The Department hosts a wide arrays of research activities in the fields of molecular, biomolecular and materials sciences such as:

1) synthesis, characterization and applications of molecular and supramolecular systems aimed at understanding materials, surfaces and interfaces;

2) development of innovative methodological approaches in theoretical, physical, organic and analytical chemistry;

3) design, production, characterization and modeling of materials and innovative devices, through the understanding and use of the relationship between nanostructure and function of the material developed, in view of the particular applications.

Nanochemistry for Energy and Health (NExuS) is a “Dipartimenti di Eccellenza” project of the Department of Chemical Sciences (DiSC) at the University of Padua, funded by the Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research. NExuS aims at the enhancement of the skills housed at DiSC for i) understanding and controlling phenomena involved in molecular aggregation and cooperation processes, ii) describing their multiscale nature (from molecules, to molecular aggregates to nanostructured materials and extended micrometric interfaces).

Several state-of-the-art facilities are available at DiSC. Among them: 11 NMR instruments (from 600 to 200 MHz and including a solid-state designed nstrument); 2 MALDI-TOF MS spectrometers; 3 EPR instruments; a computational facility of 4 parallel clusters (GPUs and CPUs); 1 SEM instrument; 4 XPS instruments; 2 STM in ultrahigh vacuum and several SPM probes at the solid/liquid-solid/air interface; 1 XRD instrument; a femtosecond laser facility with pulsed source; 1 Mössbauer facility; a dynamic light scattering facility; several laboratories for organic and inorganic synthesis (including automated platforms), characterization and purification of compounds.

The Faculty members of the Department have published in 2013 about 200 papers in peer-reviewed journals.