Double-Active Membranes for a sustainable CO₂ cycle

The National Research Council of Italy (CNR)  is the coordinating institution of the DAM4CO₂ project. It is the largest public research organization in Italy with ca. 8500 employees. In DAM4CO₂, the CNR is present with two of its 88 Research Institutes, both belonging to the Department of Chemical Sciences and Materials Technology: the Institute on Membrane Technology (ITM) and the Institute of Chemistry of OrganoMetallic Compounds (ICCOM).

CNR-ITM is active in the field of membrane science, technology, and engineering for gas separation and conversion, water and liquid treatment, bioartificial organs, biotechnology, food and agriculture. CNR-ICCOM is dedicated to the development of fundamental and applied research in the fields of advanced and functional materials, renewable energies, and sustainable chemistry. In DAM4CO₂, CNR puts in place the skills in membranes preparation, characterization and modelling of Alessio Fuoco, Elisa Esposito, Elena Tocci, Marcello Monteleone and John Jansen, as well as the solid state NMR competences of Lucia Calucci and Elisa Carignani.

CNR-ITM group

The CNR-ITM laboratory is equipped with a comprehensive infrastructure of equipment for the preparation, testing, and advanced characterization of membranes and materials. The laboratory features two Turbo Testers, which are fixed volume-pressure increase instruments designed for the precise determination of time lag, diffusion, solubility, and permeability coefficients under single gas permeation conditions. All operations are computer-controlled, ensuring extremely short response times. For studying gas mixtures, the Hiden Mixed Gas setup utilizes a quadrupole residual gas analyzer for the on-line determination of permeate composition and diffusion coefficients under mixed gas conditions. This system allows for the preparation of custom-made gas mixtures to investigate transient and steady-state mixed gas permeation. Additionally, a Gas Chromatograph is available for accurately measuring the content of various gas compositions within membranes. For membrane preparation, the facility includes two Hollow Fiber (HF) spinning installations. For morphological and structural characterization, there are two Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) equipment. The Phenom-Pro X desktop SEM is notably equipped with a backscattering detector and an Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDX) detector for elemental analysis. The mechanical properties of polymeric membranes are analyzed using a Tensile Tester. The laboratory also supports computational work with Workstations and servers for high-performance computing, enabling studies of computational and multiscale modelling for the prediction of gas transport properties and material behavior characterization. For thermal analysis, a DSC Pyris Diamond Differential Scanning Calorimeter (Perkin Elmer) is available, equipped with an intracooler refrigeration system for the study of the thermal properties of materials.

CNR-ICCOM group

The research group at CNR-ICCOM is focused on the set-up and application of the most modern techniques of Solid-State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (SSNMR) spectroscopy and relaxometry for the advanced characterization of DAM4CO2 materials for CO₂ capture and conversion. The group can profit of a laboratory equipped with modern and diverse instrumentation, including two SSNMR spectrometers (Bruker Avance Neo 550 and Varian Infinity Plus 400) and two relaxometers (Stelar 20 MHz; Stelar SpinMaster2000). The versatility of SSNMR techniques allows the study of organic, inorganic and composite materials and systems, small molecules or macromolecules, crystalline, semi-crystalline or amorphous samples, in the physical form of interest for applications, exploiting the many non-zero spin nuclei of the Periodic Table and the many NMR observables. In DAM4CO2, SSNMR is employed to obtain structural and dynamic information on fillers and membranes (i.e., chemical structure, chemical and physical interactions, mobility at the molecular and supramolecular level, etc.), as well as on CO₂ speciation and adsorption mechanism in the sorbent materials.

Alessio Fuoco was born in Lamezia Terme in 1987, and he graduated in Materials Science at the University of Calabria in 2010. In 2015, he obtained his PhD degree under the European project “Erasmus Mundus Doctorate in Membrane Engineering (EUDIME)” from the University Toulouse III-Paul Sabatier (Toulouse, FR), University of Calabria (Rende, IT) and University of Twente (Enschede, NL). His industrial experiences include a period at Procter & Gamble “P&G” (Gattatico, IT; 2011); external consultant for the Consortium for Technology Transfer “C2T” (Lecco, IT; 2017); and being member of the scientific board of CityOasis Ltd (London, UK, 2019). For several years, he has been post-doc researcher at CNR-ITM, where he is currently permanent researcher since 2020. He has participated to several projects, both public and industrial; he is co-author of more than 30 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals, and co-authors of several contributions in national and international congresses. He has served as guest editor for 3 special issues, and he is topic editor for the journal Applied Science. He serves as reviewer for several scientific journals and funding agencies (e.g. Austrian Science Fund). He was awarded for two times with a “Seal of Exellence” by the European Commission for his MSCA projects, and he received the “Menzione D’Onore” for the Young Investigator Award in “Advanced Materials” from the Department of Chemical Science and Materials Technologies of the CNR. He is the PI of DAM4CO2 project.

