I.G. Farben Industries

The history of polyurethanes begins with Otto Bayer3 at Germany s I. G. Farben-industrie (tire predecessor company of Bayer AG4) in 1937, tire year of tire first disclosure of diisocyanate addition polymerization to form polyurethanes and polyureas. The main impetus for this work was tire success of Wallace Caro titers... 

Long before the age of plastics and nylons, I. G. Farben-industrie was known to many Americans as simply the world s best druggist. Every reputable pharmacy, every physician s bag, every good family medicine cabinet, stocks some of Farben s 6000 medicines. The firm invented a drug that is still the best cure for epilepsy. They made atabrine, the quinine-substitute for treating malaria. And from the aspirin tablet alone, I. G. Farben made a vast fortune. 

During 1930s, the commercial interest of polystyrene started due to its good electrical insulation characteristics. During the second world war, two companies, namely, I.G. Farben-industries (Germany) and Dow Chemical Company (USA) started the large scale production of polystyrene. 

The process of hydro-cracking was already developed in 1927 by the German company I. G. Farben Industrie, to transform lignite into gasoline. As a support for thermal or catalytic cracking, hydro-cracking is used nowadays to crack hydrocarbons that are more difficult to crack. 

Because of the importance of the promotion effect and because many of the central questions surrounding TMS catalysis are about promotion, it is valuable to review a history of the effect. The first reference to a catalyst based on molybdenum and cobalt sulfides capable of desulfurizing coal oils in the presence of hydrogen was a patent from I. G. Farben Industrie dated May 24, 1928 (5). Before this, M. Pier and his team at BASF (1924-1925)... 

After his immigration he continued his connection with the I. G. Farben-industrie A.G. as consultant for the General Aniline and Film Corporation and worked for about two years in the Department of Chemical Engineering of the Johns Hopkins University. The result of this period was an important paper published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 66, entitled The Adsorption of Hydrogen on Tungsten. ... 

The first operation, i.e. the nitration of benzene to nitrobenzene, has been already described (pp. 232, 233). The second stage of the process, i.e. the nitration of nitrobenzene to dinitrobenzene by the method used at Hochst (I. G. Farben-industrie) is described below. 

The manufacture of dinitrotoluene at the Griesheim factory (I. G. Farben-industrie), described below, may serve as an example. 

Ethyl-trimethylolmethane or 2-Ethyl-2-Hydroxy methyl-1,3-propanediol, C2H5C(CH2OH)3 mw 134.18 wh crysts, mp 57—59°, bp l60°(5mm Hg), hyg sol in w, ale acet. Prepd by reacting butyraldehyde and formaldehyde in the presence of alkali. Used to make polyurethane resins Refs 1) Beil, not found 2) I.G. Farben-industrie A-G, BritP 484619(1938) CA 32, 7609(1938) 3) K O 1, 595(1963) ... 

Central to Germany s development of polystyrene technology was Herman F. Mark (Figure 1.4). Mark worked at I. G. Farben Industrie for 6 years from 1927 to 1932, first as a research chemist (1927-28), then as Group Leader (1928-30) and finally as Assistant Research Director (1930-32). Because of the changing political climate, Mark moved to the University of Vienna, where he became Professor of Chemistry and Director of the First Chemical Institute (1932-38). While at I. G. Farben Industrie, Mark played a major role in the development of styrene monomer and PS. Mark patented a process in 1929 for the production of styrene from ethylbenzene via catalytic dehydrogenation [8]. 

Figure 1.4 Photograph of Herman F. Mark taken in 1936. Mark worked at I. G. Farben Industries in Germany for 6 years, from 1927 to 1932, and played a major role in the industrial development of styrene monomer and polystyrene (courtesy of BASF, Lud-wigshafen)...

In 1925 Naugatuck Chemical Company built a commercial styrene/polystyrene plant, but it only operated for a short time. From this point I. G. Farben Industrie in Germany and Dow Chemical in the United States pursued commercialization of styrene and polystyrene. Both companies independently developed along similar routes. 

Sodium Amalgam. Sodium amalgam reduces nitrobenzene to azobenzene as well as to hydrazobenzene knd oximes to amines. The I. G. Farben-industrie, in its development of mercury cells for the production of chlorine and caustic, found that it could lise the intermediate sodium amalgam for the reduction of nitrobenzene to ajzobenzene on a very economical basis. The operation was carried out in batches in nickel reactors, and 50 per cent caustic soda was obtained simultaneously. It was not found feasible to produce hydrazobenzene directly by this method. Hallie has, however, obtained a patent on the reduction of nitrobenzei e to hydrazobenzene using sodium amalgam in aqueous alcohol. 

Kaiser Wilhelm Institute Lurgi Brabag I. G. Farben-Industrie Ruhr- cbemie Rheln- preuasen... 

Faragher, W. F, and Horne, W. A., Interrogation of Dr. Pier and Staff, I.G. Farben-industrie A.G., Ludwigshafeii and Oppau, Supplement II Report of Investigations by the Fuels and Lubricants Teams, Bureau of Mines Inf. Circ. 7376, August 1946. 

Otto Bayer was intuitive, observant, and curious. Thus, throu his expertise and intelligence, he was able to lead his company (I.G. Farben-industrie and its successor, Bayer AG) to new shores in a wide variety of fields. 

As manager of the Central Research laboratory of I.G. Farben-industrie at Leverkusen in the 1920 s, he directed the work of Tschunker, Bock, Konrad, and Kleiner, whidh led to Buna S and Buna N which are the world s most widely used S3mthetic elastomers, "niis dyestuffs chemist accepted the concepts promulgated by Hermann Staudinger and Wallace Carothers and became one of the world s best known polymer chemists. 

Chemists at Leverkusen were familiar with cellulose ester plastics and poly 2,3-dimethylbutadiene rubber, but these were produced on a small scale without the benefit of a knowledge of macromolecular chemistry. The production of Buna S, which was a copolymer of butadiene and styrene, which was aa laboratory curiosity. In spite of opposition from influential members of Ae board of directors of I.G. Farben-industrie, Bayer directed the development of a process for the production of styrene monomer and polystyrene at the Ludwigshafen and Bitterfield plants. 

This great discoverer was born at Frankfurt on the Main in 1902, and after studying under Julius von Braun, received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Frankfurt at the age of 22. his first and only employment was with I.G. Farben-industrie where he rose rapidly from a research chemist at Casella to Director of Research at Bayer AG in 1951. 

Electrolysis of Hydrochloric Acid. Development of this process was conducted initially at Bitterfield in the I.G. Farben Industrie Plant (26). The German patent application covering this innovation was dated October 15, 1942. It took 14 years before this work became known and taken up by De Nora in Milan. The original HCl electrolysis cell constructed on this concept had vertical bipolar electrodes. An extensive study made of possible diaphragm materials had resulted in a choice that gave satisfaction since the last electrolyser was operated by I.G. Farben continuously for fifteen months, but the details of manufacture of the diaphragm were never published. 

The first acrylic emulsion polymer was already introduced in 1931 by the German I.G. Farben Industrie for leather finishing. But the large-volume applications occurred not imtil the 1960s when new water-borne adhesives and paints were introduced. 

P. Schlack, I. G. Farben Industrie, German Patent Chem. Eng. News (Oct 2, 2000) 32 US Patent 2241321 (1941) Smith, in The Production of Polymer and Plastics Intermediates from Petroleum, Ed. by Long, Butterwoiths, London (1967). 

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