Born in 1972, he received the Degree in Industrial Chemistry
from the University of Bologna (110/110 cum laude) on the 25
October 1996, discussing a Thesis on “New Bimetallic Au-Fe
Clusters Stabilised by Phosphines" under the supervision of Prof G.
Longoni.
On November 1996 he passed the Italian state exam.
In June 1997, he received the Rotary Prize for the best degree
in Industrial Chemistry at the University of Bologna.
On the 4 July 2001, he received the Ph.D. in Chemistry from the
University of Liverpool with a Thesis on "Spectroscopic
Studies of Palladium Catalysed Reactions between Carbon Monoxide
and Ethene" under the supervision of Prof B. T. Heaton and in
collaboration with Lucite International.
From 01/03/2001 to 28/02/2002 he worked as post-doctoral
researcher at the Department of Chemistry, University of Liverpool
on a project entitled "Synthesis and reactivity of multianionic
phosphazenates" with Dr. A. Steiner.
During the four years in Liverpool, Dr Zacchini has also
collaborated to didactic, as "Assistant in the Inorganic Chemistry
Teaching Laboratory" (2001-2002) and "Student Demonstrator in the
Inorganic Chemistry Teaching Laboratory and in the Physical
Inorganic Chemistry Teaching Laboratory" (1998-2001).
From 01/03/2002 to 30/10/2010 he has been
research associate at the Dipartimento di Chimica Fisica ed
Inorganica of the University of Bologna, in the scientific sector
CHIM/03 (General and Inorganic Chemistry). From 01/11/2010 to 06/11/2017 he has been Associate Professor of General and Inorganic Chemistry at the same
University. From 07/11/2017 he is Full Professor of General and Inorganic Chemistry at the Dipartimento di Chimica Industriale "Toso Montanari" of the University of Bologna.
Since 2002, he has been involved in teaching to undergraduate
students being entitled of the fundamental and advanced courses of
General and Inorganic Chemistry. Moreover, he has supervised or
co-supervised the work of final year undergraduate and Ph.D.
students.
Prof S. Zacchini has actively participated to several
regional (PRITT Project NANOFABER and PROMINER), national (PRIN;
FIRB) and European Projects (Integrated Project NAIMO). Moreover,
he has been the coordinator of the Strategic Project of the
Università di Bologna entitled CLUSTERCAT "Metal
clusters as precursors for nanostructured materials for catalysis",
and has been involved in the Project MONA LISA "
Metal-Organic-based Nanocrystal Arrays with Large Induced Shape
Anisotropy" funded by Fondazione Cariplo (2013/2014). Prof Zacchini collaborated with TCA, Reagens and Kemin.
Prof S. Zacchini is involved and has personally
established, several local, national and international
collaborations concerning the physical characterisation and
applications of metal carbonyl clusters in heterogeneous catalysis,
molecular electronic, material and surface sciences and
nanosciences.
Moreover, he is involved in the safety assessment of the
research laboratories and in managing the NMR and X-Ray
equipments.
His skills mainly concern preparative inorganic chemistry
including operation under N2, using Schlenk techniques, vacuum line
manipulation, working with labelled compounds (2D, 13C),
preparation of transition metal and organometallic compounds and
materials. Familiarity with instrumental techniques such as GC-MS,
micro-IR, FTIR, UV-visible spectroscopy and Atomic Absorption,
ESI-MS, DLS measurements. Good experience in multinuclear NMR
spectroscopy in solution (1H, 13C, 15N, 31P, 195Pt, 103Rh),
including various 1D and 2D techniques and the use of VT units.
Trained in the use of high-pressure measurements, using IR, NMR and
conventional autoclaves. Good knowledge of crystallography, data
acquisition with area detector X-ray diffractometers and structure
solution and refinement.
In June 2000, Prof S. Zacchini received the Certificate of
Proficiency in English. Moreover, he has a good oral and written
knowledge of French.
Prof S. Zacchini is author of more than 300 papers published in
refereed international journals and more than 150 communications to national and international
conferences (among which eight invited lectures). He has been
referee for international journal such as Angewandte Chemie, Journal of the American Chemical Society, Chemistry: A European Journal, Chemistry: An Asian Journal, Chemical Communications, RSC Advances, Chemical Society Reviews, New Journal of Chemistry, Coordination Chemistry Reviews, Inorganic Chemistry, Organometallics, Dalton Transactions, European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry, Inorganica Chimica Acta, Journal of Cluster Science, Journal of Organometallic Chemistry, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, Journal of Physical Chemistry, Beilstein Journal of Nanotechnology, Journal of Phoyochemistry and Photobiology A: Chemistry.
In 2010. he has been selected by Atomium Culture for a paper
entitled "Nanoscience and nanotechnology: a perspective from the
very bottom".
Prof Zacchini has received the Raffaello Nasini Award of
the Inorganic Division of the Italian Chemical Society.
His research activity can be divided into four temporal
periods:
1) 2005-now: In the last years his main research interest has
been devoted to the chemistry of metal carbonyl clusters (MCC) and
their possible applications in nanotechnology and nanosciences,
molecular electronic and catalysis. Some previous collaborations in
other fields such as the organometallic chemistry of dinuclear
compounds and coordination chemistry have been
maintained;
2) 2002-2005: In these years, Prof S. Zacchini has collaborated
with Prof. Busetto and Zanotti on the study of dinuclear complexes
of iron and ruthenium coordinated to highly functionalised organic
fragments;
3) 2001-2002: Post-doctoral position at the University of
Liverpool in the group of Dr. A. Steiner working on the preparation
of cyclo-phosphazenes and their use as multianionic
ligands.
4) 1998-2001: Ph.D. student at the University of Liverpool under
the supervision of Prof. B. T. Heaton. The work, funded by Lucite
International, has concerned the study via multinuclear NMR of the
methoxy carbonylation of ethene promoted by palladium
complexes.
