Beneficiary Dr. Sebastiano Garroni

Sebastiano Garroni was born in Sassari (Italy) on December 25^th 1980. He obtained the Chemistry Degree (cum laude) on 2007 from the University of Sassari, with a graduation work entitled "Mechanochemical activation of Fisher-Tropsch reaction over nanostructured catalysts”. He conducted his European PhD in Materials Science at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona financed by the Marie Curie Network Project titled COSY. His thesis was devoted to materials for solid state hydrogen storage and after receiving the European PhD in 2011 he joined the group of Mechanochemistry Lab at the University of Sassari as post doc fellowship. In November 2012, He was contracted as Assistant Professor at Department of Chemistry and Pharmacy of the University of Sassari. Since November 2016, He joined ICCRAM research center (Burgos-Spain) as researcher within the European project Nanopiezoeletrics financed by the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship (IF) action (HORIZON2020).

Due to the significant number of papers published and the important results achieved during the PhD, Dr. Sebastiano Garroni received the PhD UAB Extraordinary Award in 2012. So far, He has published more than 80 articles with around 780 citations (h-index = 17) and 1 international patent. He participated in more than 30 national and international conferences, with 15 oral contributions (4 invited - 1 plenary). He also collaborates as peer reviewer for the following Journals: Journal of Alloys and Compounds, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy Journal of Physical Chemistry C and Materials Chemistry and Physics.

He has participated in several national and international research projects as PRIN 2011 (“Synthesis, characterization and functional evaluation of light hydrides based nanostructured materials and nanoparticles for solid state hydrogen storage) and, currently, He is the scientific coordinator of the international project Italia-Argentina titled “Development and optimization of materials for hydrogen storage based on Li-N-H systems” funded by the “Ministero degli Affari Esteri”. In January 2016, He gained a MSCA-IF-2015 grant and a RISE project (CO₂MPRISE). He has cos-supervised over 15 students including bachelor and master thesis.

His principal research interests are devoted to:

• Investigation of innovative materials for solid state hydrogen storage.

• Preparation and characterization of photo-electrocatalysts for hydrogen production by water splitting reaction

• Synthesis and characterization of anode and cathode materials for secondary Lithium-ion batteries and PEM Fuel cells.

• Synthesis and characterization of highly-ordered mesoporous matrices by sol-gel routes for piezoelectric devices.

• Synthesis of metastable alloys and control of solid-solid and gas-solid reactions by ball milling processes under controlled energy input.

• Structural investigation by Neutron and X-Ray Powder Diffraction and quantitative structural refinement procedures according to the Rietveld method.

• Solid-state Nuclear Magnetic Resonance applied to functional materials for energy conversion and storage.

1). Garroni. S.; et al. “Dehydrogenation mechanism of the 2 NaBH4 + MgH2 prepared by ball milling”, Oral presentation at 3rd International Symposium Hydrogen & Energy. 25-30.01.2009, Braunwald, Switzerland.

2). Garroni, et al. “Sorption properties of the NaBH4/MgH2 system: dehydrogenation mechanism and pathway”, oral presentation at MRS fall meeting 2009. 30 November – 4 December, 2009, Massachusetts, Boston, USA.

3). Garroni, et al. “Sorption properties of NaBH4/MH2 (M = Mg, Ti) systems”, oral presentation at 4th International Symposium Hydrogen & Energy. 24-29.01.2010, Wildhaus, Switzerland.

4). Garroni, S.; et al. “Progress on the study of the sorption properties of the NaBH4/MgH2 system”, oral presentation at ISMANAM 2010, 4-9.07.2010, ETH, Zurich, Switzerland.

5). Garroni, S.; et al. “Progress on Sodium-Borohydride based Reactive Hydride Composite (RHC)”, oral presentation at COSY-NESSHY joint meeting, 4-5.10.2010, Envipark, Turin, Italy.

5). Garroni, S.; et al. “Ordered Mesoporous Scaffolds for the Confinement of Nano-sized Complex and Metal Hydrides” oral presentation at MH2012, October 21-26 2012. Kyoto, Japan.

7). Garroni, S; et al. “Multicomponent LiBH4-LiAlH4-MgH2 hydrogen storage system: in-situ synchrotron radiation powder diffraction studies” oral presentation ISMANAM 2013, June 30 – July 5, 2013, Turin, 2013.

8). Garroni, S.; Delogu, F.; “Reactive multilayers and mechanical alloying: a supposedly odd couple.” Invited speaker at Reactive Multilayers Foils - Bridging the gap from Thermodynamics, Modelling and Experiments. CECAM Workshop, July 8, 2013 to July 10, 2013, Lausanne, Switzerland.

9) Garroni, S.; The mechanochemical route to the nanoscale”, invited speaker at International Workshop on Advanced Nuclear Materials, July 17-18, 2014, Gijon, Spain.

10) Garroni S., et al. “New insights upon desorption process of the Mg/K amide system” oral presentation at 14 th International Symposium on Metal hydrogen systems, July 20-25, 2014, Manchester, UK.

