General Description of the Institution
The Department of Chemical, Pharmaceutical and Agricultural Sciences (DOCPAS) of the University of Ferrara (UNIFE) includes numerous fully equipped research laboratories, offices, and seminar rooms. DOCPAS-UNIFE employs about 65 professors/researchers and 20 administrative employees, and promotes leading scientific activities in many research fields, including reactivity and catalysis, photochemistry, electrochemistry, material, environmental, food, and pharmaceutical chemistry.
A mission of the DOCPAS-UNIFE is also the technological transfer through the development of scientific research of high relevance for the society and territory, such as catalysis for industrial processes, generation of solar cells, sensors, batteries, and synthesis of bio-based polymers for biomedical applications. The DOCPAS-UNIFE is involved in a number of national and international projects for the advancement of teaching and research activities through the participation, also as coordinator, to several Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions and Horizon Europe projects.
Field of expertise
The UNIFE unit holds strong competences on catalysis (organo-, bio-, photo-catalysis) and flow chemistry for process intensification together with a longstanding experience on green chemistry techniques and methodologies. The valorization of biomasses for the production of high added-value (bio)molecules using flow techniques eventually integrated with analytical tools (lab-on-a-chip) and microwave heating (continuous-flow microwave-assisted organic synthesis (CF-MAOS) is also an important field of research. Activities are facilitated at UNIFE by suitable equipment including the H-Cube Pro Flow reactor for performing catalysed reactions in flow regime and different types of microwave ovens for process integration. NMR spectrometers, FT-IR, single crystal and powder XRD, XPS, scanning probe microscopy STM / AFM are used for the chemical and physical-chemical characterization of the produced catalysts and target molecules.
