Acetylene and Its Polymers (eBook)

Seth C. Rasmussen is a professor of chemistry at North Dakota State Universi-ty (NDSU) in Fargo (seth.rasmussen@ndsu.edu). A native of the Seattle area, he received his B.S in chemistry from Washington State University in 1990, before continuing his graduate studies at Clemson University under the guidance of Prof. John D. Petersen. After completing his Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry in 1994, he moved to the University of Oregon to study conjugated organic polymers as a postdoctoral associate under Prof. James E. Hutchison., He then accepted a teaching position at the University of Oregon in 1997, before moving to join the faculty at NDSU in 1999. Attaining the rank of full professor in 2012, Prof. Rasmussen also spent the spring of 2018 as a Fulbright Senior Scholar and visiting professor at the Centre for Organic Electronics of the University of Newcastle, Australia. Active in the fields of both materials chemistry and the history of chemistry, his research interests include the design and synthesis of conjugated materials, photovoltaics (solar cells), NIR photodectectors, organic light emitting diodes, the history of materials, chemical technology in antiquity, and the application of history to chemical education. As both author and editor, Prof. Rasmussen has contributed to books in both materials and history and has published more than 95 research papers and book chapters. He is a member of various international professional societies including the American Chemical Society, Materials Re-search Society, Alpha Chi Sigma, American Nano Society, Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry, History of Science Society, and the International His-tory, Philosophy & Science Teaching Group. Prof. Rasmussen served as the Program Chair for the History of Chemistry (HIST) division of the American Chemical Society from 2008 to 2017 and continues to serve the division as a member-at-large of its executive committee. In addition, he currently serves as the series editor for the Springer Briefs in Molecular Science: History of Chemistry book series, as an editor of the journal Cogent Chemistry, and on the advisory board for the journal Substantia: An International Journal of the History of Chemistry.

Acknowledgements 6
Contents 8
About the Author 10
Abstract 11
1 Introduction 12
1.1 Saturated Gaseous Hydrocarbons 16
1.2 Unsaturated Gaseous Hydrocarbons 20
1.3 Polymerization of Unsaturated Gaseous Hydrocarbons 23
1.4 Scope of the Current Volume 26
References 27
2 Acetylene 31
2.1 Edmund Davy and Bicarburet of Hydrogen 31
2.2 Marcelin Berthelot and Acetylene 34
2.3 Thomas Willson and Acetylene from Calcium Carbide 40
References 45
3 Cuprene 47
3.1 Berthelot and the Initial Polymerization of Acetylene 47
3.2 Paul and Arnould Thenard and the Effect of Electric Discharge on Acetylene 49
3.3 Additional Discharge Studies of Acetylene 52
3.4 Erdmann and Polymerization Over Copper 55
3.5 Sabatier and Cuprene 56
3.6 Alexander and More Studies of Acetylene Over Copper 58
3.7 Gooch and Further Studies Over Copper Oxide 59
3.8 Lozani? and a Return to Electric Discharge 61
3.9 Daniel Berthelot and UV Polymerization 63
3.10 Kaufmann and Discharge Versus Thermal Polymerization 64
3.11 Mund and Polymerization via Alpha Particles 66
3.12 Lind and the Polymerization of Acetylene Under Various Conditions 68
3.13 What Exactly Is Cuprene? 70
References 72
4 Polyenes and Polyvinylenes 76
4.1 Polyenes 76
4.1.1 Richard Kuhn and the Study of Conjugated Double Bonds 77
4.1.2 Blout and the Spectroscopy of Polyenes 81
4.1.3 Bohlmann and Higher Dimethylpolyenes 82
4.1.4 Unfunctionalized Polyenes 84
4.2 Polyvinylenes 87
4.2.1 Polyvinylenes from Poly(vinyl chloride) 87
4.2.2 Polyvinylenes from Poly(vinyl alcohol) 89
References 90
5 Polyacetylene 93
5.1 Natta and the Polymerization of Acetylenes 93
5.2 Additional Studies of Acetylene Polymerizations 98
5.3 Masahiro Hatano 100
5.4 Sakuji Ikeda 104
5.5 Hideki Shirakawa and Polyacetylene Films 107
References 114
6 Doped Polyacetylene 117
6.1 Berets and Smith 117
6.2 MacDiarmid, Heeger, and (SN)X 120
6.3 Development of Doped Polyacetylene Films 123
6.4 Continued Study of Doped Polyacetylene Films 125
6.5 Naarmann and Efforts to Maximize Conductivity 126
References 128
7 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry 133
7.1 Details of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry 134
7.2 What Is Discovery? 135
7.3 Legacy 138
References 138
Index 141