WALTER J. MURPHY, EDITOR
A Proposal on Fluorocarbons W
that there are few I&EC readers, even among those who have absolutely no contact with fluorine cheniistry, who do not know a t least something about fluorocarbons and their uses. Of course, industrial fluorocarbons are still relatively a new class of compounds, but they are an exciting class. Almost three years ago in I&EC (January 1953, pp. 99-105), J. 0. Hendricks took a look a t the industrial fluorochemicals situation and said : E VENTURE
The possible number of fluorinated compounds and materials While i t is an accepted fact that the majority of compounds developed in research work do not become commercially important, the trade in organic chemicals, plastics, and rubbers is evidence that from chemicals a mighty industry has been built. Aside from the Freons, Genetrons, and related materials, the fluorochemicals belong to the class of chemical specialties and will probably remain in the class for some time t o come. An appreciable substitution of fluorine in organic compounds results in a shift to remarkable, unusual, and useful properties heretofore unobtainable. Even though fluorochemicals are relatively expensive, it is the history of business that unique and useful products find a market; it is also a demonstrated fact that costs decrewe with increasing volume. On both counts it is expected that history will repeat itself.
is very large.
To get history to repeat itself, there must be more and more research. Quoting Hendricks again, “credit should be given to many universities for their numerous contributions to the field of fluorine chemistry.’’ Certainly one of the universities which Mr. Hendricks had in mind mas the Cniversity of California, where interest and much work in fluorine chemistry and in fluorocarbons has been sparked by Joel Hildebrand over a period of many years. The scene changes to the ACS meeting recently held a t Minneapolis. Here Dr. Hildebrand spoke on the extraordinary value of fluorocarbons for physical chemistry. He concluded his talk with a proposal-a proposal for an increased and less expensive supply of pure fluorocarbons for research purposes. The academic researchers to which Mr. Hendricks gives much credit find that their limited budgets will buy only small quantities of fluorocarbons a t their present prices. Dr. Hildebrand called it “a scientific calamity” for fluorocarbons not to be available in good purity in research amounts at prices comparable to the prices of pure hydrocarbons. He proposes a well-financed program for the preparation of a selected list of pure fluorocarbons and their derivatives. We presume that he envisions something like the API project for preparation of pure hydrocarbons, to be carried out by one or more universities. He suggests subsidy by the National Science Foundation, supplemented by interested industries, and scientific management under the National Research Council, with special representation from the ACS. The editors of I&EC consider the proposal a commendable one. Working out the mechanics is a problem that would require considerable careful study on the part of a number of November 1955
groups. The ball must be started rolling in some way, however, and we feel it important to present Dr. Hildebrand’s proposal for comment and suggestion as to the best means of investigating, and if feasible, carrying such a project through to reality.
Sales Bulletins and the Technical Literature readers may look a t this title and say, “But sales S bulletins are technical literature.” T o some extent we will agree; the agreement explains the reason for this ediOME
torial, There are sales bulletins and sales bulletins. Some are very general in nature, some are quite technical but hit only the high spots of a subject-whether i t be equipment or a compound or class of compounds. Others begin to approach a volume in size and content. Present costs of publishing technical journals and attempts to prevent overduplication in the chemical literature lead us to some comments on this last type. We realize that there must be sales bulletins. We realize further that as more and more chemists and chemical engineers go into technical sales, and more and more purchasing agents come from the technical ranks, sales bulletins must lose their general and superficial characteristics. We decry, however, the publication of technical articles which contain much information which has already been made available in sales bulletins, always free for the asking to persons with bona fide interests. It is true that sales bulletins are not abstracted in Chemical Abstracts, nor is i t likely that they will be. Regardless of the amount of information in the bulletin, then, publication of research and development information in some form in a technical journal appears necessary. Our recommended answer to this problem is in timing. There would be no problem as far as me are concerned if the article preceded the sales bulletin. Our own publication schedules are such that wit.13 a little planning companies could have articles in for consideration and publication without delaying their sales bulletin program. On frequent occasions they make wide distribution of reprints of these articles. To the argument that the sales department simply wants a little information, and a n article for publication must give the whole story, we simply say it’s not the “little information” bulletin we are talking about. And certainly to do the right job on a detailed bulletin, a pretty complete research program must have been done to provide the details. I n that case, the material for the technical journal is ready and available. We are dead serious. N7e would like to have author and sales department comment. We know that some real consideration of this problem would benefit everyone concerned.
I N D U S T R I A L A N D E N G I N E E R I N G CHEMISTRY
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