Research Bio
As the group leader of the Syncat group, I am actively working on the synthesis of single-site heterogeneous catalysts based on metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) defined at the molecular level. Their application in selective catalytic transformation such as asymmetric hydrogenation, olefin metathesis, olefin hydroformylation, and stereoselective organocatalysis is being explored. A full use of various characterization techniques - such as infra-red, UV-Visible, X-ray photoelectron emission, X-ray Absorption, and NMR spectroscopies as well as X-ray diffraction techniques and electron microscopy to understand structure-performance relations – is employed. Several studies aimed at proving that MOFs are unique heterogeneous molecular catalysts are conducted showing that one can tune active sites and the environment around them at the atomic level to get unique selectivity in catalytic reactions. I am also heavily involved in the low-temperature gas-phase direct oxidation of methane to methanol mediated by copper zeolites and published several publications on the topic.
Curriculum Vitae
| 2019 - current | Lecturer of the course "Industrial Chemistry" at ETH Zurich, Switzerland |
| 2017 - current | Co-founder and scientific advisor of novoMOF |
| 2016 - current | Group Leader at Energy and Environment Division - Paul Scherrer Institute, Switzerland |
| 2012 - 2018 | Lecturer of the course "Catalysis" at ETH Zurich, Switzerland |
| 2013 - 2015 | Scientist in Department for Synchrotron Radiation and Nanotechnology, Paul Scherrer Institute, Switzerland |
| 2010 - 2013 | Postdoc in the van Bokhoven Group, Paul Scherrer Institute, Switzerland |
| 2005 - 2009 | Ph.D., ETH Zürich, Switzerland |
| 2000 - 2005 | B.Sc. and M.Sc., Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy |
Publications
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Kochetygov I, Maggiulli L, Ranocchiari M, Ferri D
The mechanism of rapid and green metal-organic framework synthesis by in situ spectroscopy and diffraction
Chemistry of Materials. 2024; 36(14): 6877-6887. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.4c00879
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Gäumann P, Ferri D, Sheptyakov D, van Bokhoven JA, Rzepka P, Ranocchiari M
In situ neutron diffraction of Zn-MOF-74 reveals nanoconfinement-induced effects on adsorbed propene
Journal of Physical Chemistry C. 2023; 127(33): 16636-16644. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.3c03225
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Gäumann P, Rohrbach T, Artiglia L, Ongari D, Smit B, van Bokhoven JA, et al.
Tandem hydroformylation‐aldol condensation reaction enabled by Zn‐MOF‐74
Chemistry: A European Journal. 2023; 29(38): e202300939 (7 pp.). https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.202300939
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Liu Q, Tripp J, Mitchell C, Rzepka P, Sadykov II, Beck A, et al.
Influence of alloying and surface overcoating engineering on the electrochemical properties of carbon-supported PtCu nanocrystals
Journal of Alloys and Compounds. 2023; 968: 172128. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2023.172128
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Semivrazhskaya OO, Salionov D, Clark AH, Casati NPM, Nachtegaal M, Ranocchiari M, et al.
Deciphering the mechanism of crystallization of UiO-66 metal-organic framework
Small. 2023; 19(52): 2305771 (11 pp.). https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.202305771
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Cartagenova D, Bachmann S, Püntener K, Scalone M, Newton MA, Peixoto Esteves FA, et al.
Highly selective Suzuki reaction catalysed by a molecular Pd-P-MOF catalyst under mild conditions: role of ligands and palladium speciation
Catalysis Science and Technology. 2022; 12(3): 954-961. https://doi.org/10.1039/D1CY01351C
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Cartagenova D, Peixoto Esteves FA, Fischer NT, van Bokhoven JA, Ranocchiari M
Solvent-dependent textural properties of defective UiO-66 after acidic and basic treatment
Inorganic Chemistry Frontiers. 2022; 9(1): 70-77. https://doi.org/10.1039/D1QI00226K
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Dubray F, Paunović V, Ranocchiari M, van Bokhoven JA
Production of jet-fuel-range olefins via catalytic conversion of pentene and hexene over mesoporous Al-SBA-15 catalyst
Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry. 2022; 114: 409-417. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jiec.2022.07.030
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Gäumann P, Cartagenova D, Ranocchiari M
Phosphine-functionalized porous materials for catalytic organic synthesis
European Journal of Organic Chemistry. 2022; 2022(48): e202201006 (15 pp.). https://doi.org/10.1002/ejoc.202201006
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Liu Q, Ranocchiari M, van Bokhoven JA
Catalyst overcoating engineering towards high-performance electrocatalysis
Chemical Society Reviews. 2022; 51(1): 188-236. https://doi.org/10.1039/D1CS00270H
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Liu Q, Rzepka P, Frey H, Tripp J, Beck A, Artiglia L, et al.
