Welcome to the GEFRO group
Our group in Electrochemistry, Photochemistry and Organic Reactivity (GEFRO) from the Department of Chemistry of the UAB aims at studying and developing new processes and materials by means of photo- and electrochemical technologies. Based on the multidisciplinary background of our research team, we investigate a variety of processes and materials ranging from the electrosynthesis of organic compounds and the electroactivation of CO2 to the sustainable synthesis and processing of polymers as well as the preparation and characterization of smart molecules and (nano)materials. A number of different equipments and facilities are available in our laboratories to carry out this research, which is supported by both public and private funding.
News
April 19th, 2025
Tehreema Naeem’s paper on ionogel-based electrochemistry is now published in Electrochimica Acta
Tehreema Naeem‘s first-author article is now published in Electrochimica Acta, where we report the use of ionogels as electrolytic media to investigate the reduction mechanism of p-nitrobenzyl bromide. Congratulations, Tehreema!
March 25th, 2025
Jaume Otaegui’s paper on electrochromic smart windows is now published in Chemistry of Materials
Jaume Otaegui‘s first-author article is now published in Chemistry of Materials. In collaboration with Nanosfun (ICN2-BIST) and the group of Prof. Jonathan Barnes at Washington University in St Louis, in this work we describe how the performance of viologen-based electrochomic smart windows can be enhanced by exploiting the supramolecular recognition of viologen radical pairs in covalently linked dimers. Great work, Jaume!
March 7th, 2025
Rosa Mª Sebastián work highlighted by Dalton Transactions on the International Women’s Day 2025
To celebrate International Women’s Day 2025, Dalton Transactions is highlighting a selection of the work published in this journal in 2024 and 2025 led by women scientists around the world. One of these works is our publication on the light-induced modulation of the electronic properties of photoswitchable phosphines, which was first-authored by Anastasiia Sherstiuk and supervised by Prof. Rosa Mª Sebastián in our group and Prof. Evamarie Hey-Hawkins at the University of Leipzig.
March 6th, 2025
GEFRO at at 4YFN 2025
This week Dr. Marc Villabona and Prof. Jordi Hernando have attended 4YFN 2025, a start-up event of the Mobile World Congress (MWC-GSMA) held in Barcelona. There they have exhibited some of the innovation work developed at GEFRO in the fields of smart windows, anti-counterfeiting inks, electrochromic sensors and fertilizer production.
January 31st, 2025
GEFRO at the 1st Organic Chemistry meeting of the Catalan Chemistry Society
This week GEFRO attended the 1st Organic Chemistry meeting of the Catalan Chemistry Society, which was held at the “Institut d’Estudis Catalans” in Barcelona. There Anna Pozzobon, Oriol Gonzàlez, Dr. Noémi Jordao, Dr. Arnau Marco and Dr. Marc Villabona presented some of the latest results obtained in our labs.
January 10th, 2025
Arnau Marco’s paper on the antagonistic two-color control of polymer matrix formation is now online in Advanced Functional Materials
Arnau Marco‘s first-author publication is now published in Advanced Functional Materials. In this work, which was developed in collaboration with the group of Prof. Barner-Kowollik at the Queensland University of Technology (Australia) and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Germany), we pioneered the use of an oxo-Diels-Alder photoligation process to accomplish the two-color control of polymer crosslinking in an antagonistic manner. Congratulations, Arnau!
December 1st, 2024
Marc Villabona’s paper on photoswitchable phenol acidity is now published in the Journal of Organic Chemistry
Marc Villabona‘s first-author publication is now published in the Journal of Organic Chemistry. In this work we capitalized on the photoswitching properties of dithienylethenes to reach unprecedented light-induced modulation of phenol acidity. Great work, Marc!
November 26th, 2024
Congratulations Dr Arnau Marco!
Today Arnau Marco has presented his Doctoral Thesis entitled “Light-responsive polymer systems based on molecular photoswitches”, which was supervised by Prof. Jordi Hernando and Rosa Mª Sebastián in our group. Arnau gave an outstanding defense of his PhD work, which focused on the use of spiropyran and diarylethene photoswitches for the preparation of a range of photofunctional polymeric switches. Moltes felicitats, Arnau!
