University of Padua logo Department of Chemical Sciences logo

Physical Organic Chemistry of Complex Systems

Cristiano Zonta has been working in recent years on the physical organic chemistry of catalytic and molecular recognition processes. The focus of his interest has been the study of chiral confiend spaces and their application in catalysis and sensing. He would define himself as Physical Organic Chemist. He acquired initially his expertise in synthesis in Venice with Prof. De Lucchi, While his PhD with Prof. Hunter (Sheffield-UK) was mainly dedicated to the development of supramolecular architectures for the measurement of non-covalent interactions. After post-doctoral period in Venice and Padova with Prof. Licini, where he worked mainly in catalytic transformation using metal complexes, he got a assistant professorship position in 2007, he became in 2015 Associate Professor at the Department of Chemical Sciences at the University of Padova where from 2023 is Full Professor.

Research interest are mainly directed to: supramolecular cages, chiral sensing, catalysis and measurement of non-covalent interactions. An overview ot the recent studies can be seen in the following pubblications.