Permanents, consumer chemistry

Manufacture of Printed Wiring Boards. Printed wiring boards, or printed circuit boards, are usually thin flat panels than contain one or multiple layers of thin copper patterns that interconnect the various electronic components (e.g. integrated circuit chips, connectors, resistors) that are attached to the boards. These panels are present in almost every consumer electronic product and automobile sold today. The various photopolymer products used to manufacture the printed wiring boards include film resists, electroless plating resists (23), liquid resists, electrodeposited resists (24), solder masks (25), laser exposed photoresists (26), flexible photoimageable permanent coatings (27) and polyimide interlayer insulator films (28). Another new use of photopolymer chemistry is the selective formation of conductive patterns in polymers (29). 

Significant quantities for formaldehyde are consumed in the production of other resins or polymers such as polyacetyls, melamine resins, and alkyl resins. Formaldehyde is also used in rubber/latex manufacture, textile treatment other than permanent-press fabrics, dye manufacture and use, photoprocessing chemicals, laboratory fixatives, embalming fluids, disinfectants, and preservatives. Formaldehyde can also be emitted by combustion appliances, wood fires, tobacco smoke, and in indoor chemistry. 

The confrontations regarding the BASF s Merseburg ammonia plant, later the Leuna-Werke, came just when the industry power struggle was being decided in favor of Big Chemistry. The cyanamide industry obviously wanted to get a piece of the permanently increased amount desired by the military. However, it could not refute the suspicion that its ammonia was unsuitable for the production of nitric acid. Indeed, the inferiority of the cyanamide industry s process, which was only suspected before April 1916, received confirmation in other areas as well. First, the operating conditions in the Reichsstickstoffwerke were "defectively established," as it was put, so that the available electrical power was not fully consumed. Second, and decisive for wartime, the process required twelve times as many workers as the Haber-Bosch procedure to produce the same amount of nitrogen. With the news of this factor, at the latest, the cyanamide industry, BASF s last serious competitor, fell out of the race. BASF and the other Dreibund partners now dominated the production of nitrogen compounds. 

In this chapter, I cover a few topics from the chemistry of consumer products. 1 show you the chemistry behind soaps, detergents, and cleaners. 1 talk a little bit about medicines and drugs, and 1 show you some things about personal care products, permanents, tanning products, and perfumes. 1 hope that you ll gain an appreciation for chemistry and what it has done to make your life better and easier. (Note that lots of common chemicals in the home are acids and bases. Chapter 12 s main thing is acids and bases, which makes it nice complementary reading to this chapter.)... 

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