Manuel Melle-Franco

Principal Researcher

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Department

  • Chemistry
  • 29.3.28

Research

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Advanced Modelling Lab @ CICECO

Manuel Melle-Franco leads the Advanced Modelling Lab @ CICECO , a strongly multidisciplinary group which focuses on the understanding of relevant problems in different broad areas such as chemistry, physics, molecular biology and materials science. This has led to more than 120  publications, of which 25% as first or corresponding author, with an added impact factor > 1000. 

Manuel's education and career are highly multidisciplinary. He has a  degree in Physical-Chemistry from the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain), followed by an M.Sc. in Materials Chemistry from the University of Kent (UK) and a PhD in Chemical Physics (2001) from the University of Kent (UK) with Alan Chadwick, with a year abroad in the University of Milano-Bicocca (Italy) with Gianfranco Pacchioni. 

After that, he joined the group of Francesco Zerbetto at the University of Bologna (Italy) for 8 years. Later, he moved to Portugal, where he worked at the University of Porto and the University of Minho. Manuel has been working in CICECO - Aveiro Institute of Materials since 2016. 

Manuel’s research has been reported in a variety of high visibility journals, most notably: Nature, J. Am. Chem. Soc.* (x10); Angewandte Chemie* (x10); Nano Letters* (x3); ACS Nano (x2); Nature Communications*; Small; Small Methods (x2)  BioMaterials; Journal of Materials Chemistry A; PNAS; Chemical Science* (x3); Carbon (x5); ACS Appl Mater Interfaces (x5); Nano Research; NanoScale (x4); Chem. Comm.* (x6); Organic Letters* (x7); Chem. Eur. J.* (x6); Environmental Microbiology; J. Chem. Theo. Comp. (x2); Journal of Materials Chemistry C (x2) among others, in addition to Nature Nanotechnology* (x2) review N&V pieces (*: corresponding author). 

Manuel's works have been highlighted in general media, such as radio and newspapers, and in several specialised outlets like Nature Reviews Chemistry, Chemistry World (x7), Physics World (x3), Chemistry Views (x4), SynFacts (x2), and Computational Chemistry Highlights.

International Projects

Selected Publications up to 2018 (click to go the article)

  1. Iglesias, Daniel, Manuel Melle-Franco, Marina Kurbasic, Michele Melchionna, Michela Abrami, Mario Grassi, Maurizio Prato, and Silvia Marchesan. “Oxidized Nanocarbons-Tripeptide Supramolecular Hydrogels: Shape Matters!” ACS Nano, May 22, 2018. doi:10.1021/acsnano.8b01182. IF=13.94, Q1, Comp-Exp.
  2. Cortizo-Lacalle, Diego, Juan Pedro Mora-Fuentes, Karol Strutynski, Akinori Saeki, Manuel Melle-Franco*, and Aurelio Mateo-Alonso. “Monodisperse N-Doped Graphene Nanoribbons Reaching 7.7 Nm in Length.” Angewandte Chemie International Edition, In-press. doi:10.1002/anie.201710467. IF=11.7. 
  3. Carini, Marco, Marta P. Ruiz, Imanol Usabiaga, José A. Fernández, Emilio J. Cocinero, Manuel Melle-Franco, Ismael Diez-Perez, and Aurelio Mateo-Alonso. “High Conductance Values in π-Folded Molecular Junctions.” Nature Communications 8 (May 18, 2017): 15195. doi:10.1038/ncomms15195. IF=11.3. 
  4. Marco, A. Belen, Diego Cortizo-Lacalle, Iñigo Perez-Miqueo, Giovanni Valenti, Alessandro Boni, Jan Plas, Karol Strutyński, et al. “Twisted Aromatic Frameworks: Readily Exfoliable and Solution-Processable Two-Dimensional Conjugated Microporous Polymers.” Angewandte Chemie International Edition, January 1, 2017, in-press. doi:10.1002/anie.201700271. IF=11.7.
  5. Melle-Franco, Manuel. “Graphene Fragments: When 1 + 1 Is Odd.” Nature Nanotechnology advance online publication (February 13, 2017). doi:10.1038/nnano.2017.9. IF=35.3.
  6. Melle-Franco, M., “Uthrene, a Radically New Molecule?” Chemical Communications 51, no. 25 (2015): 5387–90, doi:10.1039/C5CC01276G. IF=6.3.
  7. Höfinger, S., Melle-Franco, M., Gallo, T., Cantelli, A., Calvaresi, M., Gomes, J.A.N.F., Zerbetto, F., “A Computational Analysis of the Insertion of Carbon Nanotubes into Cellular Membranes” Biomaterials 32, no. 29 (October 2011): 7079–85, doi:10.1016/j.biomaterials.2011.06.011. IF=8.56.

