Mª Rosario
Núñez Aguilera

Contact data:
Biography
Dr. Rosario Núñez was born in Loja (Granada), Spain, in 1968. In 1991 she graduated in Chemistry at Universidad de Granada. In 1994 she received her M.Sc. degree in Chemistry at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). She carried out her thesis at Inorganic Materials & Catalysis Laboratory (LMI) at Material Science Institute of Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC) under the supervision of Prof. Clara Viñas and received her PhD from UAB in 1996. After that, she worked as a postdoctoral fellow with Prof. Bruno Boury and Prof. Robert Corriu at Université de Montpellier II. In 1999, she joined the ICMAB as a fellow staff doctor to work in the LMI managed by Prof. Francesc Teixidor. Ïn 2001 she gained a permanent position as a Tenured Scientist, later, in 2018, she was promoted to Research Scientist. Her research interests are the synthesis and study of properties of boron cluster derivatives, preparation of carboranyl-containing molecular and hybrid materials
Research interest
My research interest consists in the design, preparation and properties study of boron cluster derivatives. These compounds can be linked to dendrimeric structures, hybrid materials, octasilsesquioxane cubes, as well as functionalize a large variety of surface (nanoparticles, CNTs, graphene oxide, etc). More recently, I have been interested on the design of small and large molecules with luminescent properties for optical applications. Another field of interest is the preparation of metallodendrimers based on metallacarboranes, which can be used in catalysis. I am also interested in the preparation of carboranyl-containing organic-inorganic hybrid materials. I am currently interested in working on the functionalization of surfaces, in special CNTs and GO, with metallacarborane and carborane derivatives, and the study of their properties and their potential applications in materials science and biomedicine. To sum-up, my field of research can be framed within inorganic chemistry, more specifically within the chemistry of Boron and Silicon, in the preparation of new materials of interest in biomedicine specially in BNCT, and electronics.
University Degrees:
Degree in Chemistry, Universidad de Granada
M.Sc. in Chemistry, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Doctorates:
Ph.D in Chemical Sciences, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Specialities:
Boron Chemistry
Construction and decoration of dendrimers
Nanoparticles modification
CNTs and Graphene oxide functionalitation
Photoluminescence
Hybrid materials
Most significative academic merits:
Scientific Member of the Organizing Committee of EUROBORON I (I European Conference on Boron Chemistry), Platja d'Aro, September 1997
Scientific Member of the Organizing Committees of XIII IMEBORON (XIII International Conference on Boron Chemistry), and HALCHEM4, September 2008
Scientific Member of the Organizing Committee of 7YRBNCT Congress (Young Research on Neutron Capture Therapy Congress), Granada, September 2013
Member of the Real Sociedad Española de Química (RSEQ)
Member of the Societat Catalana de Química ( SCQ)
Member of the Seminars and Training Commission at ICMAB from 2008
Scientific Responsible of the Spectroscopy Service at ICMAB.
Awards:
Special Award for the PhD thesis supervised to Justo Cabrera-González, UAB 2015-2016 Special Award for the PhD thesis supervised to Emilio José Juarez-Pérez, UAB 2008-2009 Special Award for the PhD thesis supervised to Arántzazu González-Campo, UAB 2005-2006 Accésit to the Sant Jordi Award of the RSCQ for the M.Sc. supervised to Arántzazu González-Campo, 2004Scientific Highlights:
Núñez, R.; Tarrés, M., Ferrer-Ugalde, A.; Fabrizi di Biani, F.; Teixidor, F. Electrochemical and photophysical properties of carborane and metallacarborane derivatives. Chem. Rev. 2016, 116, 14307-14378.
Núñez, R.; Romero, I.; Teixidor, F.; Viñas, C. Icosahedral boron clusters: a perfect tool for the enhancement of polymer features. Chemical Society Reviews 2016, 45 (19), 5147-5173. Front cover Issue.
Cabrera-González, J.; Cabana, L.; Ballesteros, B.; Tobias, G.; Núñez, R. Highly Dispersible and Stable Anionic Boron Cluster-Graphene Oxide Nanohybrids. Chemistry-A European Journal 2016, 22 (15), 5096-5101. Frontispiece
Cabrera-González. J.; Sánchez-Arderiu, V.; Viñas, V.; Parella, T.; Teixidor, F.; Núñez, R. Redox-active metallacarborane-decorated octasilsesquioxanes. Electrochemical and thermal properties. Inorganic Chemistry, 2016, 55, 11630-11634. Highlighted in the concentrates of C&EN, 2016, 94, 11.