11) Garroni S.; “Materials for Hydrogen Storage”. Summer School for PhD student, Oral presentation (Invited), 13-16 July, 2015, Brexen, Italy.

12) Garroni S.; “Mechanochemistry: from Macroscopic evidence to microscopic mechanism. Plenary lecture at International Symposium on Mechanochemistry, Montpellier, 15-17 July 2015.

13) Garroni S.; "Effect of aluminum-based dopants on the Li-N-H system". Oral presentation at Hypothesis XI symposium 2015, Toledo, September 6-9, 2015, Toledo, Spain

14) Garroni S.; et al., “Deepening the Insight into the Kinetics of Mechanically Activated

Transformations”, Oral presentation at Materials Science & Technology MS&T16, Salt Lake City, October 23-27 2016, USA.

15) Garroni S., et al.; Mechanochemical transformations by ball milling: From processing parameters to chemical kinetics, Oral presentation (Invited) at -Materials Conference, Catania, December 12-16, 2016.

16) GarroniS. ; et al.; NanoPiezoelectrics: Novel Nanoporous PZT Materials for Efficient Utrasonic Biomedical Sensors. Poster Presentation at MCAA Conference and General Assembly, Salamanca, March 23-25, 2017.

17) Garroni S.; et al., High-Energy Ball Milling: a powerful technique for the synthesis of new alloys and nanostructured materials, Oral presentation (Invited) at International Spring School on Forefront Alloys and Advanced Materials for Extreme Conditions, Tula (Cagliari) May 15 - 17, 2017, Italy.

18) Garroni S.; et al., Aluminum Chloride as effective dopant in Amide-based systems, Oral presentation (Invited) at EMRS fall meeting 2017, Warsaw, September 18 - 21, 2017, Poland.

19) Garroni S.; et al., Lead-Free KNN-doped piezoceramics for ultrasonic imaging, Poster presentation at EMRS fall meeting 2017, Warsaw, September 18 - 21, 2017, Poland.

20) Garroni S. ; et al.; Local Piezoelectric behavior of potassium sodium niobate prepared by facile synthesis via water soluble precursors. Poster Presentation at MCAA Conference and General Assembly, Leuven, February, 1-4, 2018.

• 2007-2010. Marie Curie Training Network, COSY “Complex Solid Stare Reactions for Energy Efficient Hydrogen Storage” , PhD student, 36 months

• 2011-2012. MIUR, Prin, “Synthesis, characterization and functional evaluation of light hydrides based nanostructured materials and nanoparticles for solid state hydrogen storage’’, Research Unit, 12 months.

• 2014-2016. Joint Project - Progetto Congiunto Italia-Argentina “Development and optimization of materials for hydrogen storage based on Li-N-H systems”, Scientific Coordinator, 36 months.

• 2013-2015. Progetto Cluster Top Down “Tecnologie integrate e innovative per il consolidamento e la protezione delle Superfici dei Beni Culturali / Multi-approach Technologies for the Reinforce and Protection of Cultural Heritage Surfaces” Acronimo MUSA, Research Unit.

• 2015-2016. Progetto Fondazione Banco di Sardegna “Sistemi innovativi di conversione di energia elettrica da fonti rinnovabili: Sviluppo di Elettrocatalizzatori Biomimetici per Celle a Combustibile a Scambio Protonico” Biomimetic electro-catalysts for efficient energy production. Euro: 10.000. Scientific Coordinator, 12 months.

• 2016-. H2020-MSCA-RISE-2016 “CO2 absorbing Materials Project- RISE”. Proposal Number: 734873. Euro: 702.000. Scientific Coordinator, 48 M.

• 2016-. H2020-MSCA-IF-2015 “Novel Nanoporous PZT Materials for Efficient Utrasonic Biomedical Sensors”. Proposal Number: 707954. Euro: 170.122. Scientific Coordinator, 24 M

• 2016-. Legge 7 Under 40 Regional Project “Sistemi innovativi di conversione di anidride carbonica a metano da fonti rinnovabili”. Proposal Number 116. Euro: 60.000. Scientific Coordinator, 12 M

• COST Grant. COST STSM Reference Number: COST-STSMMP1103-10255. Visiting at Dept. of Nanotechnology, Materials Technology, Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht (Germany) and at DESY Synchrotron radiation Facility, Hamburg (Germany) for in-situ XRPD measurements. from 27-03-2012 to 05-04-2012. Euro: 2000

• COST Grant. COST STSM Reference Number: OST-STSMMP1103-13185. Visiting at Dept. of Nanotechnology, Materials Technology, Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht (Germany) and at Max Lab Synchrotron radiation Facility, Lund (Sweden) for in-situ XRPD measurements. from 26-05-2013 to 04-06-2013. Euro: 2000 €

• COST Grant. COST STSM Reference Number: OST-STSMMP1103-20402. Visiting at Dept. of Nanotechnology, Materials Technology, Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht (Germany) and at Max Lab Synchrotron radiation Facility, Lund (Sweden) for in-situ XRPD measurements. from 20-10-2014 to 27-10-2014. Euro: 2000 €