Theodore Cairns wins Perkin Medal for 1973 David M. Kiefer About 20 years ago, Dr. Theodore L. Cairns was struck with an intriguing idea. The lanky Du Pont chemist, who next February will be honored with the coveted Perkin Medal awarded by the American Section of the Society of Chemical Industry, conceived of a series of organic compounds in which large numbers of cyano groups were attached to the carbon atoms. Such chemicals, Dr. Cairns theorized, would be excellent targets for industrial research. Although they were virtually unknown, except for cyanoform, there seemed to be no theoretical reason why they could not be synthesized. And the structure of the resulting molecules suggested that they would be strongly electrophilic and highly reactive. Thus they should lead to a variety of interesting new materials with unusual properties. Because they had never been explored, moreover, the patent potential of such compounds was likely to be good. Dr. Cairns' pioneering efforts led first to the synthesis of tetracyanoethylene, which proved to be the parent for an entirely new structural class of chemicals he named cyanocarbons. The first patent on these materials was granted in 1956 and the first scientific paper on Dr. Cairns' work on cyanocarbons followed in 1957. Although he views cyanocarbon chemistry as probably his most significant contribution to science, Dr. Cairns' 31-year career at Du Pont has been marked with several other chemical achievements, especially in the chemistry of polyamides, reactions of acetylene with carbon monoxide, the stereochemistry of biphenyls, and the synthesis of gem dithiols. His name is on 25 patents and 39 publications. His work has been recognized with both the ACS Award
for Creative Work in Synthetic Organic Chemistry and the Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers Association's medal for creative research in synthetic organic chemistry. Now, as director (since last year) of Du Pont's prestigious central research department, the scholarly Dr. Cairns notes—perhaps with just a twinge of regret—that he no longer has an opportunity to pursue laboratory research himself, especially since he moved his office to the company's downtown Wilmington, Del., headquarters from its suburban experimental station. Instead, he is engaged in planning and directing a staff of nearly 300 scientists and engineers conducting Du Pont's exploratory or long-range (the term he prefers) research programs. "Times have changed drastically for industrial research," he commented recently to a visitor in his comfortable sixth floor office in Wilmington's Du Pont Building. "Competition in research is much more substantial. There is a high level of competence throughout U.S. industry and in other nations as well. It has become increasingly difficult to remain the leader or to come up with the big scientific breakthrough." Yet Dr. Cairns remains certain that the way to meet this competitive challenge is not to cut back on research but to go about it with greater ingenuity and selectivity. He is equally convinced that management must reinforce its support for long-range research efforts when business turns sour and many researchers are likely to gravitate toward projects with the promise of a quick payoff. He disagrees strongly with those who fear that most of the major advances of industrial chemistry have already been attained. "Conventional wisdom is likely to be wrong, " he warns, noting that 30 years ago, shortly before the advent
of aerosols, many people in the chemical industry were sure that fluorocarbon chemistry had matured. And he believes that the productivity of industrial research has never been higher. He points out that about 75 patents and 90 to 100 publications are flowing out of Du Pont's central research annually. "With modern instrumentation, the amount of work you can do and the speed with which you can do it, using only milligram samples, have increased immensely," he asserts. But he admits, too, that the importance of fundamental research must be accepted by industry largely on faith. "There is no question that central research has made a substantial contribution to Du Pont's business today," he says, pointing to the company's growing involvement with pharmaceuticals and electronics and its fast growing agricultural chemicals business, as well as to such new products as photopolymers, inorganic fibrous materials, and fluorocarbon copolymers and to a new process for making adiponitrile. "These contributions, however, stem largely from work we got under way 15 or 20 years ago. And there is no way to demonstrate with certainty that what we are doing in central research at present will have a similar impact 20 years hence." The cyanocarbons point up the need for faith that is coupled closely with patience. Dr. Cairns is confident that the great diversity of structures that can be prepared from them will lead to many new marketable products, including dyes, pharmaceuticals, and pesticides. But no such derivatives have hit the market yet. And initial hopes that the cyanocarbons might be built into new types of polymers remain unfulfilled. Dr. Cairns emphasizes, also, that the success of new products depends on much more than the work of the central research staff alone. "We act as the egg," is the way he puts it. "But we certainly can't lay claim to all the credit for innovation. Commercial development is predominantly the result of the efforts of many other people in Du Pont. Our expenditures on fundamental research are largely lost in the overall cost of developing new markets." Dr. Cairns' interest in chemistry was kindled in college. A native of Edmonton, Alta., where he was born in 1914, he found winter sports more diverting than science as a teenager. When he entered the University of Alberta, however, he was strongly influenced by organic chemistry professor R. B. Sandin, whom he fondly recalls as "an exceptionally inspiring lecturer and researcher." Prof. Sandin sent him on to the University of Illinois and the late Prof. Roger Adams for graduate training. He attained his Ph.D. in organic chemistry in 1939 and at Dr. Adams' urging tried teaching for a couple of years at the University of Rochester. But the lure of full-time research—coupled with an expectation that as an alien (Dr. Cairns is now a naturalized U.S. citizen) he might have Nov. 20, 1972 C&EN
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difficulty in obtaining government sup- dent's Science Advisory Committee port for his academic research during (since 1970) take him to Washington wartime—led him in 1941 to Du Pont's four or five days a month and fill many central research department, where he of his weekends. has remained as a chemist and in variDr. Cairns also has been active in ous supervisory and research adminis- ACS affairs as an officer of the Division tration posts ever since. of Organic Chemistry and a member of A host of professional activities now the Council and the Committee on take up much of his spare time, leaving Chemistry and Public Affairs. He served him less than he'd like to devote to hob- on the NAS committee that surveyed bies of tennis and gardening. Duties as a the condition of U.S. basic chemical member of the National Academy of research and prepared the Westheimer Sciences (since 1966) and the Presi- report in 1965 and was chairman of the
National Research Council's division of chemistry and chemical technology from 1968 to 1970. For several years, too, he has been chairman of the committee responsible for Du Pont's educational aid program, which this year will grant more than $2.5 million to nearly 150 colleges and universities. Dr. Cairns will be awarded the Perkin Medal at a dinner at the Plaza Hotel in New York on Feb. 21, 1973. He was selected by a jury representing six scientific societies.
