Paul J. Ragogna

B.Sc. Brock University, 2000
Ph.D. Dalhousie with Prof. N. Burford, 2004
NSERC PDF Toronto with Prof. I. Manners, 2005
Office: B&GS 2022
Lab: B&GS 2006
Phone (Office): (519) 661-2111 ext. 87048
Phone (Lab): (519) 661-2111 ext. 80049
E-mail: pragogna@uwo.ca

Our Research

Current research in the field of Main Group chemistry provides substantial insight into the way molecules are held together (chemical structure and bonding). This greatly assists in the assessment of such compounds as useable materials. Although investigations of this type are primarily an academic study, many of the results have translated into substantial economic benefit. Main group elements are playing increasingly prominent roles in electronic materials, pharmaceuticals and new polymers. The benefits for the construction of new main group element compounds are two fold: (a) an increased understanding of the fundamentals of structure, bonding and reactivity; and (b) this knowledge can be used to assess potential applications for value-added products. In this context, the isolation of new compounds that contain charged main group centres, or main group centres in unconventional bonding arrangements are desirable because of their high reactivity. Our research program centres on investigating the fundamental chemistry of a variety of main group elements, as well as developing the potential new applications of our findings. Within this common theme, three sub areas have emerged and we are defining new directions in (a) The identification and application of unusual chalcogen compounds (Chalcogen = S, Se, Te); (b) Synthesis and applications of ionophilic materials: Ionic liquids with unusual functionalities; and, (c) The synthesis of unprecedented neutral, strained, main group element bridged cobaltoarenophane complexes.

Publications

(Graphical abstract follows citation)

40. J. J. Tindale, P. J. Ragogna “Ionophilic Phosphonium Appended Carbopalladacycle Catalyst for Suzuki-Miyaura and Heck Cross-Coupling Catalysis” Can. J. Chem. (Accepted; October 2009).

39. Caleb D. Martin, Christine M. Le, P. J. Ragogna “Remarkably Stable Chalcogen(II) Dications” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2009 (In press).

38. A. Sutrisno, A. Y.H. Lo, J. A. Tang, J. L. Dutton, P. J. Ragogna, S.Zheng, J. Autschbach, Robert W. Schurko, “Experimental and Theoretical Investigations of Selenium Chemical Shielding Tensors in N-Heterocyclic Carbenoids” Can. J. Chem. 2009 (In press) Special issue in honour of Tom Ziegler.

37. J. L. Dutton, G. F. Farrar, M. J. Sgro, T. L. Battista, P. J. Ragogna “Lewis Base Sequestered Chalcogen Dihalides: Synthetic Sources of ChX₂ (Ch = Se, Te; X = Cl, Br)” Chem. Eur. J. 2009, 15, 10263-10271.

36. J. J. Tindale, K. M. Mouland and P. J. Ragogna, “Thiol Appended, Fluorinated Phosphonium Ionic Liquids as Covalent Superhydrophobic Coatings” J. Mol. Liquids 2009 (In press) Special issue for EUCHEM 2008 conference on ionic liquids.

35. J. L. Dutton, H. M. Tuononen, P. J. Ragogna “Tellurium(II) Centered Dications from the Novel Pseudohalide Te(OTf)₂”, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2009, 4409-4413 (Communication).

34. P. A. Rupar, R. Bandyopadhyay, B. F. T. Cooper, M. R. Stinchcombe, P. J. Ragogna, C. L. B. Macdonald, K. M. Baines, “Cationic Crown Ether Complexes of Germanium(II)", Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2009, 5155-5158 (Communication).

33. J. J. Tindale and P. J. Ragogna, “Highly Fluorinated Phosphonium Ionic Liquids: Novel Media for the Generation of Superhydrophobic Coatings” Chem. Commun. 2009, 1831-1833 (Communication).

32. J. L. Dutton, C. D. Martin, M. J. Sgro, N. D. Jones and Paul J. Ragogna. “ Synthesis of N,C Bound Sulfur, Selenium and Tellurium Heterocycles via the Reaction of Chalcogen Halides with –CH₃ Substituted Diazabutadiene (DAB) Ligands” Inorg. Chem. 2009, 48, 3239-3247 (Full paper).

31. C. D. Martin, M. C. Jennings, M. J. Ferguson and P. J. Ragogna, “Dicationic Sulfur Analogues of the N-Heterocyclic Silylene or Phosphenium Cation”, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2009, 2210-2213 (Communication; Featured on the front cover).

30. J. L Dutton and P. J. Ragogna “Donor-Acceptor Chemistry at Heavy Chalcogen Centers” Inorg. Chem. 2009, 48, 1722-1730 (Full Paper).