September 18th, 2024
GEFRO at “Vagó de la Ciència”
Today the 2nd edition of the “Vagó de la Ciència” (UAB Science Carriage) has been launched with the participation of GEFRO. “Vagó de la Ciència” is a joint initiative between UAB and FGC (the Catalan Railway company) which aims at disseminating scientific and technological advancements developed at the UAB campus to tackle some of the current societal challenges, for which dedicated information is exhibited in one of the carriages of FGC during the whole academic year. This year’s edition of the “Vagó de la Ciència” focuses on the consumption of fossil fuels, its environmental, health and economic impact, and the initiatives devised to reduce their use. GEFRO’s contribution to this exhibition is a novel smart windows technology developed in collaboration with the Nanosfun group at ICN2, which allows increasing energy efficiency in buildings and vehicles. Actually, some samples of our smart coatings regulating solar energy transmission through fenestration elements have been installed on a train carriage, together with others of a different smart windows technology developed by Nanosfun and the spin-off company Futurechromes SL.
September 13th, 2024
GEFRO at the VIII Iberian Conference on Photochemistry
This week Anna Pozzobon, Dr. Marc Villabona and Prof. Jordi Hernando have participated in the VIII Iberian and I Franco-Iberian Conference on Photochemistry, which was celebrated in Lisbon (Portugal). Both Marc and Jordi gave oral talks on some of the latest photoactive molecules and materials developed in the group, while Anna presented a poster on fluorochromic molecular photoswitches.
July 19th, 2024
GEFRO at the 29th PhotoIUPAC
This week Ferran Crugeira, Oriol Gonzàlez, Arnau Marco, Cristina Moya, Anna Pozzobon, Dr. Marc Villabona and Prof. Jordi Hernando have attended the 29th PhotoIUPAC – IUPAC Symposium on Photochemistry celebrated in Valencia (Spain). There they showed some of the latest results obtained in our group in the field of photoactive molecules and materials through different poster and oral presentations. Of all them, Ferran’s presentation of his work on the preparation of polydiacetylene-based thermochromic materials for the development of cold chain sensors for food packaging was awarded with one of the prizes for the best posters. Congrats again, Ferran!
July 11th, 2024
Ferran Crugeira awarded with the best shotgun presentation at 6th International Caparica Conference on Chromogenic and Emissive Materials 2024
Ferran Crugeira, an Industrial PhD student working in joint collaboration between our group, Nanosfun (ICN2-BIST) and the company ColorSensing SL, has been awarded with one of the prizes for the best shotgun presentation at the “6th International Caparica Conference on Chromogenic and Emissive Materials 2024“. There Ferran presented his work on the use of polydiacetylene-based thermochromic materials for the development of cold chain sensors for food packaging. Congrats, Ferran!
July 8th, 2024
Jaume Otaegui awarded with the best PhD thesis prize by the Photochemistry group of the Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry
Today it has been announced that Jaume Otaegui‘s PhD thesis has been awarded with the prize for the best PhD thesis in 2023 by the Photochemistry group (GRUFO) of the Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry. Jaume’s thesis, which was supervised by Prof. Jordi Hernando in our group and Dr. Claudio Roscini from Nanosfun (ICN2-BIST), pioneered the application of organic phase change materials to a variety of optical applications. Congrats again, Jaume!
July 4th, 2024
Jaume Otaeguis’s paper on light phase modulation with phase change materials is now online in Advanced Optical Materials
Jaume Otaegui‘s first-author publication is now published in Advanced Optical Materials. In collaboration with Nanosfun (ICN2-BIST) and the group of Prof. Romain Quidant at ETH Zürich, in this work we pioneer the use of phase change materials for the preparation of thermo-optical systems with light phase modulation capabilities. Our approach makes use of polymer films doped with paraffin nanoparticles, whose phase transition allows obtaining higher and more confined thermo-optical effects with less input power than state-of-the-art materials. Great work, Jaume!
June 26th, 2024
GEFRO at the XXIX Spanish Biennial Meeting of the Organic Chemistry Division
Cristina Moya and Prof. Rosa Mª Sebastián represented our group at the XXIX Biennal Meeting of the Organic Chemistry Division of the Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry, which was held this week in Sta Cruz de Tenerife. There they both showed some of the latest results obtained in our labs through poster presentations.
June 19th, 2024
Jaume Otaeguis’s PhD thesis awarded with the “Josep Castells” prize
Jaume Otaegui‘s PhD thesis, entitled “New optical systems based on organic phase change materials: from fluorochromic inks and sensors to smart windows“, has been recognized with the 2023 “Josep Castells”. This is a prize awarded yearly to the best PhD thesis by the Catalan section from the Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry. Jaume’s thesis was supervised by Prof. Jordi Hernando in our group and Dr. Claudio Roscini from Nanosfun (ICN2-BIST). Well done, Jaume!
