Rubber shortage

When Japan attacked Hawaii in December 1941, the most critical chemical problem was the solution to the rubber shortage because the far Eastern suppliers were cut off. Since Speed had become a polymer chemist during 1930-1940, he became part of this rubber program. The major rubber companies, many universities, and other chemical companies put aside their competition and pooled their research efforts and in about a year s time developed a usable SR that was manufactured and used in smaller types of tires. 

While natural rubber began as the basis for automobile tires, synthetic rubber products replaced natural rubber - partly as a consequence of the rubber shortage of World War II. Synthetic rubber products include styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR), polybutadiene rubber (BR), polyisoprene rubber (IR), nitrile rubber, neoprenes, polysulfides, polyacrylate rubber, and a host of other products with 65% of all SBR... 

The chromatographic separation should whenever possible be completed in one operation. If, however, shortage of time necessitates an interruption, this can most conveniently be made immediately after the first band has been completely eluted, whereupon the lower end of the tube is closed by a short piece of rubber tubing carrying a screw-clip. Great care should be taken however not to allow even the top of the column to run dry. 

In 1839, Charles Goodyear discovered that sulfur could cross-link polymer chains and patented the process in 1844 [1]. Since then rubber became a widely usable material. By the year 1853, natural rubber (NR) was in short supply. So attempts were made to undo what Goodyear had accomplished. Goodyear himself was involved in trying to reclaim vulcanized rubber to overcome the shortage of NR. Later, as a consequence of World War I, Germany introduced synthetic rubbers, namely the Buna rubbers, which raised the curiosity of polymer chemists all over the world. Subsequently, synthetic rubbers with tailor-made properties were born. This was followed by the discovery of new methods and chemicals for vulcanization and processing. It is obvious... 

The rabber industry changed again when the Japanese captured the East Indian rubber plantations during World War n. The resulting shortage of rabber prompted an intensive research program to produce synthetic rubber. Today, more than 2 million tons of synthetic rabber is produced each year in the United States. Natural rubber is still produced in the tropics, but its importance pales compared to the glory days of the Brazilian rabber plantations. 

A synthetic elastomer produced by the polymerisation of dimethylbutadiene. It was manufactured in Germany during World War I to overcome the shortage of natural rubber. Methylene Bis-Orthochloroaniline... 

Until the 1930s natural rubber from Hevea brasiliensis was the only available elastomer. The United States had to, and still does, import every pound. Although research on synthetic substitutes began before 1940 in this country. World War II influenced speedy development of substitutes when our supply of natural rubber from the Far East was cut off. Gasoline had to be rationed not because of its shortage, but because of the automobile tire shortage. 

The balance between natural rubber and SBR is a delicate one. Natural rubber has made a comeback and reversed its downward trend. Developments of rubber farming have raised the yield from 500 Ib/acre/yr to 2,000-3,000. Petrochemical shortages and price increases have hurt SBR. Finally, the trend toward radial-ply tires, which contain a higher proportion of natural rubber, favors this comeback. Fig 18.1 shows the U.S. natural rubber consumption trends vs. U.S. SBR production, where this bounceback of the natural rubber market is very evident from 1980 to the present. The competitive price structure for these two elastomers through the years has been very evident, and their prices are never too far apart. 

In 1941, exploratory work on incendiary materials was begun under L.F. Fieser at Harvard University (Ref 7). The first material developed was gasoline (80-octane motor-vehicle type), thickened (jellied) by addition of natural robber. This was a satisfactory product but, due to the shortage of natural rubber, it could not be produced on a large scale. Therefore, a new thickener was developed which consisted of erode aluminum naphthanate modified by addition of A1 soaps of cocoanuc oil acids. This thickened gasoline was not very successful at first (See further). Standard Oil Co (Esso)... 

Alkylation of benzene for the production of ethylbenzene, the raw material for making styrene and subsequently synthetic rubber, was also greatly expanded during the war because of the shortage of natural rubber. The catalyst in most of the original ethylbenzene units was aluminum chloride, but other catalysts are now preferred by many refiners. Alkylation for the production of ethylbenzene was the first large-scale alkylation process used for the production of petrochemicals. Since that time, others, such as cumene, dodecylbenzene, alkylated phenols, diisopropylbenzene, and secondary butylbenzene, have been added to the list, and others have been developed and should soon be in commercial production. 

The anodes (see Fig. 145) consist of aluminium rod with platinum side arms on whioh platinum wires are arranged in 8 turns. The aluminium support is thoroughly coated with rubber. Current density at the anode varies between 100 to 150 A per sq. dm. (In war-time Germany current density was increased to 200 A per sq. dm. because of the shortage of platinum). 

The industrial production of PVC using emulsion and suspension technology had occurred in Germany, the USA and the UK by the start of World War II. During World War II, the acute shortage of rubber accelerated developments in this area, including cable insulation and sheathing. 

There is evidence that natural rubber was used by early Americans to make rubber balls over 2000 years ago. However, it has only been since the early twentieth century that rubber has become crucial to maintaining our standard of living in our current technology-based society. Synthetic rubbers, or elastomers as any artificial substance with elastic properties is called, have been a subject of intense research since the late 1800s. These materials were critically needed in the first half of the twentieth century to replace natural rubber in the tires for the newly invented automobile, due to shortages of natural rubber caused by wars. 

Polyurethanes were discovered in 1937 by Otto Baryer and his co-workers at the laboratory of LG. Farbenindustrie in Leverkusen (Ulrich, 1982). Since their discovery polyurethanes have attained substantial commercial importance. The development of polyurethane technology was delayed by the Second World War. With the shortage of natural rubber during the war their wide versatility enabled them to be developed in a number of application areas. It became clear that urethanes offered greater latitude, and many new products were created. 

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