Collins, Arnold

Carothers was interested in rubber, but his reasons were scientific rather than commercial. He thought of natural rubber as a relatively simple example of a highly polymerized substance. So in 1930, without any immediate commercial goal in mind, Carothers gave Arnold M. Collins, a 31-year-old chemist familiar with DVA, the job of exploring its chemistry. Carothers wanted Collins to purify their samples of DVA and identify its impurities. Carothers suspected that impurities had caused the explosions in Du Pont s laboratories. 

Collins, P. G. Arnold, M. S. Avouris, P. 2001. Engineering carbon nanotubes and nanotube circuits using electrical breakdown. Science 292 706-709. 

Calcott, a DuPont chemist, attempted to make polymers from acetylene, reasoning that if acetylene formed dimers and trimers, conditions could be found to produce polymers. He failed, but went to Carothers who had one of his chemists, Arnold Collins, work on the project. Collins ran the reaction described by Nieuwland, purifying the reaction mixture. He found a small amount of material that was not vinylacetylene or divinylacetylene. He set the liquid aside. When he came back, the liquid had solidified giving a material that seemed rubbery and even bounced. They analyzed the rubbery material and found that it was not a hydrocarbon, but had chlorine in it. The chlorine had come from HCl that was used in Nieuwland s procedure to make the dimers and trimers. The HCl added to the vinylacetylene forming chloroprene. 

DuPont was looking for a synthetic rubber (SR). Carothers assigned Arnold Collins to carry out this research. Collin s initial task was to produce pure divinylacetylene. While performing the distillation of an acetylene reaction, in 1930, he obtained a small amount of an unknown liquid, which he set aside in a test tube. After several days the liquid turned to a solid. The solid bounced and eventually was shown to be a SR polychloroprene, whose properties were similar to those of vulcanized rubber but was superior in its resistance to ozone, ordinary oxidation, and most organic liquids. It was sold under its generic name neoprene and the trade name Duprene. ... 

S.F. Arnold, D.M. Klotz, B.M. Collins, P.M. Vonier, L.J. Guillette Jr., and J.A. McLachlan, Synergistic activation of estrogen receptor with combinations of environmental chemicals. Science 272 1489, 1996. 

Collins, B.M., Mclachlan, J.A., and Arnold, S. 1997. The estrogenic and antiestrogenic activities of phytochemicals with the human receptor expressed in yeast. Steroids 62, 365-372. 

P.C. Collins, M.S. Arnold, P. Avouris, Engineering Carbon Nanotubes and Nanotube Circuits Using Electrical Breakdown, Science 292 (2001) 706. 

Schneider SL, Aiks V, Morreal CE, Sinha DK, Dao TL (1976) J Natl Cancer Inst 57 1351 Arnold SF, Klotz DM, Collins BM, Vonier PM, Guilette LJ, McLachlan JA (1996) Science 272 1489... 

Collins CH, Leadbetter JR, Arnold FH. Dual selection enhances the signaling specificity of a variant of the quorum-sensing transcriptional activator LuxR. Nat. Biotechnol. 2006 24 708-712. 

Arnold SF, Vonier PM, Collins BM, et al. In vitro synergistic interaction of alligator and human estrogen receptors with combinations of environmental chemicals. Environ Health Perspect 1997 105 (Suppl 3) 615 18. 

Arnold L, Collins C, Starmer GA. 1976. Studies on the modification of renal lesions due to aspirin and oxyphenbutazone in the rat and the effects on the kidney of 2,4-dinitrophenol. Pathology 8 179-184. 

Collins PG, Hersam M, Arnold M, Martel R, Avouris Ph (2001) Phys Review Lett 86(14) 3128-3131... 

Carothers s early research at Du Pont focused on products related to acetylene, whose molecules were known to form long chains. With Arnold Collins, in 1931, he produced polychlorobutadiene, better known by its commercial name Neoprene, the first wholly synthetic rubber to be manufactured commercially (beginning in 1933). 

---