Curriculum vitae

Antonella Fontana has been active in the field of Physical Organic Chemistry and Supramolecular Chemistry and is author of more than 140 papers published in International Journals, a book chapter and several proceedings.

During her PhD she worked with R. M. O'Ferrall in Dublin.

On study-leave from the University of Chieti in 1998,1999 and 2000 she worked with prof. B. H. Robinson at UEA in Norwich (UK), prof. Pier Luigi Luisi at Department Werkstoffe-Polymere, ETH, Zurich (CH) and prof. D. Needham at Duke University in Durham (US) and maintained these collaborations over the years.

She has been assistant professor of Organic Chemistry from 1995 till 2003, associate professor of Organic Chemistry from december 2003 till 2018 and she is now full professor of Organic Chemistry at the University "G. d'Annunzio" of Chieti-Pescara.

She is a member of the board of directors of the Abruzzo Division of the Italian Chemical Society for the period 2018/2019 - 2021/2022 and 2022/2023 - 2024/2025.

Her main interests in the field of Physical Organic Chemistry are:

(i) thermodynamics and kinetics of proton-transfer reactions in water, in organic solvents and ionic liquids;

(ii) mechanicistic study of multicomponent reactions, of the Knoevenagel condensation and Michael addition;

(iii) metal catalysis of enolization, ketonization and cross-coupling reactions and micellar catalysis.

Particular attention has been recently addressed to various aspects of Supramolecular Chemistry such as:

(i) thermodynamics and kinetics of formation and breakdown of vesicles and aggregates from natural (i.e. liposomes), synthetic surfactants and block copolymers; structural characterization of the aggregates by using dynamic laser light scattering, transmission and scanning electron microscopy, cryoTEM and freeze-fracture;

(ii) effects of the inclusion of different guests in the liposomal bilayer and formation of trans-membrane channels for transport of chloride ions or protons;

(iii) physico-chemical characterization of aggregates from amphiphilic molecules in water and in organic solvent/water mixtures;

(iv) formation of nanocapsules via layer-by-layer (LbL) deposition onto solid and soft synthetic and biological substrates;

(v) dispersion of carbon nanotubes with ionic liquids, newly synthesized ionic surfactants or block copolymers for the preparation of composite materials useful for the non-covalent funzionalization of carbon nanotubes;

(vi) preparation of Pd nanoparticles/carbon derivative hybrids as catalysts of cross-coupling reactions for the synthesis of pharmacological active molecules and evaluation of confinement effects;

(vii) preparation of drug delivery systems based on non-functionalized carbon nanotubes, gold nanoparticles and graphene derivatives;

(viii) hybrid materials for carbon dioxide absorption ans gas mixture separation;

(ix) preparation of graphene- and graphene derivative-based biomaterials for spermatozoa fertilization promotion, tissue engineering, bone regeneration, antimicrobial activity, immunomodulation and their characterization via TEM, SEM, AFM and Raman spectroscopy.