United States chemistry industry

Moreover, the industry evolved in a very different manner in the United States than in Europe. In Europe it quickly emerged from the chemical industry—that is, the first producers of modem pharmaceuticals in Europe were chemical companies with expertise in organic chemistry. In the United States the industry evolved in response to the advent of modern transportation and communication—the railroads and the telegraph—from which the Second Industrial Revolution derived. 

At the end of the 19th century the competition of England, Germany and the United States for industrial chemicals had become rather fierce. It was not surprising then that only one year after Davis lectures in Manchester, Professor Lewis M. Norton (1855-1893) of the Chemistry Department of M.I.T. started teaching a course in chemical engineering. As Weber (10) notes, the material was taken predominantly from his notes on industrial chemical practice in Germany, which at that time had probably the most advanced chemical process industry in the world. 

Fluorine was first produced commercially ca 50 years after its discovery. In the intervening period, fluorine chemistry was restricted to the development of various types of electrolytic cells on a laboratory scale. In World War 11, the demand for uranium hexafluoride [7783-81-5] UF, in the United States and United Kingdom, and chlorine trifluoride [7790-91 -2J, CIF, in Germany, led to the development of commercial fluorine-generating cells. The main use of fluorine in the 1990s is in the production of UF for the nuclear power industry (see Nuclearreactors). However, its use in the preparation of some specialty products and in the surface treatment of polymers is growing. 

Chlorine. Nearly all chlorine compounds are readily soluble in water. As a result, the major reservoir for this element in Figure 1 is the ocean (5). Chloride, as noted earHer, is naturally present at low levels in rain and snow, especially over and near the oceans. Widespread increases in chloride concentration in mnoff in much of the United States can be attributed to the extensive use of sodium chloride and calcium chloride for deicing of streets and highways. Ref. 19 points out the importance of the increased use of deicing salt as a cause of increased chloride concentrations in streams of the northeastern United States and the role of this factor in the chloride trends in Lake Ontario. Increases in chloride concentration also can occur as a result of disposal of sewage, oil field brines, and various kinds of industrial waste. Thus, chloride concentration trends also can be considered as an index of the alternation of streamwater chemistry by human development in the industrialized sections of the world. Although chlorine is an essential element for animal nutrition, it is of less importance for other life forms. 

Before coordination polymerization was discovered by Ziegler and applied to propene by Natta, there was no polypropylene industry. Now, more than 10 ° pounds of it aie prepared each year in the United States. Ziegler and Natta shared the 1963 Nobel Prize in chemistry Ziegler for discovering novel catalytic systems for alkene polymerization and Natta for stereoregular- polymerization. 

T. Hirai and I. Komasawa, Separation of Europium from Sm, Eu, Gd Mixture by Photoreductive Stripping in Solvent Extraction Process, Industrial Engineering Chemistry Research, Vol. 34, p. 237,1995. Titanium, MCP-18, Bureau of Mines, United States Department of Interior, August 1978. 

As the chemical industry expanded, Perkin continued his own scientific research in the peace of his private laboratory. He had not lost his touch. Among the synthetic methods he discovered is one now called the Perkin reaction. He used it to make a synthetic substitute for a vegetable substance called coumarin, which has a pleasant, vanillalike odor. Coumarin spawned the synthetic perfume business and made luxurious scents available to all. Once again, a Perkin chemical started a new industry, albeit a modest one in comparison with dyes and pharmaceuticals. Despite the worldwide impact of Perkins discoveries, he was not knighted by the British monarchy until 1906, the fiftieth anniversary of his discovery of mauve. The world chemistry community feted him lavishly that year, and he traveled to the United States collecting further honors. A year later, at the age of 69, he died peacefully, at home. 

Amination of aromatic nitro compounds is a very important process in both industry and laboratory. A simple synthesis of 4-aminodiphenyl amine (4-ADPA) has been achieved by utilizing a nucleophilic aromatic substitution. 4-ADPA is a key intermediate in the rubber chemical family of antioxidants. By means of a nucleophibc attack of the anilide anion on a nitrobenzene, a o-complex is formed first, which is then converted into 4-nitrosodiphenylamine and 4-nitrodiphenylamine by intra- and intermolecular oxidation. Catalytic hydrogenation finally affords 4-ADPA. Azobenzene, which is formed as a by-product, can be hydrogenated to aniline and thus recycled into the process. Switching this new atom-economy route allows for a dramatic reduction of chemical waste (Scheme 9.9).73 The United States Environmental Protection Agency gave the Green Chemistry Award for this process in 1998.74... 

Direct and indirect costs are compared public and private costs are estimated at 3.5-4 times those for EPA in 1981. Among the former is loss of innovation. While several studies of this factor have been made for the industry, their reliability is questioned, due in part to lack of sound data prior to 1976. No mention was made of economic trends affecting corporate expenditures for research and development, or of trends in the maturation of industrial chemistry itself. Other indirect costs, such as concentration of manufacture within the industry, may result from costs of compliance, especially for smaller manufacturers. These factors were not compared with extrinsic factors, such as shifts in feedstock supply and commodity manufacture from the United States to other countries. 

The example of the first category is the formation of alkyl- and arylchlorosilanes in the so-called direct process (DP). The process was discovered over 60 years ago by Rochow in the United States, and, independently, by Muller in Germany, and it is still the most important reaction in organosilicon chemistry. In fact, it is at the very basis of the silicone industry, being the primary source of organochlorosilane precursors (mostly methylchlorosilanes, comprising over 90% of the total) in the production of silicone oligomers and polymers. 

In the postwar years a spirit of "chemical boosterism," to use a term coined in a recent historical study, emerged in the United States. A group of chemists, chemical journalists and science popularizers acted as propagandists for the chemical profession and industry. Their message, delivered with conviction to the public through a variety of popular publications, was that chemistry was vital to the national defense and to economic progress. One of the more active of these chemical boosters was Charles Holmes Herty, and his efforts to establish a national institute for drug research must be viewed within this context (11). 

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