Richard Pagni Professor Organic Chemistry Ionic liquids; chirality; organic chemistry at interfaces B.A., Northwestern University (1963) Ph.D., University of Wisconsin (1968) NIH Postdoctoral Fellow
E-mail: pagni@mail.chem.utk.edu 619 Buehler Hall   ·   Telephone: 865-974-3397 Representative publications   ·   Biographical sketch

Research

I have been active in several areas of mechanistic and synthetic organic chemistry. One of these areas has been the behavior of organic compounds in ionic liquids that are molten at room temperature. My group, for example, has discovered several photoinduced electron transfer reactions in these unusual solvents which have no counterpart in more traditional solvents.

My group has also been active in the area of interfacial organic chemistry, a subject of importance to environmental chemistry and heterogeneous catalysis. In particular, we have examined a large number or reactions on the surface of alumina, a solid commonly used in chromatography. Several of these reactions have synthetic utility. For example, it is possible to generate hydrogen iodide in situ (reaction of I2 with surface hydroxyl groups) and have it add to the double bond of an alkene, a reaction, surprisingly, which is difficult to do in solution. It is also possible to convert nitriles into amides in high yield under mild conditions. Interestingly, the alumina serves not only as the reaction medium for the hydration reaction but also as the source of the water.

Representative publications

High resolution photoelectron spectroscopy of bromochlorofluoromethane. J.E. Mathis, R.N. Compton, D.C. Boyles, and R.M. Pagni, Mol. Phys. 89, 505 (1996).

Organic reactions on alumina. G.W. Kabalka and R. M. Pagni Tetrahedron 53, 7999 (1997).

Review of Beginning Organic Chemistry 1 and Beginning Organic Chemistry 2 by G. L. Patrick. R.M. Pagni, J. Chem. Educ. 74, 1169 (1997).

Review of Circular Dichroism and Linear Dichroism by A. Rodger and B. Norden. R.M. Pagni, J. Chem. Educ. 75, 1095 (1998).

The Photochemistry of PAHs and PCBs in Water and on Solids. R.M. Pagni and M. Sigman in Handbook of Environmental Chemistry Vol. 2, Part L, P. Boule, ed.; (Springer: Berlin, 1998).

Biographical sketch

Dr. Pagni received his B.A. in chemistry from Northwestern University and his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Wisconsin. He was an NIH postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University before joining the chemistry faculty at Tennessee in 1969.