Crystals Engineering

Specific mission

Many products of common use (e.g., food, chemicals, electronics) are crystalline in nature and controlling the way they are generated is essential to ensure their quality. Furthermore, crystallization is a versatile unit operation that can be used for separation and purification, also for he recovery of high value materials from waste (e.g., recovery of polyphenols from agri-food residues).

Main research topics

• Crystal engineering of novel crystalline materials (e.g., co-crystals, salts, solid solutions) with targeted properties such as solubility and bioavailability.
• Design and characterization of novel crystalline formulations for food and pharmaceutical applications
• Crystal structure characterization, determination (from single crystal) and modelling
• Crystallization process design & optimization using process analytical technology (PAT) tools and chemometrics
• Fundamental understanding of multicomponent crystallization, particularly within the food industry (e.g., agrifood residues, plant based fats)
• Modelling of crystallization processes using population balance equations
• Application of crystallization processes for the recovery of high value materials from waste (circular economy)
• Study of polymorphism and crystal structure order/disorder of organic and inorganic-organic materials.

Main partnership

• Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre (UK)
• Nestlè R&D Centre in Lausanne (Switzerland)
• Nestlè PTC York (UK)
• Syngenta R&D Centre in Bracknell (UK)
• Prof. Zoltan Nagy (Purdue University, US)
• Prof. Jerry Heng (Imperial College London, UK)
• Prof. Michael Rappolt, Prof. Anwesha Sarkar, Dr Arwen Tyler, Prof. Brent Murray, Prof. Megan Povey, Dr Melvin Holmes (University of Leeds, UK)
• Prof. Nadia Passerini, Prof. Beatrice Alberini, Dr Serena Bertoni (Università di Bologna, Department of Pharmacy)
• Prof. Dario Braga (Università di Bologna, Department of Chemistry)
• Prof. Michele Chierotti, Dr. Simone Bordignon, Dr Emanuele Priola (Università di Torino, Department of Chemistry)
• Dr Angela Altomare, Dr Corrado Cuocci (CNR Bari, Institute of Crystallography)
• Prof. Enzo di Fabrizio, Dr Bruno Torre, Prof. Daniele Marchisio, Prof. Antonio Buffo, Dr Fiora Artusio, Prof. Simelys Hernandez, Dr. Giuseppe Pipitone, Dr Silvia Fraterrigo Garofalo, Dr Eleonora Calì. (Politecnico di Torino - DISAT)

Projects and publications

Reference laboratories