INDUSTRY & BUSINESS
Molecular Electronics Shrinks Circuits Concept paves way to complete circuits in one block of matter plus input and output leads
w
ESTIXGHOUSE Electric has stripped the wraps from its research program on molecular electronics, a concept which it believes may well make obsolete the component approach to electronic circuitry. In practice, the concept means making one block of material function as a transmitter or amplifier, for example, thus doing away with the need for inductors, resistors, capacitors, and other components. A single piece of matter, plus input and output leads, replaces an entire circuit. Key to molecular electronics, says Dr. S. W. Herwald, Westinghouse's vice president for research, is tying together solid state effects such as Seebeck generation, Peltier cooling, and Hall-effect multiplication with p-n semiconductor junctions. These effects are arranged to produce the desired result, such as amplification. Basis for the functions is a single crystal of a semiconductor such as germanium. Westinghouse can grow single dendritic crystals of germanium at 6 to 12 inches per minute, then arrange domains and interfaces within the crystal to control energy flow in it. The domains and interfaces are produced by diffusion, plating, electron beam machining, etching, cutting, alloying, irradiating, and photographic processing—all standard techniques used to process semiconductors. The function block produced this way will work, but it is then put through more processing to encapsulate it, protect it from shock and vibration, and make it suitable to the temperature and radiation environments in which it will operate. • Eight Classes. So far, Westinghouse has developed eight classes of function blocks: audio amplifier, video amplifier, frequency selective amplifier with notch filter, multivibrators, variable potentiometers, multiposition switches, analog-to-digital converter, and a two-stage cooler using the Peltier effect. But the company has not yet put these function blocks together into systems, nor has it yet learned how to design single-block systems comparable 24
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to single-block functions. Westinghouse foresees no major difficulties in doing this, however. It has put the job at the top of its research agenda, and plans to have it under control within the next year or so. "In my opinion," says Dr. Herwald, "in three to five years, we will see the molecular electronic concept widely applied in air and space electronic systems for telemetering, fire control, communications, counter weapons, and flight control systems."
Firm Push for Polybutene-1 New Petro-Tex pilot plant will make evaluation quantities of polymer JTETRO-TEX Chemical is preparing a site at its Houston, Tex., plant for a full-scale pilot plant to produce evaluation quantities of polybutene-1. PetroTex has been making the polymer in a "larger than bench scale" unit for some time. Now, engineering on the large pilot unit is complete. The company will soon let the contract, and work should be finished sometime this year. Montecatini, meanwhile, says it has had a "sizable" pilot plant operating at Ferrara, Italy, since 1954, is planning a 25 million pound-per-year plant at Brindisi. It believes that the polymer's future lies in uses as an elastomer and plastic. Others known to be studying polybutene-1 include Goodrich-Gulf, Spencer, and Hercules. Petro-Tex, owned jointly by Tennessee Gas Transmission and Food Machinery and Chemical, has been studying polybutene-1 since 1955. The polymer, it finds, has outstanding resistance to stress cracking, good cold flow characteristics, and high burst and tear strengths. These properties make it a natural as a film- and pipe-forming resin. Several leading pipe fabricators have been testing polybutene-1. Although he cannot say who they are, William H. Davis, chemicals sales manager for Petro-Tex, indicates that at least two of them are convinced they can use the polymer. In pipe, it has a higher burst strength than polyethylene, and it retains this strength longer than does polyethylene, Mr. Davis says. Roll cast film made of polybutene-1 is very tough. Lab tests show that its impact strength is about double that of