INTERNATIONAL
Rhine-basin countries vow to clean up river From its source in the Swiss Alps to Rotterdam where it discharges into the sea, the Rhine River is subjected to severe environmental insults. Throughout its 800-mile course, chemicals, oil, and sewage, as well as cooling water from power and industrial plants, are dumped into the river, winning for it the dubious distinction of being classed as Europe's longest sewer. Bearing the brunt of the pollution are the Dutch. Not only are they on the receiving end of the pollutants, but they rely heavily on the Rhine as the main source of their industrial and drinking water. Perhaps even more important, a plentiful supply of good quality Rhine water is essential for Holland's agriculture. It is used to dilute the salt sea water that seeps underground because of the low-lying nature of the countryside, vast stretches of which are below sea level. Small wonder, then, that the government of the Netherlands hosted a meeting in The Hague last month of the countries represented in the International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine Against Pollution to see what could be done about cleaning up the mess. The assembly was a high-level one, attended by government ministers from France, West Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, the five countries served by the Rhine. The meeting can claim some success. The French have promised to cut back on the amount of salt being liberated into the Rhine from the potash mines in Alsace. And the international Rhine protection commission was asked to draw up a list of other chemicals that either should be banned from the Rhine waters or be subject to controls. Less successful was an effort to cut down on thermal pollution. Admittedly, many industries and municipalities located on the Rhine and on waterways that flow into it have already spent considerable sums of money to install effluent and sewage treatment plants. But the effort isn't enough nor has it been coordinated. The five governments of the Rhine-basin countries formed the Rhine protection 8
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commission in the 1950's; although it wasn't officially ratified until 1963. The commission, however, is an advisory body. It has no direct powers and has been able to do little of a practical nature to stem the pollution tide, primarily because of general lack of political interest in the problem. A factor that has quickened the social conscience of those concerned is the fall in the level of the Rhine's flow, the result of several seasons of low snowfall. Not only has the drop in the water level hampered barge traffic up the river to inland ports in France, West Germany, and Switzerland; it has also aggravated the pollution effects. Perhaps for the first time, many Europeans are waking up to the very real possibility of the Rhine becoming a "dead" river. At Lobith, the Netherlands, a short distance from the point where the Rhine passes into Holland from West Germany and not far from where the Waal River branches off it, the Dutch government's Institute for Purification of Waste Water and Industrial Water Treatment has been analyzing the river water for a number of years for the commission. It is one of eight such sampling stations along the Rhine. There are three in Holland, two in Switzerland, one each in France and West Germany, and one shared by West Germany and Holland. The Lobith station usually takes readings each week; during periods of low river flow samples are analyzed daily.
Levels of Rhine pollutants have been rising steadily Milligrams per liter Chloride ions Ammonia (as N2) Total N 2 (Kjeldahl) a Orthophosphate (as P 0 4 ) Total phosphate Detergents Phenol b
Concentration 1965 1972 130
280
1
3
na
5
0.6 na 0.2 25
1.2 2-4 0.4 40
Note: Samples taken at Lobith, the Netherlands, a Organic and inorganic nitrogen except nitrates, b Micrograms per liter, na = not available. Source: Institute for Purification of Waste Water and Industrial Water Treatment, the Netherlands
The results of the Lobith analyses aren't encouraging. Concentration of chloride ions, for example, so far this year has averaged 280 mg. per liter compared with an average of 130 mg. per liter in 1965. Ammonia levels (calculated as N2) this year average 3 mg. per liter, triple the 1965 values. Orthophosphate content, now averaging 1.2 mg. per liter, has doubled since 1965, as has detergent concentration, currently 0.4 mg. per liter. Phenol levels moved up from an average 25 micrograms per liter in 1965 to 40 micrograms per liter this year. The oxygen content of the Rhine water, too, is a matter of concern. In July, for instance, when the river level was seasonally down, oxygen concentration averaged 2 mg. per liter although it has since risen again to 3 to 4 mg. per liter. In 1965, however, oxygen concentration averaged 6 mg. per liter, and even during the summer months of low river flow didn't drop below 3.5 mg. per liter. Intensifying the seriousness of the drop-off in oxygen content is the rise in biological oxygen demand—up from a value range of 4 to 11 mg. per liter in 1965 to 6 to 15 mg. per liter this year. French potash mining operations in Alsace are probably the chief single source of the Rhine's salt pollution. Each second, 120 to 150 kg. of chloride ion (200 to 250 kg. of sodium chloride) enter the river at Fessenheim, near Mulhouse. At last month's Hague meeting, Robert Poujade, France's minister in charge of the protection of nature and the environment, promised to initiate a program that will withhold 60 kg. of chloride ion (about 100 kg. of salt) per second of the salt. His commitment, however, falls short of Holland's request that the level of chloride ion released into the water be held to a 60 kg.-per-second maximum. And it doesn't take into account variations in the river's flow rate. Storage of the salt will cost an estimated $20 million. The five Rhine protection commission member countries have agreed to share the cost. Holland will put up about $7 million, West Germany will match France's contribution Continued on page 11