June 3rd, 2024
Sara Santiago’s PhD thesis awarded with the “Antonio Aldaz” prize
Sara Santiago‘s PhD thesis, entitled “Design, characterization and fabrication of electrochromic, flexible materials for the development of smart devices“, has been recognized with the IXth “Antonio Aldaz” award for the best PhD thesis in Electrochemistry for year 2022. This is a prize awarded yearly by the group in Electrochemistry from the Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry. Sara’s thesis was supervised by Prof. Gonzalo Guirado in our group and Dr. Xavier Muñoz-Berbel at IMB-CNM. Congrats, Sara!
April 29th, 2024
Anastasiia Sherstiuk’s paper on photoswitchable catalysis is now published in Inorganic Chemistry
Anastasiia Sherstiuk‘s first-author publication is now published in Inorganic Chemistry. This article, developed in collaboration between the group of Prof. Evamarie Hey-Hawkins at the University of Leipzig and our group, reports the preparation of photoswitchable palladium complexes whose different isomer states present distinct catalytic activity in a model Stille coupling reaction. Great work, Anastasiia!
April 25th, 2024
GEFRO at the “Functional Molecular Photoswitches for Energy Storage and Beyond” symposium
This week Arnau Marco, Jordi Hernando and Marc Villabona participated in the “Functional Molecular Photoswitches for Energy Storage and Beyond” symposium celebrated in Barcelona. There Arnau, Marc and our collaborator Claudio Roscini from Nanosfun (ICN2-BIST) presented some of the latest results obtained in the group in the area of molecular photoswitches and photoswitchable materials.
April 14th, 2024
Jaume Otaeguis’s paper on fluorescent data storage and encoding is now online in Advanced Functional Materials
Jaume Otaegui‘s first-author publication is now published in Advanced Functional Materials. In collaboration with Nanosfun (ICN2-BIST), in this work we describe a novel strategy for the fabrication of fluorescent 3D and 4D codes capable of high density and high security encryption data storage. Our approach makes use of microstructured dye-paraffin mixtures, with which pixel arrays can be prepared that exhibit stimuli-responsive and multicolor emission. Nice work, Jaume!
April 2nd, 2024
Anastasiia Sherstiuk’s paper on photoswitchable phosphines is now published in Dalton Transactions
Anastasiia Sherstiuk‘s first-author publication is now published in Dalton Transactions. In this work developed in collaboration between the group of Prof. Evamarie Hey-Hawkins at the University of Leipzig and our group, we report the preparation of a novel phosphine ligand connected to two dithienylethene photoswitchable units, which shows the largest electronic modulation reported to date upon irradiation . Great work, Anastasiia!
March 1st, 2024
Congratulations Dr. Massimo Petriccone!
Today Massimo Petriccone has presented his Doctoral Thesis entitled “Specifically functionalized dendrimers for catalysis in special media“. The Thesis was developed in cotutelle agreement between UAB and the University of Toulouse III Paul Sabatier within the European project CCIMC and supervised by Prof. Anne-Marie Caminade (LCC-UPS) and Prof. Rosa Mª Sebastián in our group. The Thesis Committee highly valued Massimo’s work on the use of dendrimers for catalysis. Good job, Massimo!
February 16th, 2024
Congratulations Dr. Joel Cejas!
Today Joel Cejas has presented his Doctoral Thesis entitled “Immobilization of ruthenium complexes on supports. Applications in catalysis“. The Thesis was developed in cotutelle agreement between the University of Warsaw (Poland) and UAB within the European project CCIMC and supervised by Prof. Karol Grela and Dr. Anna Kajetanowicz (UWarsaw) and Dr. Rosa Mª Sebastián in our group. The Thesis Committee was impressed by Joel’s defense of his work on the use of dendrimers and MOFs as supports to immobilize ruthenium complexes for catalysis. Well done, Joel!
February 9th, 2024
Congratulations Dr. Anastasiia Sherstiuk!
Today Anastasiia Sherstiuk has presented her Doctoral Thesis entitled “Photoswitchable phosphines for light-modulated metal calysis“. The Thesis was developed in cotutelle agreement between the University of Leipzig (Germany) and UAB within the European project CCIMC and supervised by Dr. Evamarie Hey-Hawkins (ULeipzig) and Dr. Rosa Mª Sebastián and Dr. Jordi Hernando in our group. The members of the Thesis evaluation panel highly recognized Anastasiia’s defense of her work on the preparation of photoswitchable phosphine-based ligands and metal complexes towards the control of homogeneous catalysis with light. Поздравляю, Анастасия. Фантастическая работа!
