Oxygen early research

Rubber—an unusual name for an unusual substance—is a naturally occurring aikene polymer produced by more than 400 different plants. The major source is the so-called rubber tree, Hevea brasiliensis, from which the crude material is harvested as it drips from a slice made through the bark. The name rubber was coined by Joseph Priestley, the discoverer of oxygen and early researcher of rubber chemistry, for the simple reason that one of rubber s early uses was to tub out pencil marks on paper. 

Silicone Oils. Silicone refers to a siloxane polymer. The name itself derives from early research in which it was thought that oxygen was bound to silicon via a double bond such as found in a ketone. The simplest of these polymers are the poly(dimethylsiloxane)s. Poly(dimethylsil-oxane)s are made by hydrolyzing dimethyldichlorosilane with hydrochloric acid (9). Dimethyldichlorosilane is, in turn, made by the Rochow reaction. In this reaction, an alkyl halide (RX), methyl chloride in this instance, is treated with silicon metal in the presence of a catalyst (usually copper). The reaction results in a number of products that are separated by distillation (10). 

Early research on various types of voltaic piles produced the two important discoveries of the hydrogen-oxygen fuel cell and of the lead-lead sulphate storage battery. 

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