carlonervi

Carlo Nervi

Full Professor
Materials Discovery Laboratory

I scientifically born as electrochemist, spending several months in the Heyrovsky Institute of Physical Chemistry in Prague (CZ), working on the subject of electrochemical properties of organometallic compounds. In 1995 I become researcher at University of Turin (Italy), invited visiting professor at University of Montana, Missoula (USA) in 2002, associate professor at University of Turin (Italy) in 2010, national habilitation to full professor in 2017, visiting professor at Skoltech, Moscow (Russia) in 2023 and 2024, Full professor at Skoltech, Moscow (Russia) in 2024.

My scientific interests are focused towards electrochemistry (in particular electrochemical conversion of CO2 to fuels), batteries and in general inorganic and organometallic chemistry, with particular attention to catalysis. I am interested also into DFT calculations applied to material science and catalysis, and molecular crystal structures prediction.

I gained experience in the following fields:

  • General and Inorganic Chemistry
  • Inorganic and organometallic compounds of Transition Metals
  • Inorganic Electrochemistry, in particular Electrochemical reduction of CO2 by transition metal catalysts
  • Electrocatalysis
  • DFT calculations at molecular level applied to the prediction of spectroscopic properties and mechanisms of reactions
  • Crystal Structure Prediction (periodic calculations) by DFT methods with the code USPEX

Selected Publications on CO2 reduction:

