Evening star., 1940-06-08
Of Stors, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Field. Laboratory
And Study
By Thomas r. Henru.

By Thomas r. Henry.
There are 20 kinds Of synthetic rub
ber, 13 of them German.
Nearly all Of them are better, in one
or more respects, than natural rubber.
They are also from two to five times
more expensive. The biggest single item
that enters into rubber synthesis Is
electricity.
The basic chemical formulae for the
majority of them is quite similar They
are polymerizations of butadiene, a
liquid hydrocarbon whose molecule con-
sists Of four atoms Of carbon and six of
hydrogen tied together in specific ar
rangement. Butadiene can be extracted
from coke or from petroleum. It is an
extremely volatile liquid which boils and
disappears as vapor at about the freezing
point Of water under atmospheric pres
sure.
1t so happens that butadiene is very
similar to the basic substance of latex, or
natural rubber. The molecules of this
liquid, isoprene, are hooked together in
long chains of several hundred This
forms the crude rubber of commerce
When the molecules of butadiene are
hooked together in a similar fashion
product is obtained which only chemist
can distinguish from actual latex
The problem from the first has been
to bring about this hooking together. or
polymerization. The pioneers have been
the Germans. During the first World
War one of the outstanding weaknesses
of the Reich was rubber shortage. A
factory was set up which produced $500
tons Of butadiene rubber. This, it is
generally agreed, was of inferior quality
and the whole project was dropped after
the armiStice
Synthetic rubber experimentation on
the butadiene basis was resumed in 1926
by chemists of the great I. G. Farbenin-
dustrie, the German dye monopoly and
considerable progress was made long
before the emergence Of Hitler. Sew
eral score American patents were filed.
Government chemists who have studied
them say that they mean very little un-
less one has key to them. Two years
ago, however, the &c. l." was allowing
foreigners to go through its plants and
observe its basic chemical processes
They referred to the product as blood
rubber" something synthesized not only
out of coke and lime, but the blood Of
the German people who had been de-
prived of natural rubber by the brutal,
capitalistic western powers
Basically the process is to extract the
butadiene from coke, a process requiring
considerable expenditure of electricity
1t would actually be cheaper to extract
it from petroleum, but Germany has no
petroleum to spare. 1t is then mixed
with lime. This forms a white powder,
calcium carbide, which is mixed with
water in various proportions. This turns
1t into gas, which, by means of certain
catalysts, is changed back into a liquid
again. After several more transforma-
tions it polmeryzes into an elastic sub
stance very close to rubber
Thus far the process is well known and
the rubber is not of very good quality.
1t is the basic "buna" upon which the
German armies are rolling westward.
Since the advent of the Nazi regime,
however, several refinements have been
added to the process, included the addi-
ton of chemical called styrine, OBJ
tanned from natural gas. and another
known as acrylonitrite. Both enter the
process of polymeriza ton.
The styrine rubber. buna S, is the most
common. 1t is used chiefly for tires
There are well authenticated claims that
such tires will stand up from 80 to 50 per
cent better on road tests than natural
rubber. The acrylonitrite rubber is more
expensive. Its great value is that it
stands up better in contact with petro-
leum products.
License to manufacture buna, in it's
various forms described in German pat
ents, has been given to an American
corporation. During the past few years
small amount has been exported from
Germany. The Standard Oil Co. Of
Louisiana now is building q plant at
Baton Rouge, which, it is estimated, will
turn out about 10000 pounds a day.
One German plant, subsidiary of the
G. I. Farbenindustrie, is now turning
out about $4,000 tons year and another
with the same capacity is very near the
production stage. The Germans have
been somewhat secretive about costs of
the process. The buna exported to the
United States was sold for about 81 q
pound. Allowing for reasonable profit
this would make the cost about four
times that of natural rubber, which
varies between Is and 20 cents a pound.
Germanys normal rubber consumption
is about 100000 tons year. 1t is pro-
ducing. at the best. about half of this
amount out Of coke and lime. The United
States, the biggest rubber consumer, re-
quires about 600 900 tons a year. An
enormous and costly industrial develop
ment would be necessary before all this
could be extracted from petroleum. the
most likely source Of butadiene in the
New World
Russia also Is reputed to be making
about $4,000 tons of rubber year, some
of it by the buna process and some by
processes stolen from the United States
Little is known about the progress of
the Russian synthetic rubber industry
A few samples examined here have been
inferior to both the German and the
American output.
There are several other processes
known for making artificial rubbers, some