Smog Expert Gets Tolman Medal Caltech's A. J. Haagen-Smit honored for efforts in air pollution and natural products "There are so many people in air pollution now; I don't like crowded places," says Dr. Arie J. Haagen-Smit of California Institute of Technology. Last week in Los Angeles, Dr. Haagen-Smit, who is himself one of those most responsible for throwing the spotlight on that long-neglected field, received the Richard C. Tolman Medal from the Southern California Section of the American Chemical Society. (See also page 99.) Dr. Haagen-Smit has spent 17 years on the smog problem. But he hopes now to concentrate once again on his earlier interest, the chemistry of plant hormones, essential oils, and flavors, for which he won an international reputation and the ACS Fritzsche Award. Born in Holland in 1900, he received a Ph.D. from the University of Utrecht in 1928. He came to the U.S. in 1936 and a year later joined the staff at Caltech, where he is professor of bio-organic chemistry. Dr. Haagen-Smit didn't realize what he was getting into when his curiosity about smog—Los Angeles style—got the better of him in the late 1940*8. While on the scientific committee of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, he suggested that the members try to find out what causes smog. The idea got nowhere, so he decided to do it himself. At the time, he was studying volatile oils of the pineapple. "I had all the equipment," he explains; "all I had to do was leave out the pineapple and open the window." Dr. Haagen-Smit soon found that oxidation of organic material in the air formed the objectionable components of smog. As soon as the newly formed Air Pollution Control District heard of his work, in 1948, he became its consultant, a post he still holds. Further work spelled out more details of the complex photochemical reactions between hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides that make ozone, organic peroxides, and aldehydes. Dr. Haagen-Smit also pinpointed automobile exhaust as the chief source of the starting materials. But scientific conclusions by themselves were not enough, he found out. They had to be translated into convincing arguments—for the general 28
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public, who would have to pay part of the cost of remedies; for special interests, who feared economic loss; and for politicians, who risked the ire of both groups. Thus, a large part of Dr. HaagenSmit's activity was to explain, urge, and cajole the various elements into action, and sometimes to scold overoptimistic public officials. He published many articles and spoke throughout the country. In 1958, the Air Pollution Control Association gave him its Frank A. Chambers Award.
New Aromatic Resin Carbide to make 10 million pounds per year Union Carbide said last week in New York that it is building a 10 million pound-per-year plant to produce a new aromatic polymer, polysulfone. The new engineering thermoplastic maintains its properties from —150° F. to 300° F. The plant, at Marietta, Ohio, should be on stream in September. The polymer is composed basically of four phenylene groups linked by isopropylidene, sulfone, and ether groups. The repeating structure, Carbide says, builds into the polymer properties, such as thermal stability and oxidation resistance, that are usually gained by adding modifiers. The polymer resists oxidation because the sulfur atom in the diphenylene sulfone group is in its highest oxidation state, and because the sulfone group tends to draw electrons from the adjacent benzene rings. These features make the group less apt to give up electrons (i.e., to be oxidized). The diphenylene sulfone group, because of its high degree of resonance,
Smog man Haagen-Smit Too crowded in air pollution
adds stability to the polymer. Thus polysulfone resin can withstand a relatively high degree of heat or ionizing radiation. The polymer can be injection molded or extruded. Carbide says also that it has blow molded polysulfone experimentally and is working on commercial techniques for blow molding hollow objects. Carbide forsees a market of 25 to 30 million pounds per year for polysulfone by 1970. Among the uses the company has found already: • Housings for double-insulated hand power tools. • Fender extensions, differential housing covers, and under-the-hood items for automobiles. •Appliance housings and dishwasher tubs. • Extruded pipe and sheet. When the new plant comes on stream, six transparent colored resins and seven opaque colored resins will sell for $1.20 a pound in truckloads. The natural, transparent resin and the ivory, opaque resin will sell for $1.00 a pound, also in truckloads. Both types will be available in extrusion and injection molding grades.
50-80 STABILITY.
Diphenylene sulfone group (circled) adds stability to new polymer
