Ricerc@Sapienza

The functionalization of the skeletal systems of heterocycles represents a significant goal
for the development of new compounds. The heterocyclic molecule xanthine (3,7-dihydro-1Hpurine-
2,6-dione) is a purine base with a bicyclic ring skeleton and four different nitrogen atoms,
three of them are -NH groups. The principal derivatives are the well known natural methylxanthines
(e.g., caffeine, theophylline and theobromine) that have prominent physiological effects at a very low

Using a miniaturized near infrared spectrometer associated to chemometrics we developed a rapid and non destructive procedure to characterise paper and investigate its aging with the aim of solving dating problems. Two sets of paper were considered in this study (books and sheets) in order to ensure the results are not dependent of the storage conditions. The MicroNIR has the ability to distinguish paper according to the chemical composition of the surface as a function of the period of manufacturing.

Safer electrolytes for ambient temperature sodium batteries were prepared by blending the N-butyl-N-methylpyrrolidinium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide, PYR 14 TFSI, ionic liquid with the sodium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide, NaTFSI, salt. The physicochemical as well as the electrochemical properties of the PYR 14 TFSI-NaTFSI binary electrolyte system were investigated as a function of the temperature and sodium salt mole fraction, and compared with those of organic electrolytes of interest for sodium batteries.

A study on the interfacial properties between a solid glassy electrolyte, LiI‐Li3PS4 (LPSI), and graphite (MAG) composite electrodes was carried out with the aim of reducing or even eliminating the irreversible capacity during the 1st charge‐discharge cycle. The performances of all‐solid‐state MAG|LPSI|Li cells were compared with those of conventional liquid cells. To reinforce a well‐distributed conductive path in MAG as well as at the MAG/LPSI interface, the type of electron conducting additive and the pressure during cell preparation were optimized.

In this work we discuss the degradation chemistry on carbon-free electrodes of two ether based electrolytes for Li-O2 batteries, i.e. tetraethylene glycol dimethyl ether (TEGDME) and dimethoxy ethane (DME) with lithium trifluoromethane sulfonate (LiTfO) as salt. To this aim we developed an all-metallic positive electrode by electrodeposition of a gold dendritic film on a nickel foam (Au@Ni).

The contamination with water of the cathodic ACN-Et4NBF4 solution gave us the opportunity to investigate alkyl isocyanate reactivity toward electrogenerated anions. The cathodic reduction of a ACN-Et4NBF4 solution led to the formation of both hydroxide and cyanomethyl anions. The reaction of the catholyte with cyclohexylisocyanate led to the exclusive formation of acetamidated product, with no traces of cyanomethylated one. On the contrary, when reacting with benzaldehyde only the cyanomethylated was isolated.

Amide function is very important in both organic and medicinal chemistry. Benzamides can be obtained
in good to high yields by reaction of benzoin, primary or secondary amines, molecular oxygen and
electrogenerated superoxide anion (obtained with galvanostatic method). The advantage of using
electrogenerated superoxide anion is related to its counterion, the tetraethylammonium cation, which is
not tightly bound to the anion and thus renders superoxide highly reactive also in the absence of

Efficient direct electron transfer (DET) between cellobiose dehydrogenase from Corynascus thermophilus (CtCDH) and a novel gold electrode platform, obtained by covalent linking of green AuNPs and AgNPs modified with a dithiol self-assembled monolayer, consisting of biphenyl-4,4?-dithiol (BPDT), was presented. The green AuNPs and AgNPs were synthesized using quercetin as reducing agent at room temperature. TEM experiments showed that the AuNPs and AgNPs were circular in shape with an average diameter of 5 and 8 nm, respectively.

In the field of solid-state chemistry, the class of materials represented by intercalation and insertion compounds (IIC) deserves particular interest for a variety of reasons. These range from the versatility of the synthetic procedures for producing IICs, to the plethora of applications in which IICs can be adopted as active functional materials.

Arginine and copper(II) play an important role in human physiology. Arginine is a precursor of NO which is a vasodilator
and the right quantity of copper(II), bound to several amino acids, is necessary for the human body. The complex formation
between copper(II) and arginine is studied at 25 °C and in two different ionic media: 1.00 mol dm−3 NaClO4
and 1.00 mol dm−3 NaCl. The investigation is carried out potentiometrically, by employing in 1.00 mol dm−3 NaClO4