Sintering behaviour of carbon-supported Pt nanoparticles and the effect of surface overcoating
Materials Today Nano. 2022; 20: 100273 (11 pp.). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtnano.2022.100273
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Saedy S, Newton MA, Zabilskiy M, Lee JH, Krumeich F, Ranocchiari M, et al.
Copper-zinc oxide interface as a methanol-selective structure in Cu-ZnO catalyst during catalytic hydrogenation of carbon dioxide to methanol
Catalysis Science and Technology. 2022; 12(8): 2703-2716. https://doi.org/10.1039/d2cy00224h
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Salionov D, Semivrazhskaya OO, Casati NPM, Ranocchiari M, Bjelić S, Verel R, et al.
Unraveling the molecular mechanism of MIL-53(Al) crystallization
Nature Communications. 2022; 13(1): 3762 (9 pp.). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-31294-4
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Armstrong K, Barbarino S, Cao XE, Cassiola F, Catlow RA, Claeys M, et al.
Thermal catalytic conversion: general discussion
Faraday Discussions. 2021; 230: 124-151. https://doi.org/10.1039/d1fd90045e
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Athar M, Rzepka P, Thoeny D, Ranocchiari M, van Bokhoven JA
Thermal degradation of defective high-surface-area UiO-66 in different gaseous environments
RSC Advances. 2021; 11(61): 38849-38855. https://doi.org/10.1039/D1RA05411B
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Cartagenova D, Bachmann S, Van Bokhoven JA, Püntener K, Ranocchiari M
Heterogeneous metal-organic framework catalysts for Suzuki-Miyaura cross coupling in the pharma industry
Chimia. 2021; 75(11): 972-978. https://doi.org/10.2533/chimia.2021.972
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Ferreira Sanchez D, Ihli J, Zhang D, Rohrbach T, Zimmerman P, Lee J, et al.
Spatio‐chemical heterogeneity of defect‐engineered metal‐organic framework crystals revealed by full‐field tomographic X‐ray absorption spectroscopy
Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 2021; 60(18): 10032-10039. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202013422
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Linke J, Rohrbach T, Ranocchiari M, Schmidt TJ, Fabbri E
Enlightening the journey of metal-organic framework (derived) catalysts during the oxygen evolution reaction in alkaline media via operando X-ray absorption spectroscopy
Current Opinion in Electrochemistry. 2021; 30: 100845 (7 pp.). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coelec.2021.100845
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Liu Q, Meissel H, Sadykov I, Jones S, Van Dijk N, Rzepka P, et al.
On the stability of Pt‐based catalysts in HBr/Br2 solution
Helvetica Chimica Acta. 2021; 104: e2100082 (10 pp.). https://doi.org/10.1002/hlca.202100082
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Palagin D, Sushkevich VL, Knorpp AJ, Ranocchiari M, van Bokhoven JA
Mapping vibrational spectra to the structures of copper species in zeolites based on calculated stretching frequencies of adsorbed nitrogen and carbon monoxides
Journal of Physical Chemistry C. 2021; 125(22): 12094-12106. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.1c01649
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Rannochiari M
Design of molecular heterogeneous catalysts with metal-organic frameworks
In: Teoh WY, Urakawa A, Ng YH, Sit P, eds. Heterogeneous catalysts. Advanced design, characterization and applications. Volume 2. Weinheim: Wiley-VCH GmbH; 2021:147-160. https://doi.org/10.1002/9783527813599.ch8
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Bauer G, Ongari D, Tiana D, Gäumann P, Rohrbach T, Pareras G, et al.