polyethylene, according to Petro-Tex. It also has a significantly higher tear strength. Mr. Davis expects polybutene-1 to start off slowly, but he believes it has a potential market of several hundred million pounds annually. Petro-Tex figures that, in volume production, it can make the polymer for about the same price as polyethylene. And since it can be mixed with large proportions of fillers, such as carbon black, without seriously affecting its properties, it becomes even more economically attractive. • Complex Catalyst. Petro-Tex won't say much about its process, other than that it's a stereospecific system. The company developed its own catalyst, which Mr. Davis describes as "complex." When polybutene-1 becomes commercial, Petro-Tex will possibly get its catalyst from FMC, which is in the catalyst business through its Westvaco Mineral Products division. To polymerize butène-1, the monomer must be highly pure—"well above" the 9or/c butène which Petro-Tex sells as an intermediate, according to Mr. Davis. This means an expensive solvent separation process with heavy recycle. Necessary hardware includes an absorber, stripper, and solvent reclaiming system (furfural), which adds up to a "several hundred million dollar" investment. To justify this capital cost, large volumes are required, and Petro-Tex is a logical prospect for handling this volume (butadiene capacity at its Houston plant is 200,000 tons per year). Butène-1 now goes into alkylate and butadiene, is also mixed with ethylene (roughly 5CA by weight) to make a linear polyethylene copolymer. And it also sells as an intermediate to make, for instance, C 4 oxides and Cr, aldehydes and alcohols. These miscellaneous outlets now stand at 5 to 10 million pounds per year. In modest volume, butène-1 carries a 6V4 cent-per-pound price tag. As volume increases, this price will probably come down. It could come close to the ethylene price region (about 5 cents), but this would require an annual throughput of a few hundred million pounds. Polybutene-1 at 30 to 35 cents would mean a sharp upgrading for butène-1. As a raw material, it's now valued at 2 1 / 2 cents per pound in alkylate and 4 cents in butadiene.
I N D U S T R Y & BUSINESS
Mexico to Moke Citric Mexico will soon be the sixth nation in the world to produce citric acid. A new company, Quimica Mexama, S.A., formed by Miles Laboratories and a group of Mexican investors, will build a $1.5 million plant near Mexico City. When completed, the plant will be an all-Mexican operation. Industrias Quimicas de Mexico 369© owned by Stauffer Chemical, had planned to set up a citric acid plant in Mexico (C&EN, Aug. 17, 1959, page 19), but later dropped the project. The new plant, being designed and engineered by Badger Manufacturing Co., Cambridge, Mass., will fill all of Mexico's citric acid needs, says Miles. Some of the acid may be exported, too. Miles' submerged fermentation process will be used. Sugar cane, the major raw material needed, is plentiful in Mexico; in fact, it's a surplus commod ity there, says Miles. Decision to build a Mexican citric acid plant stems from a just-completed research program by the Mexican Insti tute of Technical Investigations. Luis G. Aguilar of Mexico City is president of the new company. Ε. Η. Beardsley, executive vice president, and Howard F . Roderick, vice president of Miles, are on the board of directors.
Marion Labs Moves to New Quarters Marion Laboratories, Inc., maker of ethical drugs, has just moved into the first of three buildings at its new, $1 million facilities in Kansas City, Mo. The first building will house administra tion, packaging and shipping, and some temporary manufacturing and control facilities. The second, due in about six months,, will be devoted entirely to manufacturing. A third building, due next year, will house research and prod uct development. Marion has farmed out most of its production in recent years, has also con tracted with Midwest Research Insti tute, Kansas City, for its research and development. But with its new facili ties, the company will take over produc tion of its entire tablet line, as well as control and product development. MRI will continue as the company's re search arm, however.
