Abstract
THE development of synthetic rubber is one of the outstanding achievements of chemical industry in recent years. The chronicler of the story of this achievement is, however, faced with a multiplicity of difficulties. A comprehensive account must include, first the manufacture of the monomer, second the polymerization of the monomer, and third the fabrication and properties of a wide variety of articles made from rubber. The first part is a matter of large-scale industrial catalytic chemistry where the essential techniques are already well established in other fields of chemical engineering. The second is based on scientific principles, but is also compounded of much empiricism because there has not been time to go into these principles in an adequate manner so that the mechanism of polymerization is fully understood. The third is rubber technology applied to materials which have usually turned out to be rather more difficult to work with than natural rubber. Further, developments have mainly occurred in the United States, Germany and the U.S.S.R., and there has naturally been no interchange of information between these countries. Even if there had not been a world war, it is extremely doubtful whether the operators in these respective countries would have divulged the ‘know how’ regarding these processes so that an author could write a critical summary of the present-day position.
Butalastic Polymers
Their Preparation and Applications; a Treatise on Synthetic Rubbers. By Frederick Marchionna. Pp. vii + 642. (New York: Reinhold Publishing Corporation, 1946.) 8.50 dollars.
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MELVILLE, H. Synthetic Rubber. Nature 160, 851 (1947). https://doi.org/10.1038/160851a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/160851a0