The Bari Division of Institute for the Chemical Physics Processes is part of Chemical Science and Material Technology Department of Italian Research Council, currently involved in the following projects:
Area Progettuale prevalente: DCM.AD001 / Chimica Verde e Processi Sostenibili
Progetto: DCM.AD001.137 / SISTEMI E PROCESSI PER APPLICAZIONI IN CHIMICA SOSTENIBILE E AMBIENTALE (Resp. Massimo Trotta)
Area Progettuale prevalente: DCM.AD002 / Materiali Avanzati e Tecnologie Abilitanti
Progetto: DCM.AD002.202 / MATERIALI NANOSTRUTTURATI E IBRIDI (BIO)ORGANICI E INORGANICI (Resp. Marinella Striccoli)
Area Progettuale prevalente: DCM.AD003 / Nanomedicina
Progetto: DCM.AD003.059 / SISTEMI FUNZIONALI E ORGANIZZATI PER LA NANOMEDICINA (Resp. Maria Lucia Curri)
Most of naturally occurring nanostructured materials are hierarchically organized, with an organization of materials in discrete steps, ranging from the atomic to the macroscopic scale. It is possible in principle to take as model what occurs in nature to design novel materials for a wide range of application.
Mission of the Commessa is the design, the preparation and the study of hierarchically organized systems starting from both inorganic and bio-organic building blocks to obtain structure more and more complex and functional materials on unconventional surfaces in order to bridge the gap between nanosize regime and mesoscopical scale, providing nanostructured material properly addressable to target application.
In this perspective an extensive characterization of the structures at the different levels of assembling is fundamental in order to elucidate the evolution of the properties starting from the original building blocks towards the three-dimensional organized system.
The scientific interests of CNR IPCF UOS Bari in soft matter cover different research areas:
Living soft matter: isolation, reconstitution and chemical-physics investigation of biomaterials involved in biological energy transduction and molecular recognition at increasing complexity level, from molecules to membrane enzymes and cells;
Material science: nanostructured materials, ranging from the development of methods to synthesize nanoparticles of semiconductors and oxides, to the assembling of obtained nanocrystals in organized structures, their incorporation in host polymer and their characterization from spectroscopical, structural, morphological and photo-electrochemical points of view;
Interfaces and hybrid systems of photochemical interest based both on colloidal nanocrystals organized in 2/3 dimensions and the biological molecular machinery to develop a new generation of complex materials, with unique original characteristics. The ultimate goal is control and modulate, through the control of composition, geometry, chemical functionalization, nature and degree structural organization of the single entities, both (bio)organic and inorganic.
Early history Timeline
In the mid-80s, at the Department of Chemistry of the University of Bari, three groups were active in the chemical-physical disciplinary area, the first two conducting theoretical studies on the interaction between electrons and photons with molecules of various nature, and the third experimental studies on the mechanisms of electronic transfer in the process of photosynthesis.
It then seemed to the researchers involved in these studies that greater coordination of their research could be carried out in a structure that could also play a positive role on the development of a topic of great interest, but not very cultivated, in the field of chemical and physical research they led to Italy at that time. For this reason they requested to the National Research Council the creation of a Center of Studies that had as its objective the study of the effects of electromagnetic radiation on matter; this request was accepted in 1986 as part of the “Ministero degli interventi straordinari nel Mezzogiorno” (MISM)-CNR agreement.
After a long gestation period, during which nine fellows were trained and three researchers and one technician were hired – with a fixed-term contract, the Center was officially announced in January 1995 with the name: “Center for physico-chemical studies on the light-matter Interaction “under the direction of Prof. Mario Della Monica. Hosted – thanks to an agreement between the CNR and the University of Bari – at the facilities of the Department of Chemistry, has developed a set of internal, national and international collaborations. In February 1998 the first permanent staff hiring took place and ended in December 2001 with the recruitment of three new staff units.
On the occasion of the reorganization process of the National Research Council, the Center’s structures and staff were merged into the Bari Section of the Institute for Chemical-Physical Processes established on September 13th 2000 and directed by Prof. Massimo Martinelli.