Jamie L. Adcock

Professor
Inorganic Chemistry

Fluorine Chemistry

B.S., University of Texas (1966)
Ph.D., University of Texas (1971)

Research

Our research focuses on the synthetic and mechanistic aspects of the reactions of elemental fluorine. The Aerosol Direct Fluorination process (U.S. Patent 4,330,475, May 1982; U.S. Patent 4,885,112, August 1989) developed by our research group provides the instrument by which highly reactive elemental fluorine may be efficiently and effectively controlled for synthesis and for the mechanistic study of the individual reactions of elemental fluorine with organic (and inorganic) molecules as they are converted stepwise from hydrocarbon to perfluorocarbon without the tedious task of running individual reactions for each substitution step and for each isomer produced.

Although a process of commercial promise, aerosol fluorination provides a wealth of previously unavailable information about the interaction of molecular and atomic fluorine with organic functional groups, polymers, organometallic compounds and compounds of the "p-block" elements. Students in our group receive broad experiences in vacuum line technology, chromatography, inert atmosphere techniques, microprocessor controlled reactions, as well as operational and interpretational aspects of infrared, multinuclear nmr, UV-visible, and mass spectrometries. The group is an interdisciplinary mix of inorganic, organic and physical organic inclined individuals.

Representative Publications

Synthesis and photochemical reactions of perfluorinated carbonyl containing adamantane derivatives," J.L. Adcock and H. Luo, J. Org. Chem. 59, 5883 (1994).

Polarized CCH groups as novel hydrogen bond donors in hydryl-F-alkylesters: unequivocal examples of the Pinchas' effect. J.L. Adcock and H. Zhang, J. Org. Chem. 60, 1999 (1995).

Onset of Anh hyperconjugation in the transition state of carbonyl addition by deactivation of periplanar vicinal bonds. M. Kaselj, J.L. Adcock, H. Luo, H. Zhang, H. Li, and W.J. LeNoble, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 117, 7088 (1995).

Highly fluorinated adamantanols: synthesis, acidities, and reactivities. J.L. Adcock and H. Zhang, J. Org. Chem. 61, 5073 (1996).

Perfluorinated stellanes: the synthesis of perfluorinated bisnoradamantane; long-range ¹⁹F NMR virtual coupling. J.L. Adcock and H. Zhang, J. Org. Chem. 61 1975 (1996).

Biographical Sketch

Dr. Adcock received her B.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Texas at Austin in 1966 and 1971, respectively. After pursuing postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she joined the faculty of the University of Tennessee in 1974.

Jamie L. Adock

501 Buehler Hall
Knoxville, TN 37996-1600
Phone: (865) 974-3391
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