January 31st, 2024
Arnau Marco’s prize at the Young Researchers Meeting of the Catalan Chemical Society
Arnau Marco‘s talk was awarded with one of the prizes to the best oral presentations at the 13th Young Researchers Meeting of the Catalan Chemical Society, which was celebrated in Tarragona this week. Arnau nicely presented his work on spiropyran-based hydrogels for CO2 detection. Good job, Arnau!
November 9th, 2023
Dr. Rosa Mª Sebastián at Conference Global Five
Dr. Rosa Mª Sebastián, vice-rector of Innovation, Transfer and Entrepreneurship at the UAB and director of the UAB Research Park, was invited to participate in the Conference 3rd Global Five on “The Economic Empowerement of Migrant Women as a Key Factor for Gender Equality”, which took place at the UPF Barcelona School of Management in November 8th and 9th. There Dr. Rosa Mª Sebastián contributed to a round table on “Testimonies of Women on Gender Equality”, where she shared her experience on overcoming inequalities on academia.
November 7th, 2023
Kick-off meeting of Confeti
This week we celebrated the kick-off meeting of Confeti at UAB, an EIC Pathfinder Challenges project recently funded. Through the combined effort of an international consortium led by Dr. Gonzalo Guirado, Confeti aims at developing a lab-scale validated autonomous technology to capture and photo-electrochemically convert CO2 and N2 directly from air or flue gases to urea, which will be produced and delivered in situ in the agricultural fields. To start the project, researchers from all the partners of the consortium gathered together at UAB campus in November 7th and 8th (UAB, CSIC-IMB, CNRS, Université Paul Sabatier Toulouse III, Universiteit Antwerpen, Universitá di Pisa, CIEMAT, Iowa State University and Arkyne Technologies SL).
October 27th, 2023
Congratulations Dr. Jaume Otaegui!
Today Jaume Otaegui has presented his Doctoral Thesis entitled “New optical systems based on organic phase change materials: from fluorochromic inks and sensors to smart windows“. The Thesis was conducted within the UAB Doctoral Program in Chemistry and supervised by Dr. Jordi Hernando in our group and Dr. Claudio Roscini from Nanosfun (ICN2-BIST). The Thesis Committee, formed by Dr. Cristina Martín-Álvarez (Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha), Dr. Pedro M. R. Paulo (Universidade de Lisboa) and Prof. Kasper Moth-Poulsen (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya), were deeply impressed by Jaume’s defense of his work on the use of phase change materials as stimuli-responsive building blocks for the preparation of smart optical systems. All hail Dr. Otaegui, the new Lord of the Switch!
October 17th, 2023
GEFRO at the Innovation Fair at UAB
Today Dr. Gonzalo Guirado and Dr. Jordi Hernando have been representing our group at the first edition of the Innovation Fair at UAB. There we could attend some inspiring talks and round tables about knowledge transfer and innovation as well as matchmake with other groups and companies. One of the companies present at the fair was Distinkt, a spin-off recently launched by GEFRO and Nanosfun (ICN2-BIST) researchers to apply nanotechnology to security inks.
May 31st, 2023
Silvia Mena’s PhD thesis recognized with the “Antonio Aldaz” prize
Silvia Mena‘s PhD thesis, entitled “Detection, capture, activation and valorization of CO2 in green solvents via electrochemically-activated processes” and conducted in our group under the supervision of Dr. Gonzalo Guirado, has been recognized with the VIIIth “Antonio Aldaz” award for the best PhD thesis in Electrochemistry for year 2021. This is a prize awarded yearly by the group in Electrochemistry from the Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry. Congrats, Silvia!
May 24th, 2023
Arnau Marco’s paper on CO2 absorption and optical detection is now online in Frontiers in Chemistry
Arnau Marco‘s first-author publication is now online in Frontiers in Chemistry. In this work we report the preparation of spiropyran-functionalized hydrogels that undergo selective, reversible and quantifiable color changes upon CO2 absorption, which can be reverted upon irradiation with visible light. This makes our spiropyran-based chromic hydrogels promising systems for the colorimetric monitorization of carbon dioxide in a diversity of applications. Great work, Arnau!
