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The touristic potential of the Underwater Cultural Heritage (UCH) is gaining more and more attention thanks to the educational and scientific activities carried out by the UNESCO that has led to the definition of basic principles and recommendations, ratified by 51 states, for the protection and conservation of the submerged archaeological sites. In addition to this historical and educative role, the UCH provides also an immediate value creation in terms of entertainment and learning experience, for the cultural enrichment of the individual, and of reputation and notoriety of a location, for the local identity that makes a place unique and can direct tourism streams. For this reason, the INTERREG MED – BLUEMED project (https://bluemed.interreg-med.eu) aims to improve the responsible and sustainable tourism of maritime and coastal areas by focusing on the promotion of underwater archaeological sites. In order to reach this goal, the partnership is developing innovative digital technologies that, on one hand, are able to encourage the diving tourism by improving the divers' experience in the submerged environment and, on the other hand, foster the induced tourist activity by means virtual tour of the underwater site. These innovative digital technologies fit the UNESCO’s recommendations for a respectful exploitation of the UCH and represent a tangible and efficient response to the challenge proposed by the European Parliament for a smart, sustainable and inclusive growth of the maritime and coastal tourism. In particular, the BLUEMED project will demonstrate, in four selected underwater archaeological sites in Italy, Greece and Croatia, the use of an innovative underwater tablet equipped with an acoustic localization system and coupled with an autonomous surface vehicle. This combination of technologies allows the divers visiting the underwater archaeological site to see their position over the 3D bathymetry of the site, to be guided during the exploration and to better understand structural information of the archaeological site especially in the case of poor visibility conditions.

Dottorato di Ricerca in Ingegneria Chimica e dei Materiali, Ciclo XX,a.a. 2006-2007 Università of Calabria

Dottorato di Ricerca in Ingegneria Chimica e dei Materiali, Ciclo XX SSD,a.a. 2006-2007 Università della Calabria

Mesoporous materials with their good surface and structural properties and versatility can be synthesized in different morphologies (thin films, fibers, membranes, etc.) and represent excellent host matrices, highly functional and with great potentials for advanced applications. In this research work, mesoporous powders and thin films have been successfully achieved and then functionalized with special guest molecules such as organic molecules, organometallic complexes, fluorescent dyes, all having specific and interesting properties. Mesoporous matrices have been prepared by sol-gel chemistry with different mesostructures and high order degree. Chemical modifications approaches (post-synthesis grafting and one-pot synthesis) applied to porous supports highly organized have allowed to product a new class of functional materials, particularly interesting for various applications (opto-electronic, photovoltaic materials, etc.). Surface and structural characterization techniques (FTIR, UV-Vis, fluorescence, ellipsometry spectroscopies, electron transmission microscopy, XRD diffraction and porosimetry analysis) have allowed to investigate the effects of the introduction of guest species inside mesoporous matrices and to identify noteworthy changes about organization and mesostructures. Results show that mesoporous materials, both as powders and thin films, do not suffer significant reductions of surface (surface area, pore volume and diameter) and structural properties (order degree, mesostructure organization, stability) after functionalization process, representing confined environment well adapted to various guest species, with the advantage to increase their activity and physic-chemical properties. In particular, guest species are well trapped into rigid porous matrices with an increase of their functional properties and inorganic network stability. All results have demonstrated that the high structural homogeneity, the control over surface and morphological properties and also the possibility to host different molecules permit to project and engineer high potential technological materials for applications in optic and electro-optic fields. Course in Chemical and Materials Engineering, Ciclo XXI, a.a. 2007-2008 Università della Calabria

Dottorato di Ricerca in Ingegneria Chimica e dei Materiali, CicloXX SSD a.a. 2006-2007 Università della Calabria

Dottorato di Ricerca in: Ingegneria Chimica e dei Materiali, Ciclo XX,a.a. 2006-2007 Università della Calabria

Dottorato di Ricerca in Ingegneria Chimica e dei Materiali, Ciclo XX, a.a. 2004-2007 Università della Calabria

Dottorato di Ricerca in Ingegneria Chimica e dei Materiali, Ciclo XIX a.a. 2005-2006 Università della Calabria

Dottorato di Ricerca in Ingegneria Chimica e dei Materiali, Ciclo XVIII,a.a. 2005-2006 Università della Calabria

Dottorato di Ricerca in: Dottorato di Ricerca in Ingegneria Chimica e dei Materiali, Ciclo XIX, a.a.2005-2006 Università della calabria

The influence of real time temperature increase from ambient to synthesis temperature precursor ageing, and crystallization temperature, was studied on crystallization of zeolite A from the clear solution under static conditions. Phase composition, crystal size, mass and morphology were followed using various experimental techniques such as XRD, SEM, LLS, and NMR. Simulation of the basic processes of nucleation and crystal growth was made adopting population balance model for synthesis from clear solution. Correlation of the measured and simulated (calculated) data gives very good agreement.

Il presente lavoro si inquadra nell´ambito di un progetto di ricerca finanziato dall'ASI (Agenzia Spaziale Italiana) che ha come obiettivo finale lo studio dell'influenza della microgravita sui meccanismi di cristallizzazione delle zeoliti. Nella programmazione degli esperimenti di sintesi in microgravita, un elemento di notevole importanza e costituito dall'invecchiamento del sistema di sintesi constituito da una soluzione limpida (clear solution), dato che non e sempre prevedibile l'intervallo di tempo intercorrente fra la preparazione della soluzione di sintezi e l'inizio del trattamento idrotermale nella Stazione Spaziale. E'stata quindi studiata sistematicamente la sintesi della zeolite A a diverse temperature (60-70-80 C) da soluzioni limpide a diferenti tempi di invecchiamento a temperatura ambiente, al fine di approfondire l'influenza dell'aging sui meccanismi di cristallizzazione della zeolite A

Dissolution of organic-free ("activated") high-silica pentasils (silicalite-l and ZSM-5 with different Al-content) in 5 M NaOH solution at 60 degrees C was investigated by different methods such as X-ray diffractometry, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning-electron microscopy (SEM) and measuring the silicon and aluminum concentration in the liquid phase. Analysis of the experimental results showed that the process of dissolution of the "activated" high-silica pentasils is controlled by two essential reactions ; a forward one caused by breaking of the Si-O-Si and/or Si-O-Al bonds owing to the action of OH- ions from solution, and a backward one caused by the reaction between soluble species from the liquid phase or by their reaction on/with the surface of the dissolving solid. The rate of the forward reaction decreased with an increase of the Al-content in the ZSM-5 crystals, whereas the backward reaction resulted in the formation of amorphous SiO2 (ZSM-5) and/or different crystalline modifications of SiO2 or even different hydrates of sodium silicate (silicalite-l). A kinetic equation of the dissolution process was derived on the basis of the proposed mechanism of dissolution. [References: 19]