Organic chemicals, number foundations

Fortunately, he persisted, made a number of very significant discoveries, and was responsible for helping put polymer chemistry on a sound chemical foundation. Many of his students went on to become academic and industrial leaders in polymer science. He applied his organic chemistry insights to the study of what were finally accepted as very large organic molecules. For his many contributions, he received the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1953. He has frequently been called the father of polymer chemistry. ... 

In this brief contemplation of the evolution of chemical nomenclature, no attempt can be made to probe into the multiplicity of small changes in usage of prefixes, suffixes, etc., which have occurred during the past two centuries. The number of such variations is legion, and to attempt to recapitulate even selective examples would quickly become tedious and soporific. This paper, therefore, proposes first to re-examine our nomen-clatural foundations, next to review their extension to the organic field, and finally to direct attention to a few contemporary problems which are beginning to assume substantial magnitude. 

Basic chemical research, best done in academic institutions or by contract research organizations, was needed first in order to obtain sucrochemicals of the nature envisioned by Dr. Hass. Thus, early work in sucrochemistry was funded by the Sugar Research Foundation in such research laboratories. An exploratory project oriented towards discovering the fundamental chemistry of sucrose and other carbohydrates had been supported previously at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1943 to 1950. The main purpose of the project, however, was to train carbohydrate chemists and to apply classical carbohydrate chemistry more broadly to sucrose and its close relatives. None of the derivatives produced and studied were found to be of practical importance in later sucrochemical studies, although a number of patent applications were filed and patents issued. Some of these studies were continued in several other laboratories during the early 1950 s, and a number of additional studies were undertaken to elucidate the relative reactivities of the various reactive entities, determine reaction kinetics and to try to make new and possibly useful derivatives. An intensive search was undertaken to find mutual solvents for both hydrophilic sucrose and hydrophobic reactants. 

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