April 28th, 2023
GEFRO at ISI HSHC
This week our PhD students Joel Cejas, Massimo Petriccone and Anastasiia Sherstiuk together with Prof. Rosa Mª Sebastián and Dr. Jordi Hernando attended the International School on Innovations in Homogeneous and Supported Homogeneous Catalys (ISI HSHC) in Bucharest (Romania). ISI HSHC was organized within the training activities of our European ITN project Coordination Chemistry Inspires Molecular Catalysis (CCIMC). Joel, Massimo and Anastasiia actively participated in the “My thesis in 180 s” and poster sessions of the school, while Jordi gave a lecture on photoswitchable catalysts.
April 21th, 2023
Prof. Scott K. Shaw visits UAB and GEFRO
Prof. Scott K. Shaw from Iowa University (USA) visited today our group and the Department of Chemistry at UAB upon the invitation of Dr. Silvia Mena and Dr. Gonzalo Guirado. Scott delivered an inspiring lecture entitled “Measuring Molecules at Interfaces: Better than a Needle in a Haystack”, where he discussed some of latest results from his group on the study of molecular layers on surfaces. Thank you very much for coming, Scott!
March 20th, 2023
Jaume Otaegui’s paper on smart windows is now online in Chemical Engineering Journal
Jaume Otaegui‘s first-author publication is now online in Chemical Engineering Journal. In collaboration with Nanosfun (ICN2-BIST), in this work we describe a novel methodology for the preparation of smart windows based on the use of paraffin-polymer nanocomposites that show large modulation of light transparency upon thermal, photothermal and electrothermal heating. As a result, these materials exhibit efficient regulation of solar heating indoors for different weather conditions. This, in combination with their low cost, facile fabrication, ample tunability and high photostability and flexibility, makes our technology very appealing for the smart glass market. Nice work, Jaume!
March 1st, 2023
Welcome back Marc Villabona!
Today Dr. Marc Villabona is starting in our group as a post-doctoral researcher to work on the valorization project of a novel strategy developed by GEFRO and Nanosfun (ICN2-BIST) for the fabrication of smart windows (project PDC2022-133368-I00). Marc got his PhD degree in Chemistry in 2021 in our group under the supervision of Dr. Gonzalo Guirado and Dr. Jordi Hernando. So, welcome back Marc!
February 28th, 2023
GEFRO at 4YFN 2023
This week some of the members of our group have attended 4YFN 2023, a start-up event of the Mobile World Congress (MWC-GSMA) held in Barcelona. Together with the company’s CTO Dr. Àlex Julià-López, Dr. Jordi Hernando has been representing Distinkt, a spin-off recently launched by GEFRO and Nanosfun (ICN2-BIST) researchers to apply nanotechnology to security inks. Ferran Crugeira, a joint industrial PhD student in our group, Nanosfun (ICN2-BIST) and the company ColorSensing, has been presenting the work he does on the development of smart inks for food packaging. And of course, Prof. Rosa Mª Sebastián, UAB Vice-Rector of Innovation, Transfer and Entrepreneurship, has also been there!
February 27th, 2023
Congratulations Dr. Kevin Reyes!
Today Kevin Reyes has presented his Doctoral Thesis entitled “Photothermal effects of benzoxazines and polybenzoxazines. Applications“. The Thesis was conducted within the UAB Doctoral Program in Chemistry and supervised by Prof. Rosa Mª Sebastián in our group. The Thesis Committee, formed by Dr. Raquel Andreu (Universidad de Zaragoza), Prof. Daniel Ruiz-Molina (ICN2-BIST) and Dr. Elisabeth Torres (Berry Global, Inc.), were impressed by Kevin’s developments on the use of the photothermal properties of benzoxazines and polybenzoxazines in multiple applications. Good work, Kevin!
February 24th, 2023
Congratulations Dr. Amparo Ferrer!
Congratulations, Amparo!! Dr. Amparo Ferrer successfully defended her PhD thesis entitled “Smart Materials for Bacterial Detection Based on Electrochromic Molecules”. The Thesis was conducted within the Doctoral Program in Electrochemistry. Science and Technology and supervised by Dr. Xavi Muñoz-Berbel and Dr. Gonzalo Guirado.
February 17th, 2023
GEFRO’s research at CIQSO
Today Dr. Jordi Hernando was invited to give a lecture at the Center for Research in Sustainable Chemistry (CIQSO) from Universidad de Huelva (Spain). Through his lecture, entitled “Controlling (bio)chemical interactions and reactivity with molecular photoswitches“, Jordi presented some of the latest results of our group in the field of light-controlled reactivity with molecular photoswitches.
February 1st, 2023
GEFRO has a new website
It took us a while, but we finally have a brand new website for our group. Check it out!
