Our main research interests are the design, synthesis, and characterization of inorganic complexes and organic/inorganic photoluminescent nanomaterials: we develop novel homo- and hetero-geneous catalytic systems for light-powered reactions to produce solar fuels or commodity chemicals. 

We are currently interested in the semi-hydrogenation of acetylene to ethylene.

Ethylene, a key commodity chemical and starting material for ∼60% of all plastics, is commonly obtained by steam cracking together with ∼1 vol% acetylene impurity (poisonous to polymerization catalysts), which is usually removed by thermal hydrogenation.

We like to develop new catalytic platforms with the following advantages over the present thermal hydrogenation technology in industry:

(i) operation at room temperature using light in place of high temperatures;

(ii) use of water in place of an external hydrogen gas feed;

(iii) non-noble metal catalysts in place of nobel metal (Pd) catalysts.

Please have look at our latest works if you would like to know more: 

• Stone, A.; Fortunato, A.; Wang, X.; Saggioro, E.; Snurr, R.; Hupp, J.*; Arcudi, F.* (corr. author); Đorđević, L.*; "Photocatalytic Semi-Hydrogenation of Acetylene to Polymer-Grade Ethylene with Molecular and Metal-Organic Framework Cobaloximes" Adv. Mater. 2025, 37, 2408658. https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202408658

• Fortunato, A,; Perilli, D.; Dron, A.; Celorrio, V.; Dražić, G.; Ðorđević, L.; Calvillo, L.; Di Valentin, C.; Arcudi, F.* (corr. author); "Selective semi-hydrogenation of acetylene using a single-atom cobalt on carbon nitride photocatalyst with water as a proton source" Chemrxiv, in revision, 2025. doi: 10.26434/chemrxiv-2025-1v585.

• Stone, A.; Ðorđević, L.; Stupp, S. I.; Weiss, E. A.; Arcudi, F.* (corr. author); Hupp, J. T.* "Selective Photocatalytic Reduction of Acetylene to Ethylene Powered by a Cobalt-Porphyrin Metal–Organic Framework" ACS Energy Lett. 2023, 8, 11, 4684–4693. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsenergylett.3c01995

• Arcudi, F.; Ðorđević, L.; Schweitzer, N.; Stupp, S. I.; Weiss, E. A. "Selective visible-light photocatalysis of acetylene to ethylene using a cobalt molecular catalyst and water as a proton source" Nat. Chem. 2022, 14, 1007-1012. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-022-00966-5 

From 2018-2022, Francesca was at Northwestern University (USA) where she was a postdoctoral research fellow funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Energy (Center for Bioinspired Energy Sciences). Her line of research was focused on (i) tuning the surface of colloidal nanocrystals to enable their interface with (bio)molecules and enhance their utilization as catalysts or biological probes, and (ii) novel photocatalytic systems. The results of this research were published in Nature Chemistry and Journal of the American Chemical Society, among others. This work was highly ranked by the International Institute of Nanotechnology and, as a result, Francesca was awarded the “2021 Outstanding Researcher Award” and invited as speaker to prestigious conferences (ICPP 12 – International Conference on Porphyrins and Phtalocyanines 2022; IUPAC&CCCE 2021 – 51st IUPAC General Assembly 48th World Chemistry Congress and 104th Canadian Chemistry Conference and Exhibition).

In 2017, Francesca obtained her PhD in Chemical Sciences at the University of Trieste (IT). Her PhD and research work of Fran has innovatively contributed to the synthesis and characterization of carbon dots, small and fluorescence carbon-based nanoparticles with size <10 nm. This research has successfully demonstrated that bottom-up synthesis approach can surpass conventional top-down methods for synthesis of carbon nanomaterials. I successfully proposed, developed and demonstrated how to tune the emissive properties and applications of bottom-up synthetized carbon nanoparticles, and how to integrate them into hybrid nanosystems. The results of this research were published in Angewandte, Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Protocols, and Nature Communications, among others. As a result of these works, Francesca was awarded the Early Career Award “Organic Chemistry for Environment, Energy and Nanoscience” (2018, Italian Chemical Society), the “Reaxys SCI Young Researcher Award” (2018), and the “Primo Levi Award, medal” (2016, Italian Chemical Society). During her PhD, Francesca was a visiting scholar at the Institut de Science et d’Ingénierie Supramoléculaires (Université de Strasbourg, France), where she investigated the electrogenerated chemiluminescence properties of carbon dots.