29. J. L. Dutton, A. Sutrisno, R. W. Schurko and P. J. Ragogna, “Synthesis and characterization of cationic selenium-nitrogen heterocycles from tert-butyl-DAB (DAB = 1,4-di-tert-butyl-1,3-diazabutadiene) and SeX₄ via the reductive elimination of X₂ (X = Cl, Br): A distinct contrast with tellurium.” Dalton Trans., 2008, 3470 – 3477 (Full paper).

28. P. A. Rupar, V. N. Staroverov, P. J. Ragogna and K. M. Baines, “A Germanium(II)-Centred Dication” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2007, 129, 15138-15139.

27. P. Chadha, J. L. Dutton, M. J. Sgro and P. J. Ragogna, “Synthesis of neutral mixed sandwich C-Si bridged [2]-cobaltarenocenophanes from the dilithiation of Cb*CoCp (Co(h⁴-C₄Me₄)(h⁵-C₅H₅))” Organometallics 2007, 26, 6063-6065 (Communication).

26. H. M. Tuononen, R. Roesler, J. L. Dutton and P. J. Ragogna, “Electronic Structures of Main Group Carbene Analogues” Inorg. Chem. 2007, 46, 10693-10706 (Full paper).

25. J. L. Dutton, R. Tabeshi, M. C. Jennings, A. J. Lough and P. J. Ragogna, “REDOX Reactions Between Triphenylphosphine or Carbene (iPr₂IM) and Chalcogen Tetrahalides ChX₄ (iPr₂IM = 2,5-diisopropylimidazole-2-ylidene; Ch = Se, Te; X = Cl, Br)” Inorg. Chem. 2007, 46, 8594-8602 (Full Paper).

24. P. A. Rupar, M. C. Jennings, P. J. Ragogna* and K. M. Baines*, “The Stabilization of a Transient Diorganogermylene by an N-Heterocyclic Carbene” Organometallics 2007, 26, 4109-4111 (Communication).

23. J. J. Tindale, C. Na, M. C. Jennings and P. J. Ragogna, “Synthesis and Characterization of Fluorinated Phosphonium Ionic Liquids” Can. J. Chem. 2007, 85 660 – 667 (Full paper) *Special Issue for Professor G. Michael Bancroft.

22. J. L. Dutton, H. M. Tuononen, M. C. Jennings and P. J. Ragogna, “Extending the Series: Synthesis and Characterisation of a Dicationic N-heterocyclic Selenium Carbene Analogue”, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2006, 128, 12624-12625 (Communication).

21. J. L. Dutton, J. J. Tindale, M. C, Jennings and P. J. Ragogna, “The Direct Reaction of the tBu-DAB Ligand with SeCl₄: A Redox Route to Selenium – Nitrogen Heterocycles”, Chem. Commun. 2006, 2474-2476 (Communication).

All previous publications are from PhD and PDF research. Please contact PJR for his full C.V.

People

Group May 2009

Left to right: Caleb Martin, Jason Dutton, Christine Le, Jonathan Dube, Eleanore Magdzinski, Preeti Chadha, PJR, Jocelyn Tindale, Fanguo Deng.

Postdoctoral Fellows


Dr. Fanguo Deng Fanguo was born and raised in Hengyang city in south China, where the weather could get extremely hot. Whereas after he graduated from local high school at the early age of 16, he started his exciting and colorful explorations to different institutes in the far north: He received a B.E. in materials science and Engineering in the northeast (Jilin University, 2003); and completed his Ph.D. on organometallic/ionic liquid synthesis and catalysis in the northwest of China (Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 2008). Now he has travelled even (much) further to the beautiful country of Canada and joined Prof. Ragogna's project, pursuing ionic liquid-related research in collaboration with Jonathan. Fanguo is amiable and quiet in life, immersed in his thinking and work. He has, nevertheless, enjoyed lots of things besides chemistry, the favorite among which include listening to classical music, playing the piano, soccer, swimming, reading and thinking about something on philosophy.

Graduate Students

Jason Dutton (right) Jay was born, raised, and educated in London Ontario. A five summer stint of shoveling dust in the ninth circle of hell at the cement factory convinced him of the need for higher education, and he is currently pursuing his doctorate in synthetic inorganic chemistry, with an anticipated completion near his 10 year (that’s about 3650 days!) anniversary here at Western in August 2010. He is the selenium and tellurium guy in the Ragogna lab. In his spare time Jay enjoys writing brief, slightly amusing autobiographical sketches, squash, and has recently made a foray into biological chemistry; the little clone will finish brewing sometime in March 2010.

