The University of Piemonte Orientale A. Avogadro was funded in 1998 and since its beginning the Materials Chemistry Group started its activity in the Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Avanzate in Alessandria.
The group now includes 4 Full Professors, 3 Researchers, 6 Post-docs, as well as a variable number of undergraduate and PhD students, and has a long experience in the synthesis and characterization of solid materials for catalysis, optical and electro-luminescent devices, sensors, additives for nanocomposite polymers, etc.

The most relevant classes of studied materials include:
-inorganic microporous (zeolite-type) and mesoporous materials;
-organometallic complexes and metal clusters;
-crystalline molecular assemblies made by crystal engineering techniques;
-polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes (POSS);
-synthetic organo-clays and lamellar solids;
-fullerenes and carbon nano-tubes.

The characterization includes:
-study of the nature, structure and reactivity of surface centers of heterogeneous catalysts and high surface area materials by IR, Raman, diffuse reflectance UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopies and thermal analysis (TGA/DTA);
-structural analysis of crystalline materials by single crystal and powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques (with the use of both conventional and synchrotron radiation);
-structural characterization of low order materials and of  surface thin films by small angle and grazing incidence small angle x-ray scattering techniques (SAXS and GISAXS);
-use of combined in-situ techniques (FTIR, Raman, XRD) at variable temperatures and under controlled atmospheres;
-modeling  of the molecular structure and of the intermolecular interactions by computational approaches.


The overall Materials Chemistry research group at UNIPMN has published over 250 papers in the last ten years in the field of experimental and computational solid state and materials chemistry.