Theoretical and Computational Chemistry and Materials Science

Dr. Emmanouil (Emmanuel) Klontzas, Associate Researcher

Carbon based nanomaterials has attracted the attention of research community owing to their exceptional physicochemical characteristics, such as durability, insertion of chemical functionalities and tailor-made electronic, optical and adsorption properties. Among other applications, carbon-based nanomaterials have been suggested as suitable media for gas storage and separation applications. The design of carbon-based porous nanostructures starting from various carbon allotropes, such as nanotubes or graphene derivatives, has led in the development of molecular models with customized porosity with significant ability to selectively capture significant environmental pollutants to mitigate their emissions in the atmosphere. In this field, the formation of composites materials by confining ionic liquids in the empty pores of porous carbon significantly improve the selective capture of carbon dioxide. The present research activity also includes the design of pillared graphene-based nanomaterials with controllable electronic, mechanical and adsorption properties. The modification of these properties can be achieved by adjusting a variety of structural parameters, such as the chemical composition of the molecules acting as pillars between adjacent sheets, the pillar density per square area of the sheets and the extra functionalities that can be introduced on the graphene derivatives.

Key publications

Recent publications (since 2013)