Giovanni Golemme (male, 1960)
Researcher since 1995 (03/B2, CHIM/07, Fondamenti Chimici delle Tecnologie) at the Department of Environmental Engineering, University of Calabria.
Leader of a research group in Membrane Science and Porous Materials
Education, training and previous working experience
- Degree in Chemistry cum laude, University of Calabria (1989)
- PhD in Chemical and New Materials Technologies – University of Calabria (1990-93)
- Visiting Student, Ècole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie, Université de Montpellier II (F), 4.2-31.3.1991.
- Visiting Student, A.V. Topchiev Institute of Petrochemical Synthesis, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow (RF), 17.2-4.4.1992.
- Researcher at the Research Institute on Membranes and Modelling of Chemical Reactors (IRMERC-CNR), Rende (I) (1993-95).
- Visiting Scientist, Department of Chemistry, University of Glasgow (UK), 28.2-25.3.1994.
- Visiting Scientist, Institute of Chemistry, Academia Sinica, Beijing (PRC), 24.10-30.11.1996, and 21.11-20.12.1997.
- Visiting Scientist, CNRS - Université de Montpellier II (F), 7.12.1998-7.3.1999.
- Visiting Scientist, Laboratoire RMN, Facultés Universitaires Notre Dame de la Paix, Namur (B), 4.1-17.2.2000, and 15-19.7.2000.
- Visiting Scientist, Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (USA), 1.5-1.10.2007.
Research activity
GG main interests are the materials science of polymeric, ceramic and hybrid materials and membranes, the determination of their transport properties, and their testing as sorbents or gas separators. In brief, the main research areas are the following:
- microporous and mesoporous materials
- gas separation mixed matrix membranes (MMMs)
- compatibilization of polymers and fillers
- macroscopic modelling of transport in MMMs
- environmental applications of porous materials
- carbon capture
High permeability polymers are actively investigated as the matrix for the fabrication of more permeable and more selective MMMs, containing small particles of fillers. Unfortunately, some of the best polymers for gas separation – e.g. hydrophobic perfluoropolymers (PFPs) and the so-called Polymers of Intrinsic Microporosity (PIMs) – have little or no tendency to adhere to the fillers. Unprecedented PFP MMMs were prepared for the first time by modifying zeolitic materials with perfluorinated grafts (Golemme et al., EP2668995B1, 2020), which proved more permeable and selective than the perfluoropolymers for the CO2/CH4 separation. With the same strategy, PIM-1/silicalite-1 MMMs with unusually large CO2/N2 selectivity could be prepared (Mason et al., 2012). The non-covalent crosslinking of the polymer was caused by the protrusion of the aromatic grafts of the crystals among the aromatic ladder segments of PIM-1 (Santaniello et al., 2022).
The microstructure of the polymer/filler interface is inferred by the comparison of the experimental gas permeability with the results of modelling. A new 4 phase model (bulk and modified polymer, and bulk and modified filler) was devised. MMM subsets containing impermeable fillers give information on the transport properties of the sole matrix. Both the analytical implementation of the 4 phase model, using a modification of the Maxwell equation (Santaniello et al., 2018, 2022), and its computational approach via a FEM simulation (Di Maio, et al., 2017) effectively reproduce the experimental data, shedding light on the nature of the interfacial phenomena and on the mechanism of mass transport.
Poly(styrene-b-butadiene-b-styrene) MMMs containing aminated SBA-15 showed outstanding selectivity and permeability values for the CH4/N2 and the CO2/N2 gas pairs. The CH4/N2 selectivity of 7.3 is the highest reported to date (Buonomenna et al., 2012).
The 129Xe nmr technique, previously used to probe the size of the cavities of zeolites, can be used to measure of the average size of the elements of free volume in polymers (Golemme et al., 2003).
A new synthesis method for supported zeolite membranes was devised (Algieri et al., 2001). It consists in the in-situ nucleation of the zeolite on the ceramic support, and then in a second stage of crystal growth. The independent optimization of the two steps allows the preparation of extremely thin and defect-free zeolite membranes.
Projects
- Scientific responsible person of University of Calabria, Project INTAS-RFBR 97-1525 “Study of the microstructure of free volume in high permeability polymers: comparison with microporous sorbents”, 1.12.1999 al 28.2.2002.
