Claudio Verani

Claudio Verani

Research interest(s)/area of expertise

Transition-metal coordination chemistry and surface science with emphasis on catalytic water splitting and metalloamphiphiles for molecular electronics and corrosion mitigation.

Research

Our research seeks the development of mono- and multimetallic coordination compounds with novel spectroscopic, magnetic, electrochemical and amphiphilic properties. The Verani Group takes advantage of typically bioinorganic approaches to understand, design and develop bioinspired molecules relevant to the broadly defined fields of molecular electronics, catalysis and sustainable chemistry.

Topics of current interest include the development and study of redox-driven molecular rectifiers, precursors for corrosion inhibition, water splitting catalysts and selective metal recovery. This research encompasses modern methodology, including ligand and complex design, synthesis and characterization,  UV-visible and EPR spectroscopy, electrochemical techniques, crystallography, Langmuir-Blodgett film deposition, Brewster angle and atomic force microscopy and ion flotation, among others. Our objective is to seek, understand and systematize relationships between molecular topology, structure and mechanisms of such species. The interface between experiment and theory is stressed by means of molecular orbital calculations.

This multidisciplinary research has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy and is enhanced by several collaborations.

Education

• B.S., Federal University of Santa Catarina (Brazil), 1994
• M.Sc., Federal University of Santa Catarina (Brazil), 1996
• Ph.D., Max-Planck Institute for Radiation Chemistry/Ruhr-University (Germany), 2000
• Postdoctoral Fellow, Johns Hopkins University, 2000-2002.
• Visiting scholar (sabbatical leave) at Argonne National Laboratory, 2014
• Guest Researcher and Lecturer, Fluminense Federal University (Brazil), 2014-2016

Awards and grants

• CNPq (National Council for Research) scholar (Brazil), 1994-1996
• DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) scholar (Germany), 1997-2000
• Max-Planck-Society fellow (Germany), 2000
• WSU - Career Development Chair, 2011-2012
• Gordon Research Conferences Young Investigator Award, 2012
• WSU - Outstanding Graduate Mentor Award, 2015
• IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) Young Investigator (Korea), 2015
• WSU - President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, 2015
• Ebbing Faculty Development Award, 2017

Selected publications

# 79 L. Chimilouski, F. Morgan, D. Ekanayake, N. El-Harakeh, R. A. Peralta, E. Martendal, C. N. Verani, F. R. Xavier “Bioinspired oxidation of benzyl alcohol: The role of environment and nuclearity of the catalyst evaluated by multivariate analysis” Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry 2023, 240, 112095

# 78. I. Weeraratne, N. Rani, K.K. Kpogo, S. Mazumder, C. N. Verani, “Influence of Electronic Configurations on the Modulation of Fermi/Orbital Junction Energies for Directional Electron Transport through 3d1, 3d3 and 3d5 Metallosurfactants” J. Phys. Chem. C 2022, 126, 21010–21021

# 77. S. Amunugama, E. Asempa, R. C. Tripathi, D. Wanniarachchi, H. Baydoun, P. Hoffmann, E. Jakubikova, C. N. Verani, “Electron transport through a (terpyridine)ruthenium metallo-surfactant containing a redox-active aminocatechol derivative” Dalton Transactions, 2022, 51, 8425-8436

#76. F. Morgan, R. Schaugaard, D. Anderson, H. B. Schlegel, C. N. Verani “Distinct bimetallic cooperativity among water reduction catalysts containing [CoIIICoIII], [NiIINiII], and [ZnIIZnII] cores” Chemistry – A European Journal 2022, e202104426 

# 74. N. El-Harakeh, A. C. P. de Morais, N. Rani, J. A. G. Gomez, A. Cousino, M. Lanznaster, S. Mazumder, C. N. Verani, “Reactivity and Mechanisms of Photoactivated Heterometallic [RuIINiII] and [RuIINiIIRuII] Catalysts for Dihydrogen Generation from Water” Angewandte Chemie International Edition 2021, 60, 5723-5728

# 72. A. D. K. I Weeraratne, C. C. Hewa-Rahinduwage, S. Gonawala, L. Luo, C. N. Verani “A Molecular Approach for Mitigation of Aluminum Pitting based on Films of Zinc(II) and Gallium(III) Metallosurfactants” Chemistry – A European Journal 2019, 25, 14048-14053

# 68. C. N. Verani “Perspective review: Molecular rectifiers based on five-coordinate iron(III)-containing surfactants” Dalton Transactions 2018, 47, 14153–14168

# 64. H. Baydoun, J. Burdick, B. Thapa,L. Wickramasinghe, D. Li, J. Niklas, O. G. Poluektov, H. B. Schlegel, C. N. Verani “Immobilization of an Amphiphilic Molecular Cobalt Catalyst on Carbon Black for Ligand-Assisted Water Oxidation” Inorganic Chemistry 2018, 57, 9748−9756

# 50. D. Basu, S. Mazumder, X. Shi, H. Baydoun, J. Niklas, O. Poluektov, H. B. Schlegel, C. N. Verani “Ligand Transformations and Efficient Proton/Water Reduction with Cobalt Catalysts Based on Pentadentate Pyridine-Rich Environments” Angewandte Chemie International Edition 2015, 54, 2105 –2110

# 49. L. D. Wickramasinghe, S. Mazumder, S. Gonawala, M. M. Perera, H. Baydoun, B. Thapa, L. Li, L. Xie, G. Mao, Z. Zhou, H. B. Schlegel, C. N. Verani “Mechanisms of Rectification in Au|molecule|Au Devices Based on Langmuir-Blodgett Films of Iron(III) and Copper(II) Surfactants”
Angewandte Chemie International Edition 2014, 53, 14462–14467

Citation index

h-index 29 ; i10-index 60