Meanwhile, the temporary manufac turing area in the first new building has space for weighing, mixing, and granu lating raw materials. It also includes tablet compression and tablet coating facilities. A smaller area will be used for making liquid products. • Big Part. Midwest Research has played a big part in Marion's emergence as a producing company. Marion started out in 1952 as a sales company marketing Os-Cal, a phosphorus-free, prenatal calcium supplement made from ground oyster shells. Other products were added to the line: Duotrate, a preparation of pentaerythritol tetranitrate, used as a coronary vasodilator; Zamine, a dextroamphetamine sulfate for treating obesity; and Anasorb, a hematinic formulation of ferrous fumarate for treating anemia. But with fast growth (sales have about doubled every two years, amounted to around $2 million in 1959), Marion needed some unique products to feed sales and to provide a scientific corporate image. This be came MRI's job in 1957. MRI came up first with a program for improving Marion's product line. The result, according to Marion: sig nificant changes in two injectables and several products in the tablet line. Perhaps the most far-reaching devel opment for Marion, a material and method for coating tablets, came from MRI in the first year of contract re search. It reduces the coating opera tion from a maximum of five days to less than eight hours, according to Marion. And by changing the com bination of ingredients, the disintegra tion time of the coating can be made to range from 30 minutes to about three hours, the company says. It was the desire to keep and use this coating and method that pushed Marion into manufacturing much sooner than the company had expected. MRI's efforts are now being devoted mainly to pharmaceutical studies and the de velopment of new oral dosage forms, particularly in the area of timed disin tegration. But at the same time, Marion and MRI are undertaking a program of bio logical research on contraception, using what both feel is a new approach. While Marion hasn't spelled out details of this approach, it does say that work will be directed toward population con trol rather than individual contraceptive problems.
Briefs · . · ί Standard Oil (Ohio) abandons plans to acquire Leonard Refineries, a Michi gan refining and marketing firm. Sohio says length of time needed to get a final court decree in an injunction suit filed by the Department of Justice left it no practical choice but to drop out. Justice department claims the acquisi tion "would substantially lessen com petition" and "tend to create monop oly." Both companies point out that litigation could continue for years. • U.S. iron and steel companies plan to spend $1.6 billion for new equip ment and construction i n 1960, says American Iron and Steel Institute.
This is only $150 million less than the record $1.75 billion spent in 1957. The 1960 spending estimate is $640 million higher than 1959 outlays. The steel strike cut the 1959 total about 4% below the advance estimate. • Food and Drug Administration lists more than 150 naturally derived sea sonings and flavorings which have been found safe for use in food. The list includes all of the most common house hold items. Seven flavoring substances failed to make the list: quinine, red and yellow cinchona barks, two forms of orris root, and wintergreen and methyl salicylate. FDA says informa tion on safe usage of these seven mate rials is insufficient to permit listing them as safe. • Newer processes for making hydro chloric acid are fast replacing the salt and sulfuric acid method, says the Business and Defense Services Admin istration. During the first eight months of 1959, HC1 made from salt and HLSO4 declined, while that made from chlorine and hydrogen gained 15%; HC1 from by-product sources jumped more than 35%. BDSA says several HC1 plants based on salt and acid have been scrapped, and more are expected to be shut down. • Oak
Ridge
National
Laboratory
shipped 299,366 curies of radioisotopes last year, a 3 1 % increase over 1958. But the number of separate shipments in 1959 dropped to 12,950 from 1958's 14,131 due to the greater size of indi vidual shipments. ORNL's radioiso tope sales totaled $2.3 million in 1959, down from $2.4 million in 1958 because of price cuts. FEB.
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CHEMICAL ENGINEERS
·
PHYSICAL CHEMISTS · METALLURGISTS
Rapid growth opportunities with General Electric in
SEMICONDUCTORS Apply your creative talents in the fastest moving field in the elec tronics industry. Right now we are staffing our research, engineer ing and manufacturing operations in anticipation of a doubling of sales several times in the next ten years.
Challenging Positions have been created in: Process Engineering — Develop processes for the manufacture of silicon and germanium transistor and rectifier devices — involving unique problems in electrolytic etching, plating, diffusion, flashing, gas flushing, heat dissipation, corrosion, single crystal growth, pellet fabrication, metals purification and doping. Applied Research — Conduct surface and etching studies on semi conductor materials and devices. Investigate new techniques for re finement of semiconductor materials. Conduct phase diagram studies — metallography, x-ray crystallography and single crystal growth studies.
