A week in the lab of- Barcaro's short-term visit : European Science Foundation

A week in the lab of ….

Giovanni Barcaro, Post-Doc at IPCF-CNR's, in Pisa (Italy), is working
in the SSA-TMN (Supra Self Assemblies of Transition Metal Nanoclusters) CRP
(Collaborative Research Project) within the SONS 1 Programme, under the
supervision of Dr. Alessandro Fortunelli. A few months ago he applied
for a short-term visit to spend a week in the lab of Prof. De Vita, one
of the Principal Investigators of Fun-SMARTs I (Assembly and
Manipulation of Functional Supramolecular Nano-Architectures at
surfaces). A Short-Term Visit allows students and Post-Docs to learn a
new technique or to carry out some experiments in the lab of another CRP
for a period of 4-6 weeks maximum. Barcaro is working on the structural
properties of gas-phase and oxide supported transitional metal clusters.
In the last few months, also, the activities of the group have
concentrated on the characterisation of several ultra-thin TiOx phases
grown on Pt(111), which are very promising as naturally self-organised
supporting templates.
De Vita' s group has expertise in the field of adsorbate/surface
modelling, hence the aim of the visit was to develop a
theoretical/simulative approach to describe the interaction of
transition metal clusters as well as of organic and biological molecules
with these naturally self-organised ultra-thin TiOx oxide surfaces and
study the catalytic and optical properties of these supported metal
nanoclusters.
By gaining knowledge of the theoretical approaches and software tools
developed and used by the hosting lab, Barcaro will develop new models
which will lead to a deeper understanding of the catalytic properties of
these clusters, and will shine some lights on the microscopic origin of
these properties, still unknown, and also on the dependence of the
catalytic efficiency on the dimensionality of the particles.
Understanding and improving the behaviour of supported precious metal
catalysts (such as gold and platinum) is of primary importance for both
environmental and economical reasons and Barcaro's work and
collaboration with De Vita's group are crucial to achieve these results.
Barcaro says that without the possibility offered by the Short-Term
Visit, this collaboration would not have been possible, and paraphrasing
a famous quote, for Barcaro 'A week in the lab saved a couple of hours
in the library' has proven to be true.