PhD Thesis Defense of Fabrizio Guzzetta

Last Monday 17th September, Fabrizio Guzzetta defended his PhD thesis entitled “Rationale Design of Inorganic Up-converting Nanophosphors Towards Advanced Optical Applications”. The thesis was supervised by Dr. Beatriz Julián and defended under the basis of the international doctorate program, receiving the qualification of Excellent. Maria Rute Ferreira (Univ. Aveiro-CICECO), Socorro Castro (Univ. A Coruña) and Maria González-Béjar (Univ. Valencia-ICMOL) was the PhD evaluation committee.
The work addressed the development of NaYF4 based up-converting nanoparticles through environmentally friendly synthetic pathways, including solvothermal and microwave-assisted routes. Spectroscopic measurements were carried out to investigate the luminescence and excited state dynamics of the lanthanide ions. The up-converting nanoparticles were used to create smart NIR-driven soft materials based on supramolecular gels and biosurfactant systems towards novel bioapplications.