At G.E.'s modern, campus-like Electronics Park, you will associate with industry's outstanding scientists and engineers while being backed by the company's large financial resources and complete research facilities. •
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•
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GENERAL^ELECTRIC Electronics Park, Syracuse, New York 26
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INDUSTRY & BUSINESS • Houghton Laboratories, Olean, N.Y., changes its name to Hysol Corp. to re flect the scope of its products and serv ices.
New Facilities . · · • B. F. Goodrich Chemical gives Sci entific Design a contract to design and build a polyvinyl chloride plant at Watson, Calif. Completion is sched uled for the second quarter of this year. The plant will make vinyl resins and compounds; Goodrich will get vinyl monomer from American Chemical's nearby petrochemical operation. • Richardson Co. buys the assets of Treplow Products, an organic chemical and synthetic resin maker in Paterson, N.J. A new plant is being built at Paterson; it should be operating by the middle of this year. • Union Carbide Plastics' expansion in polyvinyl ethyl ethers at South Charles ton, W.Va., is now on stream. Com pany now puts production potential at South Charleston at "millions of pounds annually." • Clute Corp. completes financial ar rangements for construction of the first phase of a new 1000 ton-a-day asbes tos mill near Napa, Calif. (C&EN, Nov. 30, 1959, page 31 ). Construction starts immediately on the first of four units, each to have a capacity of 250 tons a day. The unit is to be ready for production within five months after ground breaking. The new mill is part of a $1 million expansion at the open pit mine site of Asbestos Bonding, a wholly owned subsidiary. • Consolidated Water Power & Pa per's new boiler plant at its Appleton, Wis., mill ups the mill's capacity for burning spent sulfite liquor by ΑΤΆ. One of the new plant's two boilers was put into operation in late December, and the second is due to be operating early next month. t Dawbarn Bros., Waynesboro, Va., makers of polyolefin yams, completes a major expansion of its plant, the second in four years. The new plant area will be used to make polypropyl ene yarns, including just announced DLP 55, a formulation Dawbarn feels will be a strong competitor for saran.
• Hooker Chemical will spend about $10 million to raise caustic soda, caustic potash, and chlorine capacity at its Niagara Falls, N.Y., plant. N e w Hoechst-Uhde mercury-type electrolytic cells will be installed at the plant during 1960-61. • Delhi-Taylor finishes its petrochemical terminal at North Charleston, S.C. The 2 million-gallon facility will be a distribution center for marketing toluene, xylene, mineral spirits, and solvents to textile, paint, and chemical firms in the Southeast. • Olin
Mathieson
WHEN FURNACE ATMOSPHERES MUST BE DESERT-DRY.. • Y o u r gas genera· tor manufacturer is quite likely t o include a Lectrodryer when a dry controlled atmosphere is required. I n this way h e assures the constant dryness so necessary in many metallurgical furnace operations. Lectrodryers are long on engineering — have the built-in extra capacity that always seems to be needed. That's why they may cost somewhat more in the be· ginning, but cost considerably less in t h e long run. Ask your gas generator builder for advice on dry controlled atmospheres. For other drying help, write Pittsburgh Lectrodryer Division,
McGraw-Edison
Company,
305 32nd Street, Pittsburgh 30, Pennsylvania.
Chemical's n e w
ethylene oxide plant at Brandenburg, Ky., is set to start up late this year. The plant, engineered and built by Lummus Co., will use Shell Development's process for oxidizing ethylene to ethylene oxide. The ethylene oxide will be used in making antifreeze, industrial coolants, hydraulic brake fluids, detergents, and chemical intermediates. t Semet-Solvay division of Allied Chemical will boost the capacity of its polyethylene plant at Tonawanda, N.Y., to about 30 million pounds per year. Last year the company raised its capacity from 20 million to 25 million pounds.
