We are always interested in hearing from motivated students and researchers who would like to contribute to our activities in photocatalysis.
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Our research focuses on the design, synthesis, and characterization of inorganic complexes and organic/inorganic photoluminescent materials, and their application as novel homo- and hetero-geneous catalytic systems for the photocatalytic 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.
The new catalytic platforms will have 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.
Our lab is associated with the Ph.D programs in Molecular Sciences and Materials Science & Technology at the University of Padova.
Open doctoral positions are advertised through the official PhD calls of the University of Padova. We recommend regularly checking the webpages of the PhD Programmes in Molecular Sciences and Materials Science and Technology, for information on available positions, scholarships, and application deadlines.
Please have look at our latest works if you would like to know more:
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.” Small Methods10, no. 2 (2026): 2500527. https://doi.org/10.1002/smtd.202500527
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
Ðorđević, L.; Arcudi, F.* (corr. author); "A radical way to ethylene" Nat. Catal. 2025, 8, 625. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41929-025-01382-x
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" Small Methods 2025, 2500527. https://doi.org/10.1002/smtd.202500527
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
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