INTERNATIONAL
Soviet Lags in Gas Chromatography Trails by four to five years, stresses gas-solid chromatography, chemist finds
137TH
ACS
NATIONAL
MEETING
Analytical Chemistry
While controversy rages on the relative standing of the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. in many scientific areas, there's apparently little doubt about one area—gas chromatography. Here, the U.S. currently stands head and shoulders above the Soviets, according to Dr. Robert L. Pecsok, who surveyed the Soviet scene in July 1959. "The Soviets seem to trail the U.S. by the time it takes them to evaluate our new techniques and then to copy them —a matter of four to five years," he told the Division of Analytical Chemistry. Soviet emphasis has been on gassolid chromatography, as contrasted to the gas-liquid movement in the U.S., Dr. Pecsok learned. Usual adsorbents are charcoal and silica gel. Segmented heaters or traveling furnaces program column temperature. The Soviets make wide use of air as a carrier gas. Choice of detector is limited to filament types, based on thermal conductivity or heat of combustion. New Models. Their latest model, the XT-3, seems to be in limited production but not in extensive use, he found. Its features seem rather commonplace—choice of two detectors, programmed temperature control from 20° to 150° C , and an automatic 10second recorder with logarithmic scale and integrator. The Russians claim that this instrument can handle a seven-component mixture (hydrogen to hexane) in six minutes with relative errors of ±.or}, or ±V'( if measuring ratios of concentrations. Column flow conditions, according to Dr. Pecsok, are extremely versatile, providing for back-flushing, cutting, and tandem or parallel hookups. But all this is at the expense of 130
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a maze of plastic tubing inside the "black box," he points out. "I was permitted to partially disassemble the instrument on display at the Soviet Exposition in Moscow," Dr. Pecsok told the analytical chemists. "The quality of workmanship and the 'finishing touches' leave much to be desired." The more common XT-2 model is basically the same instrument with a less versatile recorder and fewer automatic features, Dr. Pecsok says. The Soviets use very simple portable chromatographs extensively in gas logging operations. These have a circular column with a furnace that travels in an arc, and a combination detector (thermal conductivity for methane; heat of combustion for heavier hydrocarbons). "I was told there were 150 of these instruments in regular use in the field," he adds.
Chemists Receptive.
The UCLA
chemist's report stems from discussions in Moscow with V. A. Sokolov and N. M. Turkel'taub, two of the U.S.S.R.'s top gas chromatographers. The purpose of Dr. Pecsok's visit: to evaluate certain geochemical techniques for petroleum prospecting. According to some sources, the Soviets have scored phenomenal success in well-drilling through the use of geochemical methods, particularly since the advent of gas chromatography. Some gas chromatographs have been developed specifically for this use, and the entire use of gas chromatography in the U.S.S.R. is restricted to the petroleum industry, Dr. Pecsok learned. He found Soviet chemists quite willing to discuss their work and equipment and even more eager to learn of our work. "But," he adds, "many doors were closed to us and the authorities who could approve our requests were either unknown or unavailable. Thus, it is very difficult to know how objective and fair our conclusions are. However, since instrumentation in gas chromatography would not seem to be
a sensitive area, there is no reason to doubt Turkel'taub's assurance that their latest and best equipment was on display at the Soviet Exposition in Moscow." Mention of recent U.S. improvements (such as capillary columns, and x-ray or flame ionization detectors) brought various comments from the Soviets—mostly negative, says Dr. Pecsok. Among them: "We don't think very much of them"; "We haven't been able to get the sensitivity you claim"; and "They are still in research and not yet available to us." Turkel'taub's research concerned a theoretical approach to the role of the stationary phase in packed columns. Sokolov's group was evaluating the properties of porous glass beads as possible supports. According to Turkel'taub, there are very few research men working in gas chromatography in the Soviet Union, but they are very active, Dr. Pecsok says. Much Smoke, Little Fire. The Soviets have emhpasized a few, sometimes rather narrow, areas of science, according to Dr. Pecsok. "The chemical instrumentation that I saw at the university and at several institutes was largely archaic, of poor quality, and copied from the United States or western Europe. It is obvious from the disparity of reports from individuals who have visited the U.S.S.R. that each one sees only a very small area. However, the disparity in the quality of instrumentation and the number of publications in gas chromatography between the Soviet Union and the western countries is indeed surprisingly great," he concludes.
BRIEFS Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation sets up facilities at Vancouver, B.C., to supply warfarin to rodenticide and pharmaceutical formula-tors in Canada. Warfarin kills rats and mice by causing internal hemorrhage; it is also used to prevent blood clots and treat certain heart diseases. WARF holds patents on warfarin. Simon-Carves, Ltd., will build a plant for East India Distilleries & Sugar Factories near Madras, India, to make about 51,000 tons per year of ammonium phosphate fertilizers. Synthetic ammonia, sulfuric acid, and phosphoric acid will also be made. To cost more than S8 million, the plant will start up in about two years.
Girdler Process Equipment Division of Chemetron Corp. licenses the Brazilian firm, Vulcan Artefatos de Borracha, to use Union Carbide Plastics' elastomer process for making vinyl plastic foam. Girdler is the exclusive overseas licensor of the process, which uses inert gas instead of a chemical foaming agent to make the foam. Vulcan is the first South American company to make vinyl foam by the elastomer process. Pfizer International, a division of Chas. Pfizer & Co., is now making pharmaceuticals in Australia, at a plant in the Sydney suburb of West Ryde. Later this year Pfizer International will finish plants in Brazil and Argentina. Plants are also planned for India, Egypt, and Greece. British American Oil is working on the second phase of a $1.5 million expansion at its Calgary, Alta., refinery. The program, to be completed this fall, will raise the refinery's crude running capacity from 7500 to 10,000 barrels per day. Fluor Corp. of Canada, Ltd., gets the contract for a 3500 barrel-per-day naphtha desulfurizer. Electric Reduction Co. of Canada gives Leonard Construction, Chicago, a contract to build a plant to make phosphoric acid and industrial phosphates at ERCO's Port Maitland, Ont., project. Leonard will also expand existing superphosphate facilities, do site preparation and plant administration, and work out service facilities and utility systems. Nopco Chemical's subsidiary, Nopco Chimie SA, of Fribourg, Switzerland, buys half interest in the French chemical company, Doittau-Sopura SA, for $300,000. Doittau-Sopura will make Nopco's complete line of chemicals for the Common Market area. British Geon, Ltd., jointly owned by The Distillers Co., Ltd. ( 5 5 r ) , and B. F. Goodrich Chemical ( 4 5 / r ) , will begin shortly a $5.6 million expansion of its polyvinyl chloride plant at Barry, South Wales. Work should be completed in the second half of 1961. Constructors John Brown, Ltd., London, sets up permanent offices in New York City. The firm's activities include designing and building plants for the chemical and oil industries.
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