Artwork and Covers

JACS COVER 2021

CS CoverFullerenes at High Pressures

Ongoing Supervisions

Clara Alves Ponte

PhD Student

Jorge Diogo Marques Laranjeira

PhD Student

Nuno Fortunato

PhD Student

Rita Maria Bolota Velho Pires da Fonseca

PhD Student

Veniero Lenzi

Post-Doc Fellowship

Óscar Toledano

Post-Doc Fellowship

Projects

Engineered Conductive Proteins for Bioelectronics (E-PROT)

Local CoordinatorEuropean Comission
Proteins demonstrate exceptional structural and electrical conduction properties for designing functional materials. The goal of the EU-funded e-Prot project is to rationally design efficient conductive protein systems and produce protein-based conductive structures and materials. This breakthrough relies on a multidisciplinary scientif...

Photo-responsive organic-inorganic hybrid multiferroics: A way toward multifunctional electronics (PTDC/CTM-CTM/4044/2020)

PartnerFundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Organic-inorganic hybrids Multiferroics Piezoelectricity Ferroelectricity

Projeto de Investigação Exploratória: Manuel Melle (IF Manuel Melle)

CoordinatorFundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia

Redox-active Metal-Organic Frameworks as Electrode Materials for Lithium-Ion Batteries (RedoxMOFs)

PartnerFundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia

Supported Covalent Organic Frameworks for the Monitoring of Pharmaceutical Pollutants (Charm)

Local CoordinatorFundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia

Functionalized graphene for quantum technologies (PTDC/FIS-NAN/4662/2014)

Local CoordinatorFundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia

Redesigning 2D Materials for the Formulation of Semiconducting Inks (2D INK)

Local CoordinatorEuropean Comission
2D-INK is targeted at developing inks of novel 2D semiconducting materials for low-cost large-area fabrication processes on insulating substrates through a new methodology, which will exceed the properties of state-of-the-art graphene- and graphene oxide based inks. Achieving this would represent an important step forward in the processing of 2D...

Publications

A Sterically Congested Nitrogenated Benzodipentaphene with a Double pi-Expanded Helicene Structure

Chen, FK; Gu, WT; Saeki, A; Melle-Franco, M; Mateo-Alonso, A
2020, ORGANIC LETTERS, 22, 9, 3706-3711.
ISBN: 1523-7052

Bow in awe to the new nanographene

Melle-Franco, M
2020, NATURE NANOTECHNOLOGY, 15, 1, 8-9.
ISBN: 1748-3395

Carbon nanostructure morphology templates nanocomposites for phosphoproteomics

Piovesana, S; Iglesias, D; Melle-Franco, M; Kralj, S; Cavaliere, C; Melchionna, M; Lagana, A; Capriotti, AL; Marchesan, S
2020, NANO RESEARCH, 13, 2, 380-388.
ISBN: 1998-0000

Carbon nanostructure morphology templates nanocomposites for phosphoproteomics (vol 13, pg 380, 2020)

Piovesana, S; Iglesias, D; Melle-Franco, M; Kralj, S; Cavaliere, C; Melchionna, M; Lagana, A; Capriotti, AL; Marchesan, S
2020, NANO RESEARCH, 13, 2, 596-596.
ISBN: 1998-0000

Clar Rules the Electronic Properties of 2D pi-Conjugated Frameworks: Mind the Gap

Strutynski, K; Mateo-Alonso, A; Melle-Franco, M
2020, CHEMISTRY-A EUROPEAN JOURNAL, 26, 29, 6569-6575.
ISBN: 1521-3765

Dibenzoanthradiquinone Building Blocks for the Synthesis of Nitrogenated Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons

Martinez, JI; Mora-Fuentes, JP; Carini, M; Saeki, A; Melle-Franco, M; Mateo-Alonso, A
2020, ORGANIC LETTERS, 22, 12, 4737-4741.
ISBN: 1523-7052

Different agglomeration properties of PC61BM and PC71BM in photovoltaic inks - a spin-echo SANS study

Bernardo, G; Melle-Franco, M; Washington, AL; Dalgliesh, RM; Li, FK; Mendes, A; Parnell, SR
2020, RSC ADVANCES, 10, 8, 4512-4520.
ISBN: 2046-2069

Quasi-Barrierless Submolecular Motion in Mechanically Interlocked Carbon Nanotubes

Villalva, J; Nieto-Ortega, B; Melle-Franco, M; Perez, EM
2020, JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY C, 124, 28, 15541-15546.
ISBN: 1932-7455

Thiophene- and Carbazole-Substituted N-Methyl-Fulleropyrrolidine Acceptors in PffBT4T-2OD Based Solar Cells

Gaspar, H; Figueira, F; Strutynski, K; Melle-Franco, M; Ivanou, D; Tome, JPC; Pereira, CM; Pereira, L; Mendes, A; Viana, JC; Bernardo, G
2020, MATERIALS, 13, 6.
ISBN: 1996-1944

Clar Goblet and Aromaticity Driven Multiradical Nanographenes

Gil-Guerrero, S; Melle-Franco, M; Pena-Gallego, A; Mandado, M
2020, CHEMISTRY-A EUROPEAN JOURNAL, 26, 68, 16138-16143.
ISBN: 1521-3765

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