NEWS OF THE WEEK CHEMICAL
INDUSTRY
ACC RESTRUCTURES Trade group will cut staff and budget and focus on fewer areas
T Lebedev
HE AMERICAN CHEMISTRY
Council (ACC) is restructuring to narrow its focus to four areas: products and health, energy, security, and the environment. In the process, 43 of the trade association's 191 staffpositions are being eliminated. In addition, in2005 and2006, ACC plans to reduce its staff by another 10%. It will also cut its 2004 budget by 20%. CEO Greg Lebedev says the reorganization was spurred by two considerations: chemical industry economics and increased
MATERIALS
involvement in public policy "Industry economics," he says, "are changing dramatically, whether you're talking about the maturation of the industry or the high cost of energy At the same time, the array of public policy challenges is also growing, whether it be chemical security, a set of international issues such as REACH [the European Commission's Registration, Evaluation & Authorization of Chemicals initiative], or public health." He says the new structure is not a response to the resignation
SCIENCE
STRESSED POLYMERS CHANGE COLOR Materials incorporate fluorescent dyes as internal strain sensors HUE AND CRY Dye molecules, such as the one shown below, change their emission color when the polymer matrix is deformed.
10
L
I G H T - E M I T T I N G POLYMER
blends that respond to stresses and strains by changing their hue have potential uses rangingfromearly internal failure sensors to antitampering films for
C & E N / D E C E M B E R 2 2 , 2003
packaging, according to the polymer scientists who developed the materials at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland. Associate professor Christoph Weder and graduate student Brent R. Crenshaw prepared blends of conventional polymers such as linear low-density polyethylene and a series of highly photoluminescent dyes [Chem. Mater., 15,4717 (2003)}. "The dyes serve as integral sensors," ^(feder says. They allow a material's mechanical deformation to be traced through a change in its fluorescence—for example, from red to green. Under UV light, the effect is readily seen by the naked eye. The phenomenon relies on phase separation of small aggre-
of companies from ACC. Huntsman, Chevron Phillips, Lyondell Chemical, PolyOne, Noveon, and \elsicol Chemical have left ACC. 'The fact that we lost a couple of companies is reflective of one of the two conditions that essentially drove us to the internal review—the state of industry economics," he says. "I respect that members have to make decisions about their companies'well-being. I can do nothing but wish them well and hope theywill come back when conditions improve." Lebedev says restructuring into the four areas makes ACC "a very nimble, focused, and flexible organization to respond not only to some existing public policy challenges, but also to a great many issues that are going to be emerging over time."—WILLIAM STORCK
gates of the cyano-oligo^-phenylene vinylene) dye molecules in the polymer matrix. The phase behavior ofthe blend is controlled by varying the dye's chemical structure, the blend composition, and the processing conditions. Dissolved "isolated" dye molecules exhibit "monomer emission." When the molecules are assembled as aggregates, in a polymer matrix for example, they display "excimer emission," which has a differentfluorescencecolor. "Our work indicates that the color change requires numerous very small aggregates of the dye molecules embedded in the polymer matrix," Weder explains. O n ly with this architecture can mechanical deformation ofthe matrix efficiently break up the dye aggregates and lead to dispersion and dissolution of the dye molecules. "We are currently working on applying the concepts to other polymer systems—for example, elastomers, in which the effect can be reversible," Weder adds. "We are also extending the approach to other stimuli, such as changes in temperature."— MICHAEL FREEMANTLE
HTTP://WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
