The “Coriolan Drăgulescu” Institute of Chemistry Timișoara (ICCD) contributes expertise in coordination chemistry, hybrid materials, environmental chemistry and molecular modelling. Within CERSUS, it supports innovative materials development, advanced wastewater treatment, resource and energy recovery, and sustainability assessment. Its activities connect molecular design and materials characterisation with practical solutions for pollution control and the circular bioeconomy.
CERSUS Project Contribution
The “Coriolan Drăgulescu” Institute of Chemistry Timișoara (ICCD) contributes to CERSUS through its expertise in inorganic and coordination chemistry, functional hybrid materials and environmental applications. Its research team combines chemical synthesis, advanced structural characterisation and computational modelling to investigate the relationships between molecular structure, material properties and performance.
Within CERSUS, ICCD contributes to developing innovative materials and evaluating their applications in wastewater treatment, pollutant removal, resource recovery and energy conversion.
Reseach profile and expertise
ICCD team contributes expertise in the following scientific areas of the project:
- Inorganic and coordination chemistry, including compounds and precursors for advanced functional materials.
- Hybrid materials, combining organic and inorganic components to obtain tailored structures and properties.
- Green synthesis methods, including microwave-assisted approaches for preparing functional materials.
- Environmental chemistry, particularly the removal of dyes and metal ions from aqueous solutions through adsorption and photodegradation.
- Advanced materials characterisation, using spectroscopy, scattering, diffraction, microscopy and thermal analysis.
- Molecular and supramolecular modelling, investigating molecular interactions, aggregation and structure–property relationships through computational methods.
ICCD’s role in the consortium
WP1 — Project management and coordination
ICT participates in consortium governance, scientific coordination, progress monitoring and reporting. It works with the coordinator and the other partners to support project implementation and interdisciplinary research cooperation.
WP2 — Innovative materials for environmental applications
ICT contributes to synthesising and characterising organic and macromolecular materials, composites, and materials with catalytic, electrocatalytic and photocatalytic properties. Its activities also include carbon-based nanomaterials and porous organic–inorganic hybrid platforms.
The institute contributes computational chemistry expertise to investigate molecular structures and interactions, supporting the understanding of material behaviour and the development of data-driven approaches for process optimisation.
WP3 — Advanced wastewater treatment and resource recovery
ICT contributes to screening the environmental applications of materials developed in WP2 and to integrating advanced processes for the degradation and mineralisation of priority and emerging pollutants.
The team also participates in nutrient and metal recovery, photo(electro)chemical processes for hydrogen production and wastewater treatment, and the conversion of biogas and carbon dioxide into valuable fuels and chemicals. These activities connect functional materials with pollutant removal and circular resource and energy use.
WP6 — Sustainability assessment
ICT contributes to prospective eco-design and sustainability assessments of innovative materials, advanced treatment processes and waste valorisation pathways.
The institute also participates in experimental-data-based sustainability assessments of materials and processes, providing information on synthesis, characterisation and performance to support life cycle inventories and environmental and economic evaluation.
WP7 — Technology transfer, dissemination and training
ICT contributes to scientific dissemination, technology transfer, researcher exchanges and mentorship. It provides specialised training in equipment and methods for characterising materials, by-products and wastes for circular bioeconomy applications.
The institute also contributes to organising a workshop led by young researchers, supporting scientific exchange, interdisciplinary cooperation and the development of research and communication skills.
ICCD Team
The ICCD team is led by Dr. habil. Elisabeta Ildyko Szerb, whose expertise focuses on inorganic and coordination chemistry, hybrid materials and precursors for advanced applications. Her research combines structural and morphological analysis with the investigation of photophysical properties, supporting materials development for sensing and environmental applications.
The team brings together complementary expertise in green synthesis, functional materials characterisation, adsorption, photodegradation and molecular modelling.
Through these contributions, ICCD helps CERSUS connect fundamental chemistry with innovative materials and technologies for environmental protection and circular resource use.
ICCD Leading reseach team
CS I Dr. habil. Elisabeta Ildyko Szerb
Partner Coordinator
CS II dr. Simona Gabriela Muntean
Key member
CS II dr. Ana-Maria Lacrămă
Key member
more about this partner’s research team
ICCD research infrastructure
ICT provides laboratories and computational facilities for chemical synthesis, structural characterisation and molecular modelling, including equipment acquired through the ICT-RO-OPENSCREEN infrastructure project.
Chemical synthesis facilities include fully equipped laboratories and a microwave reactor. Structural characterisation capabilities include an elemental analyser, one- and two-dimensional benchtop NMR, a SAXS/WAXS diffractometer with a GISAXS module, liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry, and thermogravimetric analysis coupled with FTIR and Raman spectroscopy.
Functional properties are investigated using polarised optical microscopy with epifluorescence, differential scanning calorimetry and spectrofluorimetry.
A cheminformatics laboratory provides a high-performance IBM computing cluster, a SuperServer and ten computing nodes with high-end processors. Software supports bioinformatics, cheminformatics, molecular modelling and dynamics, quantum chemistry and data analysis.
Together, these facilities support the investigation of materials from molecular design and synthesis to structural analysis and functional performance.