Paolo Samorì


Paolo Samorì is an Italian physical chemist and Distinguished Professor at the Institut de Science et d'Ingénierie Supramoléculaires of the Université de Strasbourg & CNRS where he heads the Nanochemistry Laboratory and he has been institute director.

Education

Samorì obtained a Laurea in Industrial Chemistry at the University of Bologna in 1995. In 2000 he received his PhD in Chemistry from the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin under the supervision of Jürgen P. Rabe. Samorì was a permanent research scientist at Istituto per la Sintesi Organica e la Fotoreattività of the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche of Bologna from 2001 till 2008, and visiting professor at ISIS from 2003 til 2008.

Career and research

He has published over 510 papers on applications of nanochemistry and materials science with a particular focus on graphene and related 2D materials, supramolecular electronics, scanning probe microscopies beyond imaging, hierarchical self-assembly of hybrid functional architectures at surfaces and interfaces, and the fabrication of organic- and graphene-based nanodevices for electronics, chemical and physical sensing as well as energy storage. These papers have been cited over 36,000 times, leading to a h-index of 100.
He is using the supramolecular chemistry approach in order to generate ordered 1D, 2D and 3D architectures at surfaces and interfaces, aiming at controlling an improving the properties of opto-electronic and sensing devices, with the ultimate goal of providing concrete solutions to the grand challenges our society must address.
He exploited supramolecular scaffolds based on H-bonding and metal-ligand interactions to control the patterning of functional groups in two dimensions. He fabricated the first dynamic operating at the solid-liquid interface which was monitored on the sub-molecular scale by means of scanning tunneling microscopy.
At the University of Strasbourg he showed that combining organic semiconductors with photochromic systems it is possible to fabricate optically switchable field-effect transistor as a first step towards multifunctional devices. Such research enabled him to fabricate both flexible non-volatile optical memory thin-film transistor devices with over 256 distinct levels based on an organic bicomponent blend, and optically switchable organic light-emitting transistors capable of emitting light in the range of the three primary RGB colors with the special feature of being capable of developing writable and erasable spatially defined patterns He is exploiting supramolecular methods to generate graphene based materials with tunable properties. For example, he was able to impart a light-responsive nature to 2D materials like graphene and MoS2 by combining them with stimuli-responsive molecules, even by means of the asymmetric functionalization of the two surfaces of the 2D materials, to realize multi-responsive and high-performance hybrid optoelectronic devices by mastering a more than Moore strategy. His current research is focused on the architecture vs function relationship in supramolecular and graphene-based materials for applications in electronics, chemical and physical sensing, energy storage and materials science, thereby addressing global challenges.
His present research interests are centered around internet of functions in ad hoc 0D to 3D functionalized multicomponent nanostructures and networks thereof for energy, sensing and optoelectronic applications.
  • Chemistry of two-dimensional materials : production, tuning of their properties, fabrication of devices.
  • Multiscale tailoring of smart supramolecular systems: development of multiresponsive coatings and composites.
  • High-performance multifunctional materials and devices for opto-electronics, chemical and physical sensing, data storage, energy generation and storage, etc.
In 2022 the Presidency of the Council of Ministers of Italy has appointed him Ufficiale Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana.
He is Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, fellow of the European Academy of Sciences, member of the Academia Europaea, foreign member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts, member of the Académie des Technologies, member of the German National Academy of Science and Engineering acatech, and senior member of the Institut Universitaire de France.

Awards

Associate editor

Member to the advisory boards