Phil Castellano

About

Phil Castellano is a Professor and the Goodnight Innovation Distinguished Chair at NC State University, affiliated with the Department of Chemistry. He holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Johns Hopkins University, earned in 1996, and a B.A. in Chemistry from Clark University. His current research focuses on areas including metal-organic chromophore discovery, photophysics, energy transfer, photochemical upconversion, solar fuels photocatalysis, energy transduction at semiconductor/molecular interfaces, excited state electron transfer, ultrafast phenomena, and next-generation OLED technologies. Castellano is involved in various research groups related to analytical, energy, inorganic, and physical chemistry, and he is a co-director of the Organic and Carbon Electronics Cluster. His work emphasizes understanding and developing advanced materials and processes for energy and electronic applications.

Selected publications

• AlphaFlow: autonomous discovery and optimization of multi-step chemistry using a self-driven fluidic lab guided by reinforcement learning

  Nature Communications · 2023-03-14 · 179 citations

  articleOpen access

  Closed-loop, autonomous experimentation enables accelerated and material-efficient exploration of large reaction spaces without the need for user intervention. However, autonomous exploration of advanced materials with complex, multi-step processes and data sparse environments remains a challenge. In this work, we present AlphaFlow, a self-driven fluidic lab capable of autonomous discovery of complex multi-step chemistries. AlphaFlow uses reinforcement learning integrated with a modular microdro…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A Unified Approach to Decarboxylative Halogenation of (Hetero)aryl Carboxylic Acids

  Journal of the American Chemical Society · 2022-04-29 · 146 citations

  articleOpen access

  Aryl halides are a fundamental motif in synthetic chemistry, playing a critical role in metal-mediated cross-coupling reactions and serving as important scaffolds in drug discovery. Although thermal decarboxylative functionalization of aryl carboxylic acids has been extensively explored, the scope of existing halodecarboxylation methods remains limited, and there currently exists no unified strategy that provides access to any type of aryl halide from an aryl carboxylic acid precursor. Herein, w…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Low power threshold photochemical upconversion using a zirconium(<scp>iv</scp>) LMCT photosensitizer

  Chemical Science · 2021-01-01 · 93 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  ). This study illustrates the importance of supporting the continued development and discovery of molecular-based triplet photosensitizers based on earth-abundant metals.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Photo‐Induced Bandgap Engineering of Metal Halide Perovskite Quantum Dots In Flow

  Advanced Materials · 2025-02-11 · 18 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Over the past decade, lead halide perovskite (LHP) nanocrystals (NCs) have attracted significant attention due to their tunable optoelectronic properties for next‐generation printed photonic and electronic devices. High‐energy photons in the presence of haloalkanes provide a scalable and sustainable pathway for precise bandgap engineering of LHP NCs via photo‐induced anion exchange reaction (PIAER) facilitated by in situ generated halide anions. However, the mechanisms driving photo‐ind…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Statistical analysis of HAADF-STEM images to determine the surface coverage and distribution of immobilized molecular complexes

  Matter · 2024-12-09 · 11 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

Labs

• Castellano GroupPI

Awards & honors

• Goodnight Innovation Distinguished Chair
• AAAS Fellow

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