Ilaria Fratoddi is Full Professor in Inorganic Chemistry at Sapienza University of Rome, where she received her Ph.D. in Chemical Sciences. She leads the “Nanosynthesis and Characterization Laboratory, NSC_Lab” team at the Department of Chemistry. She is the responsible for Internationalization activities of the Chemistry Dpt and Faculty of Sciences, Sapienza University. She is an expert in Inorganic Chemistry and Materials Chemistry, and specifically chemical synthesis, structural and functional study of innovative and nanostructured materials with the final aim of developing knowledge-based materials for advanced technological applications. In particular, she is interested in the synthesis design for organometallic complexes, conjugated rigid-rod polymers, nanostructured polymers and copolymers, functionalized metal nanoparticles, and metal oxides, together with their structural characterizations and applicative studies in optoelectronics, sensors, photonics, nanomedicine, and biotechnology. The research activity recently focused on the synthesis and characterization of gold nanoparticles with spherical or anisotropic shapes, characterized by diameters in the 10-30 nm range and functionalized with organic thiols, suitable for the isolation of hydrophilic and hydrophobic colloidal suspensions. Hydrophilic colloids were extensively used for drug-loading studies evaluating cytotoxicity and synergic effects due to the nanoparticles. An important part of the studies deals with the fine structural, functional, and superficial characterization, with conventional and advanced techniques, such as FTIR, UV-vis, PL, NMR, GPC, SEM, TEM, FESEM and AFM. XPS, together with experiments at synchrotron facilities. The results of the studies were published in international journals and some of the applicative results were patented.
