NEWS OF THE WEEK BUSINESS
BAYER, LYONDELL SPAR OVER SALE Erstwhile polyurethane allies are now on the outs over polyols deal
B
AYER IS SEEKING MORE THAN
$100 million in damages from Lyondell related to its March 2000, $2.45 billion purchase of LyondelTs polyols unit. According to a quarterly report Lyondell filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, Bayer delivered a notice of claim inJune seeking compensation over alleged "breaches of representations and warranties related to the condition ofthe business and assets." Neither company will give more details. In the original deal, the two firms set up a formal resolution process that culminates in binding arbitration.
ORGANIC
Nevertheless, Lyondell has pledged that it will "vigorously contest" the claim and has assured stockholders that, whatever the result of the resolution process, business will not be disrupted. T h e polyols deal had been touted as a blessing for both companies. It helped Lyondell climb out of the $7 billion debt that it incurred when it purchased Arco Chemical in 1998. The deal gave Bayer competitive polyols operations in addition to its already global isocyanates business. The polyols dispute arose just after the companies had seemingly settled an earlier difference
CHEMISTRY
TRIPLET CARBENE HAS LONG LIFE Serendipitous discovery may lead to organic ferromagnetic materials
A
CARBENE DERIVATIVE I N
the triplet state that is significandy more stable than previously observed triplet carbenes has been serendipitously discovered by chemists inJapan. Chemistry professor Hideo Tomioka, graduate student Eri Iwamoto, and coworkers at Mie University, Tsu, generated triplet bis(9 -anthryDcarbene by photolysis of a precursor diazomethane. The half-life of the carbene is 19 minutes in solution at room temperature, they report [Nature, 412,626(2001)}. Carbenes in the electronic HTTP://PUBS.ACS.ORG/CEN
triplet state have two nonbonding electrons that occupy different orbitals. Unlike their sister singlet carbenes, which have two nonbonding electrons paired in the same orbital, triplet carbenes are organic radicals. And because their two unpaired electrons have parallel spins, triplet carbenes are potentially useful as building blocks for organic ferromagnetic materials. Triplet carbenes are notoriously transient and highly reactive species, however. T h e one p r e p a r e d by Tomioka's team is stabilized by delocal-
about where to site a planned European unit for propylene oxide, the key raw material for polyols. T h e plant was originally an Arco initiative that Lyondell shelved. Bayer and Lyondell resurrected it as a joint venture but disagreed over its location. Bayer wanted it in Antwerp, where it already had an integrated facility Lyondell favored Rotterdam, where many of its derivatives units are located. InJune, the two broke ground near Rotterdam.
HAPPIER DAYS Lyondell Chemical President Dan F. Smith (left) and Hans-Joachim Kaiser, general manager of Bayer's polyurethanes business, at the June 27 cornerstonelaying ceremony for a propylene oxide plant in Rotterdam.
-ALEXTULL0
ization of the unpaired elect r o n s o n t o t h e a n t h r y l substituents of the carbene. "We have generated the longest-lived triplet carbene," Tomioka tells C&EN. "The previous most stable one, which we reported in 1999, has ahalf-life of about nine minutes." The latest discovery was made while the group was preparing a series of carbene precursor diazo com- LONG-LIVED pounds with anthryl Delocalization stabilizes triplet groups as substituents. carbene "We asked Iwamoto, a student who had just joined our group, to prepare di(9-anthryl)diazomethane," Tomioka says. "She prepared it in about two months. Much to our surprise, the carbene generated from the diazo compound was fairly stable."— MICHAEL FREEMANTLE
C&EN
/ AUGUST
13, 2001
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