Professor Lappin has worked in the area of mechanistic inorganic chemistry for the past twenty-five years. His interests cover both substitution reactions and redox processes of transition metal ion complexes and range from reactions of metalloproteins in biological systems to the corrosion chemistry associated with chemical reactors. Studies of cooperation between multiple reaction centers in chemical reactions have been a long standing area of research, particularly those involving multiple electron transfer or coupled electron and ion transfer.

Over the last decade the Lappin group has investigated phemomena associated with chiral induction in electron transfer and atom transfer reactions involving metal ion complexes and has provided much of the insight required for the interpretation of this effect. The inductions tend to be small but provide a very sensitive mechanistic probe. They occur quite generally in both outer-sphere and inner-sphere reactions.

Work in this area encompasses developments in molecular and chiral recognition and the characterization of weak interactions between metal complexes. These studies have led to the design of novel chiral ligands and investigations of new magnetic materials based on chiral paramagnetic metal complexes.