dr. Loreta Muscarella

Assistant Professor, Faculty of Science, Physics and Astronomy

Assistant Professor, Faculty of Science, Photo Conversion Materials

Assistant Professor, LaserLaB, LaserLaB - Energy

Personal information

Dr. Loreta Angela Muscarella has a background in Inorganic and Physical Chemistry. She obtained her B.Sc. and M.Sc. degree cum laude from Sapienza – Università di Roma. During her M.Sc., she spent seven months at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) to investigate the effect of metallic ions in mixed-halide perovskites to improve the stability and the optoelectronic properties.

In 2018, she pursued her passion for materials science, completing her PhD in physics at AMOLF, Netherlands, under the guidance of Prof. Bruno Ehrler; her research centered on investigating the structure-optoelectronic properties relation in 3D and layered 2D lead-halide perovskites by monitoring the optoelectronic properties of mechanically compressed thin films. After obtaining the PhD in 2022, Dr. Loreta A. Muscarella transitioned to a postdoctoral researcher role at Utrecht University, in Dr. Eline Hutter group. During her postdoc, she has been granted the NWO Open Competition Domain Science – XS to develop sustainable and smart perovskite-based photocatalyst to tackle indoor pollution, and the Distinguished Women Scientists Fund from The Dutch Network of Women Professors (Landelijk Netwerk Vrouwelijke Hoogleraren – LNVH). After an experience as Innovation and Funding Consultant at PNO Chemistry, she joined the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam as Assistant Professor in January 2024.

Research

Her research group, embedded in the Photoconversion Material section, will combine spectroscopy and compositional engineering of perovskite-based materials to investigate on the external stimuli response of the emerging lead-free and metal-free perovskites (i.e., all-organic perovskite), which are underexplored in the scientific community. Such fundamental explorations combined with the lightweight and biocompatible metal-free perovskite crystals and application advantages of molecular materials, hold great potential for contributing to the development of smart materials (e.g. piezoelectric, chromo- and photo-active) for flexible and modern wearable devices that can be self-charged by body movements, sensors, bionics, and transient optoelectronics. In addition, beside exploiting the piezo-phototronic effect to boost the efficiency of optoelectronic devices, metal-free perovskites hold great innovative potential for single-material multi-sensors and multi-source energy harvesters, where both light and mechanical stress can be used to outperform the conversion efficiency of conventional piezoelectric materials to support the energy transition.

Her group employs steady-state and time-resolved spectroscopy, along with compositional engineering of perovskite-based materials, to investigate the response of these materials to external stimuli such as pressure, light, and temperature.

Teaching