Laboratory of Catalysis for Circularity (C4C-Lab)

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The C4C laboratory embedded within the main site of CNR-ICCOM in Sesto Fiorentino, Florence. On the road to Ecological Transition, we create products and materials by adopting the principles of Circular Chemistry and the metrics of Green Chemistry. Focus is thereupon on the development of innovative catalytic processes to selectively convert oil-alternative sources and secondary raw materials, including non-edible plant biomass residues and plastic waste, to high-added value chemicals, monomers and platform molecules for the fine-chemistry industry. We achieve process intensification using heterogeneous catalysis, bifunctional catalysts, one-pot processes, continuous-flow setups and unconventional support materials. One aim of our work is to contribute to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals by reducing the processes carbon footprint, the consumption of non-renewable sources and energy, by using and producing safer chemicals, by valorizing the available biomass and designing sustainable chemical recycling methods.

Areas of Application

• Heterogeneous catalysis
• Circular economy
• Chemical recycling of plastic
• Biomass valorization
• Flow Chemistry
• Green Chemistry

Expertise

• Synthesis and characterization of metal-supported and bifunctional heterogeneous catalysts
• Synthesis of open-pores mixed oxide inorganic monolith
• Catalytical upgrading of bio-derived compounds toward value-added product
• Catalytic recycling of plastic (polyesters, polyamides, polyurethane, polyhydroxyalkanoate.)
• Asymmetric catalysis for fine chemicals synthesis
• Design of flow reactors
• Analytical characterization of complex heterogeneous product mixture

Instruments

• Reactors
  • 5 Stainless steel autoclave constructed at ICCOM-CNR
  • 2 non-metallic Büchi Miniclave®
  • 3 Ace pressure tubes
  • 1 non-metallic Büchi Polyclave®
  • 2 flow reactors constructed at ICCOM-CNR (equipped with Alltech® model 426 HPLC pump, mass-flow controller BRONKHORST HI-TEC model F200CV-002-RGD-11V-MFC.
• Analytical instrumentation
  • Shimadzu GC-17A Gas Chromatograph equipped with a flame ionization detector (FID) and 50.0 m (0.25 mm ID, 0.25 µm FT) Lipodex-E type column,
  • Shimadzu GC-2010 Gas Chromatograph equipped with a flame ionization detector (FID) and 30.0 m (0.25 mm ID, 0.25 µm FT) Varian VF-WAXms type column and SPB-1 type column
  • Shimadzu QP2010S GC-MS spectrometer equipped with a 30.0m (0.25 mm ID, 0.25 μm FT) Varian VF-WAXms capillary column,
  • Shimadzu QP5000 equipped with a 30.0m (0.25 mm ID, 0.25 μm FT) WCOT fused silica capillary column coated with CP-Wax 52CB.
  • 2 UFLC-Shimadzu HPLC equipped with a refraction index detector (RID), UV-vis detector (UV) and a HPX-87H Aminex Bio-RAD column (300 mm x 7.8 mm)
• Pre-treatment Instrumentation
  • Cryomill Retsch equipped with Zirconia holders and balls.

Permanent Staff

• Pierluigi Barbaro, Research Director
• Francesca Liguori, Senior Researcher
• Maria Carmen Moreno-Marrodán, Senior Researcher
• Feliciana Real Fernandez, Researcher
• Francesco Brandi, Fixed-term Researcher

Contract personnel

• Francesca Buco, Research Fellow
• Lorenzo De Chiara, Research Fellow