Dr. Dimitris S. Argyropoulos is a Professor and Finland Distinguished Professor of Chemistry. The work of his group focuses on the organic chemistry of wood components and the development of new chemistry for transforming the carbon present in our trees toward producing valuable chemicals, materials and energy.

Dr. Argyropoulos received his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from McGill University in Montreal, Canada where he also served as a PAPRICAN professor with the Chemistry department. His teaching is primarily related to wood chemistry, biomaterial characterization, carbohydrate, lignin and polymer chemistry. Dr. Argyropoulos is a Fellow of the International Academy of Wood Science and a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Chemistry. In addition to being a member to a number of professional societies (ACS, TAPPI, PAPTAC), Dr. Argyropoulos serves the editorial boards of five scientific journals as well the board of the International Lignin Institute and a number of International Scientific committees. He has also served as the Division Chair, and Secretary of the Cellulose and Renewable Materials of the American Chemical Society.

Recent research in his group emerges from a significant finding that wood can be dissolved in Ionic Liquids, allowing for the creation of a variety of novel processing platforms for producing new materials, chemicals and energy. In addition, his group develops new methods based on organic chemistry, NMR spectroscopy and catalysis to modulate, direct and understand the transformations of wood biopolymers during industrial transformations such pulping, bleaching and bio-processing.

Publications

• Synthesis and characterization of nano fibrillated cellulose/Cu2O films; micro and nano particle nucleation effects (2018)
• Structure-property relationships for technical lignins for the production of lignin-phenol-formaldehyde resins (2017)
• Stable organic radicals in lignin: A review (2017)
• On the structure of softwood kraft lignin (2017)
• E-beam irradiation & steam explosion as biomass pretreatment, and the complex role of lignin in substrate recalcitrance (2017)
• A perspective on lignin refining, functionalization, and utilization (2016)
• Toward carbon fibers from single component kraft lignin systems: Optimization of chain extension chemistry (2016)
• Effect of fatty acid esterification on the thermal properties of softwood kraft lignin (2016)
• Macroscopic Behavior of Kraft Lignin Fractions: Melt Stability Considerations for Lignin-Polyethylene Blends (2016)
• Ionic liquid character of zinc chloride hydrates define solvent characteristics that afford the solubility of cellulose (2016)

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