Preeti Chadha Preeti was born and brought up in Lucknow, (known as City of Nobles not Nobels J) though her parents are originally from Punjab, India. She obtained her Master’s degree from Indian Institute of Technology, IIT Roorkee, India and then joined a research project at IIT Kanpur working in the field of organometallic chemistry. Later, she moved to Western crossing the oceans in search of international research experience in 2007. In May 2009, she married an Indian guy who is doing Ph.D. at Western as well. She is working with cobalt (not a very well behaved metal) and is in search of new inorganic polymers. Apart from chemistry, she is an expert in north Indian and punjabi cuisine and keeps her husband happy with those Indian delicacies. She likes to play badminton and spend some time in gymnasium. Watching movies is her other favourite idle timepass.

Caleb Martin Caleb grew up in Waweig, New Brunswick and moved to Sackville where he attended Mount Allison University completing his honours degree on indium chemistry under the supervision of Dr. Glen Briand. Caleb joined the Ragogna group in August of 2007 bringing a whole new kind of stench to the lab with his sulfur project. Caleb’s hobbies include discovering new bonding motifs for cationic sulfur, making weakly coordinating anions for sulfur cations, X-ray crystallography, hockey, golf and watching the sunset.

Jonathan Dube Jonathan, aka "Dube", was born and raised way out in the boondocks, Kingsville, Ontario (pop. 6000), Canada’s most southern mainland town. He completed his undergraduate degree under the supervision of Maingroup Professor extraordinaire, Chuck Macdonald at the University of Windsor. Still yearning to break free of the country Jon ventured further than most Kingsvillians ever have: London, Ontario to do research with Professor Paul Ragogna. Over the course of his M.Sc. Jonathan has had his hands full with phosphonium ionic liquids and intends to use them as metal extractants. In addition to rocking one hell of a stache, Jon's non-chemistry interests include music with the volume cranked, Detroit sports, pepsi, playing baseball, bowling, trivia at the grad club, Degrassi Junior High, and the odd weekend pint.

Undergraduate Students
Eleanor Magdzinski Eleanor was born in the lively city of montreal. Soon after birth, her family moved to Wilmington Delaware, where she spent the majority of her childhood growing up and playing soccer. At the age of 14, her family moved yet again, this time to the municipality of North Bay, Ontario's real gateway to the north. She attended her four years of highschool there, during which time she sparked an interest in the sciences. After graduating highschool, she head off down south, to the University of Western Ontario. Her interst for the sciences narrowed to the field of chemistry, for which she has a growing passion for. Curently she is continuing in her third year of studies in the Honors Spec. Chemistry major in hopes of one day obtaining her PhD. In her spare time she enjoys reading, going for runs, cooking, and spending time with her roommates dancing to lil wayne.
Sara Accardi (Joint with M.S. Workentin) Sara was born in Richmond Hill Ontario. She spent most of her childhood moving around to different areas of the GTA. Sara has always had a passion for science, but her real love for chemistry was sparked during her grade 11 chemistry class. She is currently perusing an Honors Spec. in Chemistry and a major in Medical Biophysics in hopes of some day completing a PhD. Right now, Sara is working on the preparation of ionophilic monolayer-protected nanoparticles in conjunction with the Workentin lab. Aside from science, Sara enjoys a wide array of sports, including european handball, inner tube water polo and white water kayaking.

Kevin Venus (Joint with H.B. Kraatz) Kevin grew up in Dundas, ON, which is right next to, but not part of Hamilton. After graduating high school, his scientific interests lead him to UWO to pursue a BMSc. However, after a couple years he realized that chemistry was far more interesting and switched to the dark side. Currently, Kevin is in the final year of the Hon. Spec. Chemistry program and is investigating the hydrophobic properties of ionic liquid self-assembled monolayers on gold surfaces. When he’s not fiddling with the goniometer, Kevin enjoys watching the Leafs (lose), playing guitar, intramural sports, Mexican food and camping.

Alec Grose
Former Graduate Students

Jocelyn Tindale (Ph.D. 2009) Research Scientist with GABAE Developments

Former Undergraduate Students


Christine Le	Continuing undergraduate work at UWO
Taylor Battista	Graduate Student with J. F. Corrigan (UWO)
Michael Sgro	Graduate student with D. W. Stephan (U of T)
Katie Mouland	High school teacher
Gregory Farrar	Graduate student with C. L. B. Macdonald (Windsor)
Annelise Beaton	Teachers college
Jason Dutton	Still with PJR - see above
Dan Breadner	Graduate student with L. Luyt (UWO)
Erin Gray	Dental school (UBC)
Raymond Tabeshi	Whereabouts unknown.
David Hall	Continuing undergraduate work at UWO