Elisa Esposito received her degree in Chemical and Pharmaceutical Technology in 2012 from the University of Calabria. In 2015, she obtained the PhD in Environment, Health and Sustainable processes (Unical), ING-IND/24 principles of chemical engineering, macro-sector Chemical and Materials engineering. From 08/06/2014 to 15/01/2015 she spent a research period at Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisbon (Portugal). From 2016 to 2020 she has been working as a research fellow at ITM-CNR where she has been became a full-time researcher in July 2020. Here, she was involved in different international and national projects such as M4CO2, CO2-4Food, CNR-CAS bilateral project, CNR-FCT bilateral project, PON 01_01840 –MicroPERLA. She received awards in the fields of environmental, renewable energy and chemistry. In 2018, She was awarded as the “best oral presentation” during the International Conference on Carbon Dioxide. In 2019, She received "Young Investigator Awards" in Green Chemistry by the Department of Chemical Sciences and Materials Technologies of CNR. She participated with several contributions in national and international conferences, where she also played the role of chairwoman. She is author of more than 25 scientific articles in prestigious international journals, such as, Journal of membrane Science, Journal of Materials Chemistry A, ACS applied materials & interfaces, Energy & Environmental Science. She is the Leader of Work Package 8 (WP8), focusing on Dissemination, Communication, and Exploitation for the DAM4CO2 project.

Marcello Monteleone graduated in Chemistry with a specialization in Organic Chemistry in 2002 at the University of Calabria. Following an initial role as Quality Control Manager in a cement manufacturing company, he earned a PhD in Analytical Chemistry (CHIM/01) in 2012, also from the University of Calabria. From 2014, for several years he as been a post-doc researcher at CNR-ITM, and since 2022 he has held a permanent position as a researcher. He has been involved in various national and European research projects, both publicly and industrial. He is the co-author of over 40 publications in international scientific journals.

John Jansen was born in the Netherlands and obtained his Master’s (1990) and PhD degree (1996) in the department of Polymer Technology of the Faculty of Chemical Technology and Materials Science of the TU Delft (Delft, NL). After various positions at DSM Resins (Zwolle, NL, 1997), the Agrotechnological Research Institute, former ATO-DLO (Wageningen, NL, 1997-1999) and the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry, former ICM-CNR (Milan, IT, 2000-2001), where he got a permanent position in December 2001. In the same month he also got a permanent position as a researcher at the Institute on Membrane Technology, where he is working since then. In this position he was the coordinator of the EU’s 7th Framework project DoubleNanoMem, and was PI of a number of national and international public and industrial research projects. He currently leads a group focused on polymeric and mixed matrix membranes for gas and vapour separation, his main area of expertise.

Elena Tocci is Researcher at the CNR Institute on Membrane Technology in Rende (CS) since 2001. She is an expert in computational chemistry with a M.Sc. in Chemistry and a PhD in Chemical and New Materials Technologies at the University of Calabria, Italy. She has spent, in recent years, several periods in foreign Institutions as a visiting scientist. Supervisor of the scientific research activities of several fellowships, contract researchers, PhDs students, etc. developed or in progress at the ITM-CNR and responsible of formation activities. Member of the Organizing Committee of international conferences. She participated with responsibility in several research and bi-lateral projects funded by the European Union, the Ministry of Education and Research of Italy, the Calabria Region. She is co-author of more than 50 scientific papers published in scientific journals, 7 book chapters, various invited lectures and ca. 140 contributions at scientific conferences on membrane science and technology.

Alessandro Rizzuti, with a Master's degree in Business Administration and Management, has acquired in-depth knowledge mainly in economics field and various multidisciplinary skills in management, law, business/market and data analysis. Since February 2025, he joined the European project “Double Active Membranes for a Sustainable CO₂ Cycle” (DAM4CO₂) as a research fellow under the supervision of Dr. Alessio Fuoco and Dr. Valentina Tortelli. Currently, his work focuses mostly on project tracking activities, gives his contribution in all stages of the project's life during the process of development, financial planning, management and reporting. That is closely linked to certain aspects of a project and therefore necessary for the refund by the European Commission of the eligible expenses carried over and the proper implementation during all the different stages of the work plan.

