Daniela Pappalardo

Academic preparation

May 1998            Ph.D. in Chemistry (X ciclo)

Dipartimento di Chimica, Università degli Studi di Salerno

Dissertation: Monocyclopentadienylic titanium complexes and a-diimine nickel complexes as catalysts for homogeneous olefins polymerization.

Advisor: Prof. Adolfo Zambelli

24/05/1994          Laurea (M.Phil.) Degree in Chemistry

Università degli Studi di Salerno

Dissertation: Cationic zirconium benzyl complexes: synthesis, characterization and reactivity towards olefins. Advisor: Prof. Adolfo Zambelli

Final marks: 110/110 cum laude.

Academic qualification     National scientific habilitation (ASN) as Full Professor in the sector 03/B1 " Fondamenti delle Scienze Chimiche e Sistemi Inorganici " - Call 2016  (D.D. 1532/2016).

National scientific habilitation (ASN) as Full Professor in the sector 03/B2 "Fondamenti Chimici delleTecnologie" - Call 2013 (DD n.161/2013)

Academic and Research Experiences

February 2005 – present          Associate Professor of Inorganic Chemistry, Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie, Università del Sannio, Benevento, Italy

September 2014 –

October 2017                         Part-time guest professor at KTH, Royal Institute of  Technology, Department of Fibre and Polymer Technology, Teknikringen 56-58, 100 44 Stockholm Sweden), as a leader of the project entitled “Biodegradable functionalized materials for applications in tissue engineering”, funded by VINNOVA, Mobility for Growth, and by the Marie Curie Actions FP7-PEOPLE-2011-COFUND (GROWTH 291795). KTH, Royal Institute of  Technology,

July 1996 – January 2005       Assistant professor of Inorganic Chemistry at Università del Sannio

September-October 2010

January-March 2011              Guest professor at the KTH, Royal Institute of  Technology, Department of Fibre and Polymer Technology, KTH, Royal Institute of Tecknology, in the ambit of a collaboration with prof. Ann-Christine Albertsson.

February 2006                        Scientific visitor at the High Resolution NMR Centre of Vrije Universiteit di Brussel in the ambit of a collaboration with prof. Rudolph Willem.

November 1998 –

August 1999                              Scientific guest at The School of Chemistry, University of Leeds, UK

                                                    in the laboratory headed by prof. Manfred Bochmann.

Member of:               - Faculty of the PhD in Earth Science and Life, Università del Sannio

- Faculty of the PhD in Chemistry, Università di Salerno

- AIM (Associazione Italiana Macromolecole)

- SCI (Società Chimica Italiana) – representative for the Università del     Sannio in the Inorganic Chemistry Division.

- The European Society for Biomaterials

- Member of the Reviewer Editorial Board of Frontiers in Polymer Chemistry (http://www.frontiersin.org/Polymer_Chemistry/editorialboard)

- “Presidio di Qualità” (Commettee for the Quality), Università del Sannio (since December 2018)

- From March 2019 to May 2022 DP was member of the advisory board of the Swedish company Akira Science AB (Org nr 559193-4764).

Award             1996 Winner of the Prize “G. Stampacchia” 1996 from the University “La Sapienza”of Roma, for the best first scientific paper of a young chemist researcher.

Grants             - Principal investigator for the “Young research project” 2001 funded by the Università del Sannio.

- Partecipation to the national research projects:

PRIN 2002, title: “Fine control of the microstructure and chemical properties of hydrocarbon homopolymers and copolymers by metallorganic catalysts”

PRIN 2004, title: “Organometallic polymerization catalysis for elastomers and nanostructured materials”

PRIN 2010, title: “Nanostructured polymeric materials with tailored molecular and crystalline structures, for advanced technologies and for the environment”

- Partecipation to the european “Research Training Network Project: New Polyolefin Materials via Metal Catalysed Copolymerisation” coordinator prof. Manfred Bochmann, for the period 1999-2002.

- Principal investigator for research projects funded by the Università del Sannio FAR in the years 2002 – 2014.

- Vinnmer Incoming - planning grant 2013-2015 “Bionedbrytbara funktionaliserade material för till ämpningar inom vävnadsregenerering” (Diarenummer 2013-01429).

- Project leader for the project VINNMER Marie Curie Incoming 2014-2017 “Bionedbrytbara funktionaliserade material för till ämpningar” (Biodegradable functionalized materials for applications in tissue engineering) (Diarenummer 2013-04323).

- Partecipation to the project SSF (Engineering 3D printed and knitted degradable scaffolds – PrintKnit; project leader Anna Finne-Wistrand; number of grant RMA150010).

Research interests               

Daniela Pappalardo main research interest is in the area of polymer science, and includes the polymer synthesis and structural characterization by organometallic catalysis, the design and characterization of novel catalysts, as well as preparation and applications of new materials. Initial studies were related to polyolefins, by far the most important class of commercial synthetic polymers. Main topic has been the Ziegler-Natta homogeneous olefin polymerization catalysis, which includes the synthesis and the characterization of catalytically active organometallic complexes, the study of the mechanism of polymerization also by the aid of isotopic labelling techniques, the stereochemical aspects of the polymerization. Remarkable results are the studies on a-diimine Ni and Fe based systems, on group 4 transition metal systems bearing phenoxyimine or nitrogen based polydentate ligands, and on neutral and cationic aluminium complexes.

On the other hand, the political and economic pressure toward the development of “green” and possibly biodegradable alternatives to olefin-based polymers stimulated increasing research efforts in the area of aliphatic polyesters (poly(lactide), poly(caprolactone), poly(hydroxybutyrate) and their copolymers) as promising materials derived from renewable feedstock. The consolidated expertise in the stereoselective polymerization of olefins was therefore been expanded to the development of catalysts able to produce stereoregular polymers from monomers such as rac-lactide and rac-β-butyrolactone via a coordination-insertion ROP mechanism. Group 3 metal, Sn and Al complexes bearing “unconventional” ligands were synthesized and tested in the ROP of rac-lactide, and rac-β-butyrolactone or in the copolymerization of rac-lactide and caprolactone, and glycolide with lactide. Heterotactic or prevailingly isotactic PLA’s and either block or random copolymers, depending on the metal initiator and the reaction conditions were obtained. Syndiotactic enriched poly(hydroxybutyrate) was also obtained. New branches of research relate to the synthesis of functionalized polyesters and of copolymers and their applications in biomedical fields for drug delivery and tissue engineering. This branch of research was developed during the period of mobility of DP at KTH in Stockholm, Sweden.

Publications and review activities

More than 65 published contributions on peer-reviewed journal in the field of macromolecular chemistry, organometallic chemistry, and polymerization catalysis, 1 italian patent, 1 US and EP patent application.

Several presentations at national and international congresses and workshops.

Reviewer for Macromolecules, Biomacromolecules, Chemical Review, Macromolecular Chemistry and Physics, European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry, Journal of Applied Polymer Science, Organometallics.

Reviewer for research proposal submitted to the executive government agency of National Science Centre of Poland (Narodowe Centrum Nauki - NCN; http://www.ncn.gov.pl).