STAFF

Dr. Emanuela Spina

EDUCATION:

• Master’s degree in Chemistry at the University of Catania/ Italy

CURRENT POSITION:

• Researcher at National Research Council (CNR)/ Institute for Polymers, Composites and Biomaterials (IPCB)/ Italy

SKILLS:

In the last years the research activity has concerned the synthesis of polyporphyrins combined with graphene 3d for water remediation.
In particular a Ni-free/G-Porph polymer composite, having photoactive and protective porphyrin polymers as coating film, was prepared and its photocatalytic ability in degrading different classes of pollutants was tested.
Porphyrins have great potenzial in visible-light photocatalytic applications because of their large extinction molar coefficient in the visible-light region, but their photocatalytic efficiency is limited by the fast recombination of photo-induced electron-hole pairs. The assembly of porphyrin polymers by π-π interactions, with Graphene, promotes the electron transfer process at the graphene surface that, prolong the life-time of the excited state, and improves the photocatalytic performance.
Nickel free-graphene /porphyrin copolymer composite was obtained by the following steps:

• synthesis and characterization of porphyrin polymers
• spin-coating of porphyrin-copolymer on ni-foam/graphene substrate with the double function of visible-light photocatalyst and protective agent during nickel etching
• etching by hcl 1 m solutions, to eliminate nichel substrate.

Photocatalytic activity of Nichel-free/Graphene-Porphirin polymer under visible light irradiation, was tested by monitoring the degradation of different classes of pollutants. The data obtained suggest us that this material can be considered an ideal candidate in the field of water remediation.