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

• Ionic liquid character of zinc chloride hydrates define solvent characteristics that afford the solubility of cellulose (2016)
• Thermal properties of lignin in copolymers, blends, and composites: A review (2015)
• Wood extractives promote cellulase activity on cellulosic substrates (2015)
• Synthesis, characterization, and antimicrobial efficacy of photomicrobicidal cellulose paper (2015)
• Refining of ethanol biorefinery residues to isolate value added lignins (2015)
• Quantitative study of the interfacial adsorption of cellullase to cellulose (2015)
• Methylation of softwood kraft lignin with dimethyl carbonate (2015)
• Correlations of the antioxidant properties of softwood kraft lignin fractions with the thermal stability of its blends with polyethylene (2015)
• Quantitative P-31 NMR analysis of solid wood offers an insight into the acetylation of its components (2014)
• Efficient one-pot synthesis of 5-chloromethyl-furfural (CMF) from carbohydrates in mild biphasic systems. (vol 18, pg 7675, 2013) (2014)

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