Haas, Otto

Another class of industrially important polymers, polyacrylates and methacrylates, is associated with the firm of Rohm and Haas. Otto Rohm (1876-1939) was both a highly trained organic polymer chemist and a great industrialist. In 1907 he teamed with Otto Haas (1872-1960) to found both a successful German and American Company (Fig. 3.9). I owe a personal debt of gratimde to Otto Haas s son, John. He endowed the Charles Price Fellowship in Polymer History at the Chemical Heritage Foundation. 

Historically, the development of the acrylates proceeded slowly they first received serious attention from Otto Rohm. AcryUc acid (propenoic acid) was first prepared by the air oxidation of acrolein in 1843 (1,2). Methyl and ethyl acrylate were prepared in 1873, but were not observed to polymerize at that time (3). In 1880 poly(methyl acrylate) was reported by G. W. A. Kahlbaum, who noted that on dry distillation up to 320°C the polymer did not depolymerize (4). Rohm observed the remarkable properties of acryUc polymers while preparing for his doctoral dissertation in 1901 however, a quarter of a century elapsed before he was able to translate his observations into commercial reaUty. He obtained a U.S. patent on the sulfur vulcanization of acrylates in 1912 (5). Based on the continuing work in Rohm s laboratory, the first limited production of acrylates began in 1927 by the Rohm and Haas Company in Darmstadt, Germany (6). Use of this class of compounds has grown from that time to a total U.S. consumption in 1989 of approximately 400,000 metric tons. Total worldwide consumption is probably twice that. 

The application of enzymes, however, is not novel already in 1913, Otto Rohm, founder of what would become the chemical giant Rohm and Haas, had added a proteolytic enzyme, mainly trypsin, from milled animal pancreas and dog waste to detergents. Marketed in Germany in 1914 as Burnus , this innovation was way ahead of its time and ran into several problems First, the very crude proteolytic enzyme contained many impurities which sometimes stained the very textile it was supposed to clean. Second, one tablet could be added to 10 liters of water to remove stains from clothes. Unfortunately, consumers were used to bulky washing powders which lathered a lot, and they did not believe that such a small tablet could work. Third, the process of enzyme extraction was not economical enough to include it in routine household detergents. 

POLYMER MILESTONES—OTTO ROHM OTTO HAAS... 

Otto Rohm (top) and Otto Haas (bottom) (Courtesy Rohm and Haas Company). 

PMMA was first synthesized in 1928 in the laboratories of the German chemical firm Rohm and Haas. After five years of research, one of the firm s founders, Otto Rohm, found a way of manufacturing sheets of polymethylmethacrylate. He patented his invention and the company was soon producing the... 

Frankland and Duma first reported methacrylic acid in 1865 (3). However, like acrylic acid, its commercial development came many years later in 1933 (4). The development required pioneering chemistry on the monomer and its derivatives by Dr. Otto Rohm pubhshed in his doctoral thesis in 1901 and its evolution through the formation of the Rohm and Haas Co. in 1909 (5-8). Like the acrylic acid, methacrylic acid and its vinyl derivatives are used mainly in the preparation of polymers. There is httle interest in small organic molecules based on the monomers. 

The commercial discovery of acrylic ester polymers took place while Otto Rohm was conducting his doctoral research in 1901. Rohm obtained a U.S. patent in 1912 covering the vulcanization of acrylates with sulfur (5). Commercial production of acrylic ester polymers by the Rohm and Haas Co. of Darmstadt, Germany, commenced in 1927 (6). 

However, this part of the story illustrates that the concepts developed by H. S. had the strongest impact on research and development in industry and led to revolutionary activities in the production of polymer-based materials. Among others, Wallace H. Carothers was a careful reader of Staudinger s publications [1, 2]. The two scientists actually met once in 1937 [2] and seemed to have understood each other very well. Another record describing the tremendous impact and response of the cOTicepts of H. S. on industrial developments is to be found in the book by Ernst Trommsdorff [ 11 ] on the achievements of Otto Rohm, the founder of Rohm and Haas Company. This company did significant work in the industrial development of acrylate chemistry and materials based on this chemistry, all as a consequence of applying the ideas of H. S. 

Fig. 3.9 Otto Rohm and Otto Haas (Rohm and Haas, by permission)...

The early workers in the field of lubricants observed that small amoimts of rubber dissolved in a mineral oil raised the VI substantially. However, high unsaturation in the polymer led to oxidation and sludge formation. Otto et al. [3] discovered that this could be overcome through the use of a synthetic polymer prepared from the light ends of the gasoline. Similar observations were later made for polymethacrylates by Rohm and Haas Co. [4,5] and for polyisobutylenes by Farbenindustrie AG [6,7]. Because these materials were initially used mainly to increase the VI, they became known as the viscosity index improvers. 

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