Financial · · · t Allied Chemical scored record sales of $719.6 million in 1959-13% above 1958 sales. Net income last year was $50 million ($2.51 per share), 46% higher than 1958's income of $34.2 million ($1.72 per share). • Dow Chemical made sales of $202 million in the three months ended Nov. 30, 1959, up 5% from the previous quarter and 9% over the same period in 1958. Profits equaled 84 cents a share, compared with 82 cents in the third quarter and 64 cents in 1958's fourth quarter. • Scott Paper made record sales of $297.2 million in 1959, compared to 1958 sales of $285 million. Net income for 1959 was $24.8 million (also a new high), equal to $3.08 per common share after preferred dividends. For 1958, net income was $22.1 million, equal to $2.75 a share. • Rayonier racked up a 1959 net income of $13.4 million ($2.35 a share) on net sales of $129.5 million, according to preliminary figures. Earnings in 1958 were $3.6 million (65 cents a share) on net sales of $108 million.
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INDUSTRY & BUSINESS
C &EN P ROGRESS C&EN PROGRESS
REPORT
1 Expansion in the Chemical Industry Here are companies making news last month , adding to the chemical process industries by . • · 1 PLANNING.·· j | I
Nylon-6
§ Borden Chemical Co. | Illiopolis, 111. | Esso Standard Oil Co. j Baton Rouge, La. 1 Koppers Co., Inc. J Follansbee, W. Va.
Polyvinyl chloride
j j | | | 1 | j ( |
Metallurgical lime
Minerals & Chemicals Corp. of America and Neville Lime Co. Cuyahoga Lime Cleveland, Ohio Stauffer Chemical Co. Nyotex division Houston, Tex. Union Oil Co. of California and Coliad Corp. Baton Rouge, La.
Remarks
Plant or Unit
Company and Site Allied Chemical Corp. Hopewell, Va.
Butyl rubber Naphthalene
(sulfur-free)
! j
Tripling production; annual output to be about 75 million pounds by mid-1961 I Boosting capacity 100% with a 40 [ million pound-per-year plant Upping capacity 38,000 long tons I Capacity: 60 million pounds per j year. Will use pressure hydroj génation
Aluminum fluoride
Doubling capacity
Propane, isobutane, η-butane, and natural gasoline
$12 million gas processing and liquid recovery system will proc- | ess about 450 million cubic feet f of gas daily and extract some I 295,000 gallons per day of liquids | from the gas j
j
i STARTING CONSTRUCTION . · . Î Continental Oil Co. I Ponca City, Okla.
Cyclohexane
j Dow Chemical Co. j Freeport, Tex.
Polyethylene
I Mingo Oxygen Co. f Mingo Junction, Ohio S Monsanto Chemical Co. I Kearny, N.J.
Oxygen
1 Standard Oil Co. (Calif.) [ Oronite Chemical [ Richmond, Calif.
Maleic anhydride
Alkyl phenols
|
$1 million plant; 20 million gallon- j per-year capacity. Constructor: 1 Procon ! Increasing capacity about 6 7 % , j bringing plant capacity to about f 165 million pounds a year j $6 million plant; 400 ton-per-day f capacity j Unit's output will be used to make | alkyl phenol-based ethylene oxide condensates j 20 million pound-per-year plant. I Constructor: Badger Mfg. |
| STARTING PRODUCTION . . . 1 | | } | 1 I J | | I | I j I !
28
Allied Chemical Corp. Orange, Tex. Arkansas Louisiana Cas Co. Arkansas Louisiana Chemical Corp. Pine Bluff, Ark. Certified Proteins Corp. Chicago, 111. Chemetron Corp. National Cylinder Gas Division Dallas, Tex. Gulf Oil Corp. Port Arthur, Tex. Union Carbide Corp. Union Carbide Plastics Co. South Charleston, W. Va.
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Polyethylene glycols Hydrochloric acid
Capacity:
6000 tons a year
Sodium caseinate
Capacity:
6 million pounds per I
year
j
1
Liquid oxygen, nitrogen, and argon Cyclohexane
Plant's builder:
Polyvinyl ethyl ether resins
Expanded facilities; plant output 1 will be millions of pounds an- f nually |
Procon
|