  1. Rongé, T.Bosserez, D.Martel, C.Nervi, L.Boarino, F.Taulelle, G.Decher, S.Bordiga, J.A.Martens, “Monolithic Cells for Solar Fuels”, Chem.Soc.Rev., 2014, 43, 7963-7981.
  2. Franco, C.Cometto, F.Ferrero Vallana, F.Sordello, E.Priola, C.Minero, C.Nervi, R.Gobetto, “A Local proton source in a [Mn(bpy-R)(CO)3Br]-type redox catalyst enables CO2 reduction even in absence of Brønsted acids”, Chem.Commun., 2014, 50, 14670-14673.
  3. Franco, C.Cometto, C.Garino, C.Minero, F.Sordello, C.Nervi, R.Gobetto, “Photo- and Electrocatalytic Reduction of CO2 by [Re(CO)3{α,α’-Diimine-(4-piperidinyl-1,8-naphthalimide)}Cl Complexes”, Eur.J.Inorg.Chem., 2015, 296-304.
  4. Franco, C.Cometto, F.Sordello, C.Minero, L.Nencini, J.Fiedler, R.Gobetto, C.Nervi, “Electrochemical Reduction of CO2 by M(CO)4(bpy-type) (M=Mo, W) Complexes: Catalytic Activity Improved by 2,2′-Dipyridylamine”, ChemElectroChem., 2015, 2, 1372-1379.
  5. Mukund Mali, Hyun Yoon, Bhavana N. Joshi, Hyunwoong Park, Salem S. Al-Deyab, Dong Chan Lim, SeJin Ahn, Carlo Nervi, Sam S. Yoon, “Enhanced Photoelectrochemical Solar Water Splitting Using a Platinum-Decorated CIGS/CdS/ZnO Photocathode”, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 2015, 7, 21619-21625.
  6. Sun, S.Prosperini, P.Quagliotto, G.Viscardi, S.S.Yoon, R.Gobetto, C.Nervi, “Electrocatalytic Reduction of CO2 by Thiophene-substituted Rhenium(I) Complexes and by their Polymerized Films”, Dalton Trans., 2016, 45, 14678-14688.
  7. Sun, R.Gobetto, C.Nervi, “Recent Advances on Catalytic CO2 Reduction by Organometal Complexes Anchored on Modified Electrodes”, New J. Chem., 2016, 40, 5656-5661.
  8. Franco, C.Cometto, L.Nencini, C.Barolo, F.Sordello, C.Minero, J.Fiedler, M.Robert, R.Gobetto, C.Nervi, “Local Proton Source in the Electrocatalytic CO2 Reduction by Mn(bpy-R)(CO)3Br Complexes”, Chem. Eur. J., 2017, 23, 4782-4793, cover.
  9. Dubey, L.Nencini, R.R.Fayzullin, C.Nervi, J.R.Khusnutdinova, “Bio-Inspired Mn(I) Complexes for the Hydrogenation of CO2 to Formate and Formamide”, ACS Catal., 2017, 7, 3864-3868.
  10. Laura Rotundo, Claudio Garino, Roberto Gobetto, Carlo Nervi, “Computational Study of the Electrochemical Reduction of W(CO)4(2,2’-dipyridylamine)”, Inorg. Chim. Acta, 2018, 470, 373-378.
  11. Sun, L.Rotundo, C.Garino, L.Nencini, S.S.Yoon, R.Gobetto, C.Nervi, “Electrochemical CO2 Reduction at Glassy Carbon Electrodes Functionalized by Mn(I) and Re(I) Organometallic Complexes”, ChemPysChem, 2017, 18, 3219-3229.
  12. Rotundo, J.Filippi, H.A.Miller, R.Rocca, F.Vizza, R.Gobetto, C.Nervi, “Electrochemical CO2 reduction in water at carbon cloth electrodes functionalized with a fac-Mn(apbpy)(CO)3Br complex”, Chem.Commun., 2019, 55, 775-777.
  13. Septavaux, C.Tosi, P.Jame, C.Nervi, R.Gobetto, J.Leclaire. “Simultaneous CO2 capture and metal purification from waste streams using triple-level dynamic combinatorial chemistry”, Nature Chem., 2020, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-019-0388-5.
  14. Laura Rotundo, Dmitry E. Polyansky, Roberto Gobetto, David C. Grills, Etsuko Fujita, Carlo Nervi, Gerald F. Manbeck, “Molecular Catalysts with Intramolecular Re−O Bond for Electrochemical Reduction of Carbon Dioxide”, Chem., 2020, 59, 12187-12199.
  15. Filippi, L.Rotundo, R.Gobetto, H.A.Miller, C.Nervi, A.Lavacchi, F.Vizza, “Turning Manganese into Gold: efficient electrochemical CO2 reduction by a fac-Mn(apbpy)(CO)3Br complex in a gas-liquid interface flow cell”, Chem.Eng.J., 2021, 416, 129050.
  16. Laura Rotundo, David C. Grills, Dmitry E. Polyansky, Roberto Gobetto, Emanuele Priola, Carlo Nervi, Etsuko Fujita, “Photochemical CO2 Reduction Using Rhenium(I) Tricarbonyl Complexes with Bipyridyl-Type Ligands with and without Second Coordination Sphere Effects”, Photo.Chem., 2021, 5, 1-13, 10.1002/cptc.202000307
  17. Rotundo, R.Gobetto, C.Nervi, “Electrochemical CO2 reduction with earth-abundant metal catalysts”, Curr. Opin. Green Sust. Chem., 2021, 31, 100509, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogsc.2021.100509
  18. Marocco Stuardi, A.Tiozzo, L.Rotundo, J.Leclaire, R.Gobetto, C.Nervi, “Efficient Electrochemical Reduction of CO2 to Formate in Methanol Solutions by Mn Functionalized Electrodes in the Presence of Amines”, Chem.Eur.J., 2022, 28(37), e202104377, 1-9, https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.202104377
  19. Rotundo, A.Barbero, C.Nervi, R.Gobetto, “CO2 Electroreduction on Carbon-Based Electrodes Functionalized with Molecular Organometallic Complexes—A Mini Review”, Catalysts, 2022, 12, 1448, https://doi.org/10.3390/catal12111448
  20. Alice Barbero, Laura Rotundo, Chiara Reviglio, Roberto Gobetto, Romana Sokolova, Jan Fiedler, Carlo Nervi, “New Spectroelectrochemical Insights into Manganese and Rhenium Bipyridine Complexes as Catalysts for the Electrochemical Reduction of Carbon Dioxide”, Molecules, 2023, 28 (22), 7535, https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules28227535
  21. Geyla C. Dubed Bandomo, Federico Franco, Changwei Liu, Suvendu Sekhar Mondal, Angelo Gallo, Carlo Nervi, Julio Lloret-Fillol, “Toward the Understanding of the Structure–Activity Correlation in Single-Site Mn Covalent Organic Frameworks for Electrocatalytic CO2 Reduction”, ACS Applied Energy Materials, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1021/acsaem.3c03117
  22. Elena Andreea Palade, Roberto Gobetto, Carlo Nervi, “Molecular and single-atom catalysts based on earth-abundant transition metals for the electroreduction of CO2 to C1”, Chinm. Acta, 2024, 566, 122029, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ica.2024.122029
  23. A. Barbero, F. Pezzano, F. Calderaro, R. Gobetto, C. Reviglio, A. Porceddu, V. Nikitina, J.-F. Li, H. Zhang, Z. Huang, J. Liu, A. Oganov, C. Nervi, “Direct Electrochemical Conversion of Carbon Dioxide into Methanol in Water with High Faradaic Efficiency by Mo-Functionalized Electrode”, ChemRxiv, 2024, https://doi.org/10.26434/chemrxiv-22024-26432c26412c.

My teaching experience:

  • General and Inorganic Chemistry
  • Laboratory of Inorganic Compounds: Transition Metals and their spectroscopic properties (i.e. interpretation of UV/Vis spectra)
  • Electrochemistry, Electrocatalysis and Catalysis

dosbox-v0-74-3-manual esp24b

I am the author of an electrochemical simulation program (ESP) able to simulate and fit Cyclic Votammetry, Chronoamperometry, SDC Polarography, and Square Wave Voltammtery (SWV). The code was written in C and runs under virtual MSDOS environment (use dosbox to run ESP under Windows).