Dr. Diego Sorbelli
The University of Chicago
Institute for Molecular Engineering
5640 South Ellis Avenue
Chicago, IL 60637
Phone: (773) 834-7392
Email: dsorbelli at uchicago edu
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).