BatterY cathodes into porous materials for high power-energy storage” - Ministero degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione Internazionale.
• 2023-2026. UNIBO Team Member of the Project “Sustainable Mobility Center”,Centro Nazionale per la Mobilità Sostenibile – CNMS, MOST - Spoke 13 of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), Italian MUR -UE”.
• 2023-2026 UNIBO team leader of the project “MIAMI-Innovtive Materials of hybrid storage systems” (MIAMI -Materiali Innovativi per Sistemi di Accumulo Ibrido” Tema di Ricerca 1.2 Studio e sviluppo di materiali innovativi per sistemi di accumulo - Piano triennale 2019-2021 della ricerca del sistema elettrico nazionale del Ministero della Transizione Ecologica
•2023-2026 PI of the project PRIN 2022 – MUR “DiGreen: A digital and chemical approach for green recycling of Li-based batteries”.
• 2024-2029 UNIBO team leader of the project “RISEnergy: Research Infrastructure Services for Renewable Energy” 2024-2029 (project number: 101131793) (call HORIZON-INFRA-2023-SERV-01)
• 2025 UNIBO team leader for the MOOC Project “Li-ion batteries: devices for a sustainable energy storage” within “Sustainable Mobility Center”,Centro Nazionale per la Mobilità Sostenibile – CNMS, Spoke 13- National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), Italian MUR -UE.
• 2025- 2027 Member of UNIBO team for the research line LA 3.7 “Development and optimization of Sulifur-Carbon composites for Li-S batteries” (Sviluppo compositi zolfo-carbonio per batterie Li-S e ottimizzazione) of the project G2G - Gas to Graphite (MI_MPC_00070 - G2G) del Ministero dell’Ambiente e della Sicurezza Energetica (MASE) nell’ambito dei bandi Mission Innovation.
• 2025-2027 PI of the activity line LA1.26 "Research Focus: Multivalent Metal-Based Redox Electrolytes for Next-Generation Energy Storage Systems" (Approfondimento: Elettroliti redox a base di metalli multivalenti per nuove generazioni di sistemi di accumulo) of the Accordo di Programma del Ministero dell’Ambiente e della Sicurezza Energetica (MASE) -ENEA sulla Ricerca di Sistema Elettrico Piano Triennale di Realizzazione 2025-2027, Progetto «1.2 Progetto Integrato tecnologie di accumulo elettrochimico e termico»
Member of the Organizing Committee of international Conferences on electrochemical energy storage systems, like the Annual meetings of the International Society of Electrochemistry, and, recently, of the Workshops “Waste-Water-Energy as Resource for a Sustainable Future” (2019 and 2021) and of the Symposium Green Electrochemical Energy Storage Solutions: Materials, Processes and Devices MRS Fall Meeting, Boston(2019)
Referee and Editorial Activities
• Referee for international Agencies
• Referee of International Journals of Electrochemistry, Materials Science, and Inorganic and Physical Chemistry with IF
• 2017-2020 Associate Editor of Materials for Renewable and Sustainable Energy (Springer) and Frontiers in Chemistry (Frontiers, CiteScore 4.36).
• Guest Editor and Member of the Editorial Board of Electrochimica Acta
Teaching
Since the 2010/2011 academic year, I have been teaching lectures, tutorials, and laboratory courses in General and Inorganic Chemistry, as well as other courses related to electrochemistry and environmental and energy sustainability, within several Bachelor's and Master's degree programmes at the University of Bologna. I have also taught courses for the Collegio Superiore of the University of Bologna and carried out teaching activities at foreign universities, in particular the University of Pretoria (South Africa) and Polytechnique Montréal (Canada).
• 2017-2018 Co-ordinator of the Course Sustainability: Ambient, Energy and Global Challenges and teacher of the module “Energy sustainability and high efficiency energy conversion and storage systems: a techno-economic perspective”- Institute of Advanced Study.
I have supervised and co-supervised more than 20 PhD students, 25 Master and 10 Bachelor students, along with several research fellows.
Since 2016 Member of the examination panels of PhD dissertation at Italian and foreign Universities.
