The Centre is always keen to scientific cooperation with private partners, both in proposing cooperative industry-academia projects and in developing business-oriented researches.


We have scientific competence and instruments in the fields of:

  1. Identification of minerals
    1. Light and electron microscopies (SEM and HR-TEM)
    2. X ray powder diffraction
    3. Confocal Raman spectroscopy
  2. Particle size and shape, agglomeration, aggregation
    1. Automated image analysis of particles: shape and size of micrometric particles (Malvern FPIA3000) and size of nanometric particles (Malvern Zetasizer NanoS)
    2. Agglomeration / aggregation studies of nanoparticles and stability studies of suspension through zeta-potential measures (Malvern Zetasizer NanoS)
    3. Light and electron microscopies (SEM and HR-TEM)
  3. In vitro testing of toxicity
    1. Surface reactivity through ROS/scavenging measures (spin trapping/EPR spectroscopy)
    2. Cellular tests: cytotoxicity, genotoxicity, inflammation
  4. Material characterization
    1. Elemental analysis both averaged (ICP-AES) or space-resolved (m-X ray fluorescence)
    2. Structural information (X ray diffraction, confocal Raman and infrared spectroscopy)
    3. Investigation of surface properties through molecular probe adsorption (micro-calorimetry and infrared spectroscopy)
    4. Thermogravimetric analysis
    5. Speciation of metals and paramagnetic defects (solid state EPR spectroscopy)
  5. Environmental analysis of respirable particles
    1. Indoor and outdoor sampling and analysis of respirable fraction of particles and industrial dusts (automatic air samplers – static and portable). SEM and Environmental-SEM imaging capabilities.
  6. Peptides and Proteins adsorption and unfolding
    1. Conformational and unfolding evaluation (Circular dichroism and fluorescence)
    2. Competitive protein adsorption, oxidative fragmentation of proteins (Electrophoresis, TGA-MS)

Do your research needs match our competence/instrumentation?

Write us at or phone us at +39 011 670.7577