Carmen Rizzuto, got her Ph.D. in Physical, Chemical, and Materials Sciences and Technologies PON R&I Scholarships for the industrial characterization of the theme at the University of Calabria in June 2022. Since October 2022, she has been involved in the Prin-doMino 2022 project, and she focused on the preparation, characterization, and modeling of efficiently Mixed Matrix Membranes based on (per-)fluorinated metalorganic frameworks for the treatment of large amounts of CO₂ under the scientific supervision of Dr. Alessio Fuoco and Dr. Elena Tocci. In October 2024, she joined the European project "Double Active Membranes for a Sustainable CO₂ Cycle" (DAM4CO₂), supervised by Dr. Alessio Fuoco and Dr. Elena Tocci. Nowadays, she is focused on preparing, characterizing, and modeling membranes for CO₂ capture and catalysis.

Martina Vaccaro, completed her MSc. in Pharmacy at the University of Calabria in October 2023, with an experimental thesis in collaboration with CNR-ITM. She is very glad to continue the work on membranes within the framework of DAM4CO₂, and specifically to work on the “ Preparation and characterization of mixed matrix membranes for capture and/or conversion of CO₂" under the supervision of Dr. Alessio Fuoco and Dr. Johannes Carolus Jansen.

Vincenzo Vigna is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Translational Medicine at the University of Calabria, with a dissertation focused on combining Artificial Intelligence and QM computational approaches to elucidate the mechanism of action of anticancer drugs. Since 2025, he has been working as a Research Fellow on the European project "Double Active Membranes for a Sustainable CO₂ Cycle" (DAM4CO₂) at the Institute on Membrane Technology of the National Research Council of Italy (CNR-ITM) under the supervision of Dr. Alessio Fuoco and Dr. Elena Tocci. His research focuses on in silico design of membranes for CO₂ capture through the development of Artificial Intelligence models, combining classical machine learning techniques and advanced neural networks. Dr. Vigna holds a Master's degree in Chemistry at the University of Calabria (2021), where he specialized in Chemistry for Environment, Health, and Territory and Computational Chemistry.

Lucia Calucci graduated in Chemistry (with honors) at the University of Pisa in 1994 and completed her PhD in Chemical Sciences in 1998. After post-doctoral studies at the Weizmann Institute of Science and at CNR-ICQEM, she became researcher at CNR in 2001. At present she is senior researcher at CNR-ICCOM in Pisa where she is combining high-resolution NMR spectroscopy and NMR relaxometry techniques to investigate structure, order, and dynamics of solid and soft materials. Current areas of research include materials for CO₂ capture and valorization, ecosustainable cement formulations, biochar, perovskites, polymers, liquid and plastic crystals, and deep eutectic solvents. She has been project unit manager of 8 national and international projects. She is co-author of 124 peer reviewed articles and 5 book chapters.

Siria Bertolozzi received her Master’s degree in Chemistry from the University of Pisa in September 2024, with a master thesis on new selenourea based chiral solvating agents for NMR enantiodiscrimination of amino acid derivatives. In November 2024, she joined the European project “Double Active Membranes for a Sustainable CO₂ Cycle” (DAM4CO₂) under the supervision of Dr. Lucia Calucci. Her research focuses on the characterisation of fillers (Metal-organic frameworks and insoluble polymers), soluble polymers, and mixed matrix membranes developed within DAM4CO₂ through solid-state NMR techniques with the aim of obtaining detailed information on structure and dynamics of the investigated compounds and their interactions with CO₂.

Elisa Carignani obtained her master’s degree in Chemistry (with honors) in 2009 and earned her PhD in Chemical Science in 2013 at the University of Pisa. She conducted post-doctoral research at University of Southampton, University of Pisa, CNR-IPCF and CNR-ICCOM, and since 2021 she is researcher at CNR-ICCOM. Her research activity is aimed at the development and application of SSNMR spectroscopy and relaxometry for the physico-chemical characterization of different kind of materials. Her current interests include the study of inorganic and organic materials for optoelectronics, especially perovskites, materials for membrane technologies, biochar for soil treatment, and pharmaceuticals.

Andrea Scarperi graduated in Chemistry (with honors) in 2021 and obtained his PhD in Chemistry and Material Science in 2025 at the University of Pisa. During his PhD, he spent six months at the University of Warwick (UK) and collaborated with Bruker Italia Srl on the development of NMR instrumentation. Since 2025, he has been a research fellow at the Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry, University of Pisa. His research focuses on the structural and dynamical characterization of inorganic and hybrid organic/inorganic materials, in particular perovskites, by SSNMR and Nuclear Quadrupole Resonance (NQR) spectroscopy, including experiments with in situ illumination to study photoinduced effects.