Synthetic rubber organic chemistry

Organic chemistry demands much from chlorine, both as an oxidizing agent and in substitution, since it often brings many desired properties in an organic compound when substituted for hydrogen, as in one form of synthetic rubber. 

Since its recognition and systematic exploration by Otto Diels and Kurt Alder in the 1920s, the Diels-Alder reaction motif (5.84b) has provided one of the most powerful tools of organic synthesis. The Diels-Alder reaction led directly to the dramatic pre-World War II development of the chemical industry for production of synthetic rubber and other polymeric materials. Today, the commercial impact of Diels-Alder methods extends to virtually all areas of agricultural, pharmaceutical, and natural-products chemistry. 

Wallace H. Carothers, a brilliant organic chemist who was principally responsible for the development of nylon and the first synthetic rubber (Neoprene), was born in 1896 in Burlington, Iowa. As a youth, Carothers was fascinated by tools and mechanical devices and spent many hours experimenting. In 1915 he entered Tarkio College in Missouri. Carothers so excelled in chemistry that even before his graduation, he was made a chemistry instructor. 

Dunbrook, R.F. Contribution of organic chemistry to the war effort, synthetic rubber. India Rubber World 1947, 117, 203. 

Of the two metals it is only sodium that is used to any extent in its metallic state. It is required in manufacturing sodium peroxide, cyanide and sodamide. An alloy with potassium is liquid at the ordinary temperature and is used in thermometry. Sodium is a useful reagent in organic chemistry as in the manufacture of synthetic rubber it was at one time used in manufactujing metallic aluminium and magnesium by replacement in the chlorides but these metals are now obtained electrolytically. An alloy with lead finds application in the manufacture of ethyl , that is, lead tetraethyl, for anti-knock motor spirit. Its property of emitting electrons when exposed to light enables it to be used in photoelectric cells. 

In 1927 the management of Du Pont initiated a basic research programme that led to the discovery of neoprene synthetic rubber and nylon. The programme encompassed colloid chemistry, catalysis, the gathering of physical and chemical data, organic... 

The physical laboratory, complete with x-ray apparatus, electron diffraction, viscosity and osmotic measurement equipment, was under the direct guidance of Karl Wolf When Mark took over it was not the only department of the Central Research Laboratory. There was a synthetic organic laboratory under the leadership of Heinrich Hopff, the personal assistant of K.H. Meyer, and a technical station, called Technion, for the synthesis of amounts of polymer substances sufficient to permit study of their properties. The latter group was under Manfred Dunkel. The research group of Otto Schmidt studied catalytic reactions and synthetic rubber chemistry. ... 

This contribution is derived from Strategy and System Reppe and the Development of Organic Chemicals in I.G. Farben, a paper presented at a meeting of the Society for the History of Technology, Madison, Wisconsin, 3 November 1991. Subsequently it has been reworked and presented at various seminars. It is based largely on my doctoral thesis, The Development of Acetylene Chemistry and Synthetic Rubber by I.G. Farbenindustrie Aktiengesellschaft, 1926-1945, Oxford University D.Phil., 1982. 

---