Dr. Diego Sorbelli

Postdoctoral Research Scholar

Education

• Ph.D. in Chemical Sciences (specialization: Theoretical Chemistry and Computational Modelling) magna cum laude, University of Perugia, IT (2023); Advisors: Prof. Paola Belanzoni, Dr. Leonardo Belpassi.
• M.S. in Chemical Sciences – European Master in Theoretical Chemistry and Computational Modelling, University of Perugia, IT (2019); Advisors: Prof. Paola Belanzoni, Dr. Leonardo Belpassi.
• B.S. in Chemistry, University of Perugia, IT (2017); Advisors: Prof. Paola Belanzoni, Dr. Leonardo Belpassi.

Professional Affiliations

• Member of the Theoretical and Computational Chemistry division of the Italian Chemical Society.
• Member of the Inorganic Chemistry division of the Italian Chemical Society.

Areas of Interest

• First-principles electronic structure methods
• Computational materials design
• Homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis
• Heavy and super-heavy elements chemistry

Experience

• 2023-Present: Postdoctoral researcher, Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago
• 2019-2023: Ph.D. Researcher in Theoretical Chemistry, University of Perugia (IT)
• 2019: Internship at Université Toulouse III Paul Sabatier, Toulouse (FR); Supervisor: Prof. Trond Saue
• 2018-2022: Research fellow, Italian National Research Council (CNR), Perugia (IT)

Publications

• D. Sorbelli, L. Belpassi, P. Belanzoni
  Widening the landscape of small molecule activation with gold-aluminyl complexes: a systematic study of E-H (E=O,N) bond, SO₂ and N₂O activation
  Chem. Eur. J. e202203584 (2023).
• D. Sorbelli, L. Belpassi, P. Belanzoni
  Radical-like reactivity for dihydrogen activation by coinage metal–aluminyl complexes: computational evidence inspired by experimental main group chemistry
  Chem. Sci. 14, 889-896 (2023).
• M. De Santis, D. Sorbelli, V. Vallet, A. S. P. Gomes, L. Storchi, L. Belpassi
  Frozen-Density Embedding for Including Environmental Effects in the Dirac-Kohn–Sham Theory: An Implementation Based on Density Fitting and Prototyping Techniques
  J. Chem. Theory Comput. 18, 5992-6009 (2022).
• D. Sorbelli, L. Belpassi, P. Belanzoni
  Unraveling differences in aluminyl and carbene coordination chemistry: bonding in gold complexes and reactivity with carbon dioxide
  Chem. Sci. 13, 4623-4634 (2022).
• D. Sorbelli, L. Belpassi, P. Belanzoni
  Reactivity of a gold-aluminyl complex with carbon dioxide: a nucleophilic gold?
  J. Am. Chem. Soc. 143, 14433-14437 (2021).
• D. Sorbelli, P. Belanzoni, T. Saue, L. Belpassi
  Ground and excited electronic states of AuH₂ via detachment energies on AuH₂^- using state-of-the-art relativistic calculations
  Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 22, 26742-26752 (2020).
• E. Rossi, M. De Santis, D. Sorbelli, L. Storchi, L. Belpassi, P. Belanzoni
  Spin-orbit coupling is the key to unraveling intriguing features of the halogen bond involving astatine
  Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 22, 1897-1910 (2020).
• D. Sorbelli, L. Nunes dos Santos Comprido, G. Knizia, A. S. K. Hashmi, L. Belpassi, P. Belanzoni, J. E. M. N. Klein
  Cationic gold(I) diarylallenylidene complexes: bonding features and ligand effects
  ChemPhysChem 20, 1671-1679 (2019).
• D. Sorbelli, L. Belpassi, F. Tarantelli, P. Belanzoni
  Ligand effect on bonding in gold (III) carbonyl complexes
  Inorg. Chem. 57, 6161-6175 (2018).

Awards

• Ph.D. Scholarship recipient from the "Department of Excellence" program (AMIS project) of the Italian Ministry of University and Research, Italy (2019).