Metal-organic frameworks as kinetic modulators for branched selectivity in hydroformylation
Nature Communications. 2020; 11(1): 1059 (8 pp.). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14828-6
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Taddei M, Van Bokhoven JA, Ranocchiari M
Influence of water in the synthesis of the zirconium-based metal-organic framework UiO-66: isolation and reactivity of [ZrCl(OH)2(DMF)2]Cl
Inorganic Chemistry. 2020; 59(11): 7860-7868. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.inorgchem.0c00991
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Mostrou S, Nagl A, Ranocchiari M, Föttinger K, van Bokhoven JA
The catalytic and radical mechanism for ethanol oxidation to acetic acid
Chemical Communications. 2019; 55(79): 11833-11836. https://doi.org/10.1039/C9CC05813C
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Ravi M, Sushkevich VL, Knorpp AJ, Newton MA, Palagin D, Pinar AB, et al.
Misconceptions and challenges in methane-to-methanol over transition-metal-exchanged zeolites
Nature Catalysis. 2019; 2(6): 485-494. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41929-019-0273-z
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Tomkins P, Mansouri A, Sushkevich VL, van der Wal LI, Bozbag SE, Krumeich F, et al.
Increasing the activity of copper exchanged mordenite in the direct isothermal conversion of methane to methanol by Pt and Pd doping
Chemical Science. 2019; 10(1): 167-171. https://doi.org/10.1039/C8SC02795A
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Bozbag SE, Sot P, Nachtegaal M, Ranocchiari M, van Bokhoven JA, Mesters C
Direct stepwise oxidation of methane to methanol over Cu-SiO2
ACS Catalysis. 2018; 8(7): 5721-5731. https://doi.org/10.1021/acscatal.8b01021
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Bauer G, Ongari D, Xu X, Tiana D, Smit B, Ranocchiari M
Metal–organic frameworks invert molecular reactivity: Lewis acidic phosphonium zwitterions catalyze the Aldol-Tishchenko reaction
Journal of the American Chemical Society. 2017; 139(50): 18166-18169. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.7b10928
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Palagin D, Knorpp AJ, Pinar AB, Ranocchiari M, van Bokhoven JA
Assessing the relative stability of copper oxide clusters as active sites of a CuMOR zeolite for methane to methanol conversion: size matters?
Nanoscale. 2017; 9(3): 1144-1153. https://doi.org/10.1039/c6nr07723d
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Park MB, Ahn SH, Mansouri A, Ranocchiari M, van Bokhoven JA
Comparative study of diverse copper zeolites for the conversion of methane into methanol
ChemCatChem. 2017; 9(19): 3705-3713. https://doi.org/10.1002/cctc.201700768
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Ravi M, Ranocchiari M, van Bokhoven JA
The direct catalytic oxidation of methane to methanol - a critical assessment
Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 2017; 56(52): 16464-16483. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201702550
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Sushkevich VL, Palagin D, Ranocchiari M, van Bokhoven JA
Response to comment on "Selective anaerobic oxidation of methane enables direct synthesis of methanol"
Science. 2017; 358(6360): eaan6083 (3 pp.). https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aan6083
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Sushkevich VL, Palagin D, Ranocchiari M, van Bokhoven JA
Selective anaerobic oxidation of methane enables direct synthesis of methanol
Science. 2017; 356(6337): 523-527. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aam9035
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Taddei M, Casati N, Steitz DA, Dümbgen KC, van Bokhoven JA, Ranocchiari M
In situ high-resolution powder X-ray diffraction study of UiO-66 under synthesis conditions in a continuous-flow microwave reactor
CrystEngComm. 2017; 19(23): 3206-3214. https://doi.org/10.1039/c7ce00867h
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Taddei M, Tiana D, Casati N, van Bokhoven JA, Smit B, Ranocchiari M
Mixed-linker UiO-66: structure-property relationships revealed by a combination of high-resolution powder X-ray diffraction and density functional theory calculations
Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. 2017; 19(2): 1551-1559. https://doi.org/10.1039/c6cp07801j
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Tomkins P, Ranocchiari M, van Bokhoven JA
Direct conversion of methane to methanol under mild conditions over Cu-zeolites and beyond
Accounts of Chemical Research. 2017; 50(2): 418-425. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.accounts.6b00534
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Vilhanová B, van Bokhoven JA, Ranocchiari M
