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In this paper, the supercritical antisolvent (SAS) technique was proposed to coprecipitate ampicillin sodium (AMPI), an antibiotic chosen as the model drug, by using Eudragit L100-55 as the polymeric carrier. In the last years, supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) based techniques were frequently used to produce active principle/biopolymer composites with fast or controlled drug release. In this work, the Eudragit L100-55 micronization was studied and, as desired, the attainment of spherical microparticles of polymer with mean size in the range 1.64 - 1.99 µm was achieved. Then, SAS coprecipitation Eudragit/AMPI was investigated to verify the potential of Eudragit as the carrier for drug controlled delivery. Working at the best operating conditions, in terms of pressure (100 bar) and of overall concentration in the liquid solution (50 mg/mLDMSO), microspheres Eudragit/AMPI 20/1 and 10/1 w/w were obtained, with mean diameters of 2.52 µm and 1.53 µm, respectively. Release studies showed that the dissolution rate of ampicillin was prolonged 4 and 3 times, respectively in the case of SAS coprecipitated powders at 20/1 and 10/1 ratios. This outcome allowed to reduce the frequency of administration up to once a day, with fewer side effects due to antibiotic overdosing.

Semi-finished products are often used in the case of the high degree of perishability, like, for example, in the case of some fruits. The treatment of those fresh fruits allows the extension of foodstuffs’ shelf life, maintaining low the level at which microbial spoilage and deterioration reactions can occur. These semi-finished products are frequently used as starting materials by jams' and marmalades’ industries. The Southern Italy industry under study uses two different techniques to produce and preserve semi-finished peaches: one is based on low-pressure superheated steam drying with far-infrared radiation, and one on an ohmic aseptic treatment. The aim of this work is to use a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach to compare the environmental emissions of those two different production and preservation techniques on two large scale plants. The environmental impacts were evaluated using a detailed LCA analysis, normalizing all the consumptions and emissions to the functional unit (one peaches’ kg on a dry basis). Data were analysed using SimaPro 8.5.2 software, whereas the Ecoinvent 3.4 database and information collected from the chosen industrial site were used for the life cycle inventory, according to the reference standard for LCA (i.e., ISO 14040 and 14044).

conjugated organic molecules have found a relevant field of application in photovoltaics either as light harvesters and/or charge transporting materials in, among the others, dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC), perovskite solar cells (PSC) and organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells. In first part of my talk, I will report the results of the synthesis and characterization of novel porphyrins and phthalocyanines for DSSC1. Such dye families have been extensively studied in the last years reaching efficiency values up to, respectively, 12% 2 and 6.4% 3. Phthalocyanines are less efficient than porphyrins but have a greater chemical stability that could favor their potential application in building-integrated-photovoltaics as the lack of stable blue and green dyes with an acceptable stability once exposed to thermal stress and UV irradiation remains an unsolved problem. An ongoing activity on the use of symmetrical phthalocyanines and their analogues as hole transporting materials for PSCs will also be briefly shown. In the second part of the talk I will demonstrate long term outdoor stability of OPV cells based on tetraphenyldibenzoperiflanthene (DBP):C70 planar-mixed heterojunction with 2,2',2"-(1,3,5-benzenitryl tris-[1-phenyl-1H-benzimidazole] (TPBi):C70 electron-filtering cathode buffer layers.4 REFERENCES 1)Walter, M. G.; Rudine, A. B.; Wamser, C. C., J. Porphyrins Phthalocyanines, 2010, 14 (09), 759-792. 2)Yella, A.; Lee, H. W.; Tsao, H. N.; Yi, C.; Chandiran, A. K.; Nazeeruddin, M. K.; Diau, E. W.; Yeh, C. Y.; Zakeeruddin, S. M.; Gratzel, M. Science, 2011, 334, 629-634. 3) Ikeuchi, T.; Nomoto, H.; Masaki, N.; Griffith, M. J.; Mori, S.; Kimura, M. Chem Commun., 2014, 50, 1941-1943. 4)Q. Burlingame, Q.; Song, B.; Ciammaruchi, L.; Zanotti, G.; Hankett, J.; Chen, Z.; Katz, E. A. and Forrest, S. R. Adv. Energy Mater., 2016. DOI: 10.1002/aenm.201601094