Gian Luca Chiarello graduated in Industrial Chemistry at the University of Milano in 2004 and received his PhD in Industrial Chemistry from the same University in 2007, with two thesis in heterogeneous catalysis under the supervision of prof. Lucio Forni. The PhD thesis was entitled “Metal Oxides: preparation by an Innovative Flame method and Catalytic Applications”.
From January to September 2006 he spent nine months during his PhD work at the ETH Zürich in Prof. Alfons Baiker group. After the PhD he covered three succeeding post doc positions: i) from 01/2008 to 12/2010 in photocatalysis at the University of Milano in prof. Elena Selli group, ii) in 2011 in operando X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS) at the Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (Germany) in prof. Jan-Dierk Grunwaldt group, and iii) In 2012 at EMPA-Dübendorf (Switzerland) in prof. Anke Weidenkaff group, where he has designed a set up for coupling in situ XAS and IR spectroscopies at the SuperXAS beamline of the SLS synchrotron of Villigen, Switzerland.
From 2019 up today he is assistant professor of physical chemistry and heterogeneous catalysis at the department of chemistry of the Università degli Studi di Milano.
Up today, he has published more than 50 papers on the most renowned international journals in catalysis and its applications (h-index=28, according to Scopus), 2 patents, 2 book chapters and presented more than 65 communications, most of them in oral form, at several international and national scientific congresses.
His research interests span from the preparation (e.g. by flame spray pyrolysis), characterization (including in-situ X-ray absorption spectroscopy, XANES and EXAFS, as user at the synchrotron radiation facilities of HASYLAB, ANKA, SLS and ESRF) and testing of different types of catalysts for several catalytic applications (Flameless Combustion of Methane, Selective Reduction of NOx by H2 under Lean Burn Conditions, production of alcohols from syngas and photocatalytic
hydrogen production), to the design of novel photocatalytic reactors and spectroscopic cells, covering all aspects of heterogeneous catalysis.
In particular, he is presently focusing his research on photocatalytic hydrogen production by both photo-steam reforming of volatile organics and water splitting. The latter topic includes the development of novel photoelectrodes based on i) vertical oriented TiO2 nanotubes arrays photonic crystals prepared by electrochemical anodization, ii) solid state heterojunctions prepared by RF-magnetron sputtering, and iii) Inherently chiral macrocyclic oligothiophenes.
He has been awarded with the Debut in Research Prize – “ENI Award” 2008 for his PhD thesis.