Nicola Petragnani, Italian-born Brazilian organic chemist (Rome 16 May 1929 – São Paulo 05 December 2015)

Son of world-famous microbiologist Gianni Petragnani

Authored about 100 original papers

With A. R. Katritzky, O. Meth-Cohn & C.S. Rees authored the book Tellurium in organic synthesis (1994)

Authored one chapter in volume 11 of Comprehensive Organometallic Chemistry

ACHIEVEMENTS

With J.V. Comasseto, W. Nakamura & C.A. Brandt discovered aryl (selenotelluro) acetals, a new class of non-metallic elements compounds (1983)

With J.V. Comasseto & J.T.B. Ferreira performed the acetylenic selenides (1981)

With J.V. Comasseto performed the first synthetic application of vinyl selenides (1978)

With J.V. Comasseto first to add diazoalkanes to aryl selenyl bromides (1976)

With J.V. Comasseto & Varella developed two methods for diaryltellurium dicarboxylates synthesis (1976)

With L. Torres & K.J. Wynne described the reaction involving tellurenyl halides and Grignard reagents yielding diorganoyl tellurides (1975)

With J.V. Comasseto, Brocksom, R. Rodrigues & Teixeira developed a simple method for preparation of di- and tetra substituted succinates (1974) and a method for preparation of succinates or succinic acid derivatives (1975)

With G. Schill developed the first general method for telluroacetals synthesis and the first synthesis of a selenoacetal compound (1970)

With M.M. Campos developed a number of reagents containing P-C-Se (selenophosphoranes)

With M.M. Campos & Toscano first to synthesize species containing a P-Se-C binding

With M.M. Campos described the addiction of tellurium tetrachloride to olefins (1962)

Discovered aryl tellurium tribromides and triiodides (1960)

With M.M. Campos & C. Thomé first to report the reduction of an organic substrate via a tellurium reagent (1960)

With M.M. Campos first to use a tellurium reagent in organic synthesis (1960)

With M.M. Campos discovered that both selenium and tellurium promotes the cyclization of unsaturated substrates in Chem. Ber. 93:317, 1960  

With M.M. Campos discovered seleno- and tellurolactonization of unsaturated acids in Chem. Ber. 93:317, 1960

With M.M. Campos first to describe selenocyclofunctionalization reaction (1959)

Established the role of b5 cytochrome in methaemoglobin

With I. Raw & O.C. Nogueira. Methaemoglobin reduction through cytochrome b5. Nature 184:1651, 1959