Gold particles supported on amino-functionalized silica catalyze transfer hydrogenation of N-heterocyclic compounds
Advanced Synthesis and Catalysis. 2017; 359(4): 677-686. https://doi.org/10.1002/adsc.201601147
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Vilhanová B, Václavík J, Artiglia L, Ranocchiari M, Togni A, van Bokhoven JA
Subnanometer gold clusters on amino-functionalized silica: an efficient catalyst for the synthesis of 1,3-diynes by oxidative alkyne coupling
ACS Catalysis. 2017; 7(5): 3414-3418. https://doi.org/10.1021/acscatal.7b00691
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Beloqui Redondo A, Ranocchiari M, van Bokhoven JA
Synthesis of sub-nanometer gold particles on modified silica
Dalton Transactions. 2016; 45(7): 2983-2988. https://doi.org/10.1039/c5dt04957a
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Bozbag SE, Alayon EMC, Pecháček J, Nachtegaal M, Ranocchiari M, van Bokhoven JA
Methane to methanol over copper mordenite: yield improvement through multiple cycles and different synthesis techniques
Catalysis Science and Technology. 2016; 6(13): 5011-5022. https://doi.org/10.1039/c6cy00041j
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Meyer K, Bashir S, Llorca J, Idriss H, Ranocchiari M, van Bokhoven JA
Photocatalyzed hydrogen evolution from water by a composite catalyst of NH2-MIL-125(Ti) and surface nickel(II) species
Chemistry: A European Journal. 2016; 22(39): 13894-13899. https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.201601988
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Taddei M, Dümbgen KC, van Bokhoven JA, Ranocchiari M
Aging of the reaction mixture as a tool to modulate the crystallite size of UiO-66 into the low nanometer range
Chemical Communications. 2016; 52(38): 6411-6414. https://doi.org/10.1039/c6cc02517j
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Taddei M, Steitz DA, van Bokhoven JA, Ranocchiari M
Continuous-flow microwave synthesis of metal-organic frameworks: a highly efficient method for large-scale production
Chemistry: A European Journal. 2016; 22(10): 3245-3249. https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.201505139
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Todaro M, Buscarino G, Sciortino L, Alessi A, Messina F, Taddei M, et al.
Decomposition process of carboxylate MOF HKUST-1 unveiled at the atomic scale level
Journal of Physical Chemistry C. 2016; 120(23): 12879-12889. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.6b03237
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Tomkins P, Mansouri A, Bozbag SE, Krumeich F, Park MB, Alayon EMC, et al.
Isothermal cyclic conversion of methane into methanol over copper-exchanged zeolite at low temperature
Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 2016; 55(18): 5467-5471. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201511065
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Vilhanová B, Ranocchiari M, van Bokhoven JA
Enantioselective hydrogenation of olefins enhanced by metal-organic framework additives
ChemCatChem. 2016; 8(2): 308-312. https://doi.org/10.1002/cctc.201500907
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Alayon EMC, Nachtegaal M, Bodi A, Ranocchiari M, van Bokhoven JA
Bis(µ-oxo) versus mono(µ-oxo)dicopper cores in a zeolite for converting methane to methanol: an in situ XAS and DFT investigation
Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. 2015; 17(12): 7681-7693. https://doi.org/10.1039/c4cp03226h
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Beloqui Redondo A, Morel FL, Ranocchiari M, van Bokhoven JA
Functionalized Ruthenium-Phosphine Metal-Organic Framework for Continuous Vapor-Phase Dehydrogenation of Formic Acid
ACS Catalysis. 2015; 5(12): 7099-7103. https://doi.org/10.1021/acscatal.5b01987
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Meyer K, Ranocchiari M, van Bokhoven JA
Metal organic frameworks for photo-catalytic water splitting
Energy and Environmental Science. 2015; 8(7): 1923-1937. https://doi.org/10.1039/c5ee00161g
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Morel FL, Xu X, Ranocchiari M, Van Bokhoven JA
Functional metal-organic frameworks: synthesis and reactivity
In: Charleux B, Copéret C, Lacôte E, eds. Chemistry of organo‐hybrids: Synthesis and characterization of functional nano‐objects. Wiley; 2015:200-232. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118870068.ch6
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Morel FL, Pin S, Huthwelker T, Ranocchiari M, van Bokhoven JA
Phosphine and phosphine oxide groups in metal-organic frameworks detected by P K-edge XAS
Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. 2015; 17(5): 3326-3331. https://doi.org/10.1039/c4cp05151c
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Schütrumpf A, Kirpi E, Bulut A, Morel FL, Ranocchiari M, Lork E, et al.