- Scientific responsible person of University of Calabria, 2001-02, 2002-2003 Italy – Spain Integrated Actions, Project IT 208 “Formation and characterization of zeolitic membranes for methanol synthesis in catalytic membrane reactors", in collaboration with the Department of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Technologies, University of Zaragoza, 1.4.2001-31.3.2003.
- Scientific responsible person of University of Calabria, Project “Experimental study of free volume microstructure in high permeability polymers with nmr methods”, in cooperation with the Facultés Universitaires Notre-Dame-de-la-Paix, Namur; 2001-03 Italy - Belgium Scientific Cooperation Agreements (French Community and Wallonia), Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1.1.2001-31.12.2003.
- Scientific responsible person of University of Calabria, Project "Polymer-based mixed matrix membranes for the separation of gases, vapours and liquids", PRIN 2002-04 "Functionalized Phosphazenes as compatible polymer systems for the preparation of new materials", n. 2002095425_003, 16.12.2002 - 31.12.2004.
- Scientific Coordinator, EniTecnologie contract "Upgrading of natural gas: state of the art and comparison with membrane technologies", 22.4-15.7.2005.
- Scientific responsible person of University of Calabria, Project DoubleNanoMem “Nanocomposite and Nanostructured Polymeric Membranes for Gas and Vapour Separations” n. 228631 (FP7-NMP-2008-SMALL-2: Mastering Nanoscale Complexity in Materials; NMP-2008-2.1-1: Nanostructured Membrane Materials), 1.6.2009-31.5.2012.
- Scientific responsible person of the Department of Environmental & Chemical Engineering, University of Calabria, Project “Renewable Energies Micro-Cogeneration Program for the Agro-food Industry – Microperla”, PON 2007-2013, n. 01_01840, 19.9.2011-31.12.2015.
- Scientific responsible person of the Department of Environmental & Chemical Engineering, University of Calabria, Project “MaTeRiA – Materials, Technologies and Advanced Research”, PONa3_00370, PON ReC 2007-2013, 01.01.2012-31.7.2015.
- Scientific responsible person of the Department of Environmental Engineering, University of Calabria, Project “ComESto - Community Energy Storage: Gestione Aggregata di Sistemi d’Accumulo dell’Energia in Power Cloud”, ARS01_01259, PON Ricerca e Innovazione 2014-2020; 06.11.2018-05.05.2021.
- Scientific responsible person of the Department of Environmental Engineering, University of Calabria, in the Infrastructure “Southern Europe Thomson Back-Scattering Source for Applied Research”, Project STAR 2, PIR01_0008, Italian Ministry of University and Research, (2021 -).
Scientific and academic responsibilities and assignements
- Lecturer of Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Science and Technology of Polymeric Materials (Engineering BS degree), University of Calabria and Università Magna Græcia (since 1992).
- Member of the Scientific Board, Technical-Scientific Library of the University of Calabria (2001 - 2013)
- Regular activity as a reviewer for international journals (from 1992 on)
- Project evaluator for the National Science Foundation (USA), the Czech Science Foundation, the Austrian Science Fund – FWF.
- Charged of Research at the Research Institute on Membranes and Modelling of Chemical Reactors (IRMERC-CNR), Rende (I) (1996-2002).
- Charged of Research at the Institute on Membrane Technologies (ITM-CNR), Rende (I) (2002-2012).
- Member of the Selection Boards for tenure positions of Academic Researcher: i) Univ. of Palermo (C06X, 10.11.2000); ii) Milano Politechnic (CHIM/07, 13.8.2002); iii) Univ. of Salento (CHIM/07, 04.06.2004); iv) Univ. of Catania (CHIM/07, 8.11.2005); v) Univ. of Firenze (CHIM/07, 2007).
- Member of INSTM - National Inter-University Consortium for Science & Technology of Materials.
- Member of the LPM Lab, STAR Research Infrastructure, University of Calabria, Rende (I).
Affiliations
AIZ - Italian Zeolite Association
American Chemical Society
Conferences, seminars
GG delivered 11 invited talks at conferences and 10 invited seminars; in addition, he presented or was co-author of 122 other conference presentations, and serves as a member of the scientific committees of international conferences on materials science and membranes.
Bibliometric parameters (as of July 2022)
- 59 publications
- editor of 1 book
- 5 book chapters
- 3 patents
- h-factor 20 (23) on WoS/Scopus (Google Scholar)
- 2770 (3642) citations on WoS/Scopus (Google Scholar)
Links:
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=piuoh1IAAAAJ
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5675-4416
