BRENNA STEFANO

JULY 2000
Laurea Degree in Chemistry (University of Insubria)

JANUARY 2004
Ph.D Degree (University of Insubria)

FEBRUARY 2004 - MAY 2004
Scholarship assigned by the Consorzio Interuniversitario di Reattività Chimica e Catalisi (CIRCC)

JUNE 2004 - JUNE 2005
Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship (University of Heidelberg, Germany)

AUGUST 2005 - NOVEMBER 2005
Research Scholarship assigned by the Chemical and Environmental Sciences Department (University of Insubria)

DECEMBER 2005-DECEMBER 2008
Permanent Position (Researcher) at the University of Insubria (Faculty of Sciences)

JANUARY 2009
Assistant Professor at the University of Insubria (Faculty of Sciences)


TEACHING RESPONSIBILITIES (at Faculty of Natural Sciences, Chemistry Degree, University of Insubria)

General Chemistry
General and Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory


SCIENTIFIC INTERESTS
SYNTHESIS, CHARACTERIZATION AND REACTIVITY OF COORDINATION and ORGANOMETALLIC COMPOUNDS
The research in our Group explores diverse aspects of transition metals-based coordination compounds, from the design of ligands to the synthesis and full spectroscopic characterization of the resulting metal-containing derivatives. In the past, the main focus has been the investigation of these compound as potential catalysts for fine chemicals synthesis (C-C or C-E bond forming reactions) or as hybrid inorganic-organic materials. More recently, in addition to these consolidated topics, we directed our attention toward the synthesis and structural characterization of d10-metals luminescent compounds, with the aim of studying structure-properties relations.
The novel research line carried out in our Group mainly concerns these two topics:
A) the synthesis, characterization and study of photophysical properties of Zn(II) compounds with 3-aryl-substituted 1-pyridylimidazo[1,5-a]pyridine ligands. Among those studied, the halido-containing derivatives, [Zn(N∩N)X2] (X = Cl, Br, I; N∩N = aza-bidentate 1-pyridylimidazo[1,5-a]pyridine ligand) showed moderate to good absolute photoluminescent quantum yields (ΦPL), up to 0.40, in the solid state. Moreover, a good correlation between the ΦPL values and the nature of the ligand coordinated has been found. Currently, we are investigating the photoluminescent properties of heteroleptic [Ag(N∩N)PR3](NO3) species (PR3 = substituted phoshpine). Preliminary results evidenced a great influence of the electronic properties (i.e., π-acidity) of the phosphorous-donor ligand on the luminescent emission of the resulting complexes.
B) the synthesis of metal-azolate oligo- and polynuclear systems (metal = Cu(I), Ag(I); azolate ligand = 3,5-dimethyl-4-sulfonate pyrazolate), where the metal centers are kept in close proximity so that metallophilic interactions raise. Specially, the introduction of the SO3M (M = Li, Na, K, Rb) group in position 4 of 3,5-dimethyl pyrazole, allowed to build up highly luminescent polynuclear copper(I) systems.