Tetrahedral tetraphosphonic acids. New building blocks in supramolecular chemistry
Crystal Growth and Design. 2015; 15(10): 4925-4931. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.cgd.5b00811
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Taddei M, Dau PV, Cohen SM, Ranocchiari M, van Bokhoven JA, Costantino F, et al.
Efficient microwave assisted synthesis of metal-organic framework UiO-66: optimization and scale up
Dalton Transactions. 2015; 44(31): 14019-14026. https://doi.org/10.1039/c5dt01838b
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Morel FL, Ranocchiari M, van Bokhoven JA
Synthesis and characterization of phosphine-functionalized metal-organic frameworks based on MOF-5 and MIL-101 topologies
Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research. 2014; 53(22): 9120-9127. https://doi.org/10.1021/ie403549v
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Xu X, Rummelt SM, Morel FL, Ranocchiari M, van Bokhoven JA
Selective catalytic behavior of a phosphine-tagged metal-organic framework organocatalyst
Chemistry: A European Journal. 2014; 20(47): 15467-15472. https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.201404498
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Xu X, van Bokhoven JA, Ranocchiari M
Tuning regioisomer reactivity in catalysis using bifunctional metal-organic frameworks with mixed linkers
ChemCatChem. 2014; 6(7): 1887-1891. https://doi.org/10.1002/cctc.201402164
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Ranocchiari M, van Bokhoven JA
Synthesis and reactivity of Zn-biphenyl metal-organic frameworks, introducing a diphenylphosphino functional group
Chimia. 2013; 67(6): 397-402. https://doi.org/10.2533/chimia.2013.397
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Sá J, Szlachetko J, Kleymenov E, Lothschütz C, Nachtegaal M, Ranocchiari M, et al.
Fine tuning of gold electronic structure by IRMOF post-synthetic modification
RSC Advances. 2013; 3(30): 12043-12048. https://doi.org/10.1039/c3ra40970h
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Tuci G, Rossin A, Xu X, Ranocchiari M, van Bokhoven JA, Luconi L, et al.
"Click" on MOFs: a versatile tool for the multimodal derivatization of N3-decorated metal organic frameworks
Chemistry of Materials. 2013; 25(11): 2297-2308. https://doi.org/10.1021/cm400899a
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Václavík J, Servalli M, Lothschütz C, Szlachetko J, Ranocchiari M, van Bokhoven JA
AuI catalysis on a coordination polymer: a solid porous ligand with free phosphine sites
ChemCatChem. 2013; 5(3): 692-696. https://doi.org/10.1002/cctc.201200844
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Alayon EM, Nachtegaal M, Ranocchiari M, van Bokhoven JA
Catalytic conversion of methane to methanol over Cu-mordenite
Chemical Communications. 2012; 48(3): 404-406. https://doi.org/10.1039/c1cc15840f
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Alayon EMC, Nachtegaal M, Ranocchiari M, van Bokhoven JA
Catalytic conversion of methane to methanol using Cu-zeolites
Chimia. 2012; 66(9): 668-674. https://doi.org/10.2533/chimia.2012.668
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Ranocchiari M, Lothschütz C, Grolimund D, van Bokhoven JA
Single-atom active sites on metal-organic frameworks
In: Proceedings of the Royal Society A. mathematical, physical and engineering sciences. Vol. 468. Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences. London: Royal Society; 2012:1985-1999. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.2012.0078
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Rummelt SM, Ranocchiari M, van Bokhoven JA
Synthesis of water-soluble phosphine oxides by Pd/C-catalyzed P-C coupling in water
Organic Letters. 2012; 14(8): 2188-2190. https://doi.org/10.1021/ol300582y
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Servalli M, Ranocchiari M, van Bokhoven JA
Fast and high yield post-synthetic modification of metal-organic frameworks by vapor diffusion
Chemical Communications. 2012; 48(13): 1904-1906. https://doi.org/10.1039/c2cc17461h
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Ranocchiari M, van Bokhoven JA
Catalysis by metal-organic frameworks: fundamentals and opportunities
Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. 2011; 13(14): 6388-6396. https://doi.org/10.1039/c0cp02394a
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