Synthetic Rubber
Another material that was critical to the war effort
was "synthetic rubber," which was produced
in a variety of forms.
Practical synthetic rubber grew out of studies published
in 1930 written independently by Carothers and the German
scientist Hermann Staudinger. These studies led in
1931 to one of the first successful synthetic rubbers,
known as "neoprene." Neoprene is highly resistant to
heat and chemicals such as oil and gasoline, and is used
in fuel hoses and as an insulating material in machinery.
In 1935, German chemists synthesized the first of a series
of synthetic rubbers known as "Buna rubbers." These
were "copolymers" meaning that their polymers were made
up from not one but two monomers, in alternating sequence.
One such Buna rubber, known as "GR-S" (Government Rubber
Styrene), is a copolymer of butadiene and styrene and became
the basis for US synthetic rubber production during World
War II.
Worldwide natural rubber supplies were limited, and by
mid-1942 most of the rubber-producing regions were under
Japanese control. Military trucks needed rubber for
tires, and rubber was used in almost every other war
machine. The US government launched a major effort
to ramp up synthetic rubber production. By 1944, a
total of 50 factories were manufacturing it, pouring out a
volume of the material twice that of the world's natural
rubber production before the beginning of the war.
After the war, natural rubber plantations no longer had a
stranglehold on rubber supplies, particularly after
chemists learned to synthesize isoprene. GR-S
still remains the primary synthetic rubber for the manufacture
of tires.
Synthetic rubber would also play an important part in the
space race and nuclear arms race. Solid rockets used
during World War II used nitrocellulose explosives for
propellants, but it was impractical and dangerous to make
such rockets very big.
During the war, California Institute of Technology (CalTech)
researchers came up with a new solid fuel, based on
asphalt fuel mixed with an oxidizer, such as potassium or
ammonium percholorate, plus aluminum powder, which burns
very hot. This new solid fuel burned more slowly and
evenly than nitrocellulose explosives, and was much less
dangerous to store and use, though it tended to flow
slowly out of the rocket in storage and the rockets using
it had to be stockpiled nose-down.
After the war, the CalTech researchers began to
investigate the use of synthetic rubbers, instead of
asphalt, as the fuel in the mixture. By the
mid-1950s, large missiles were being built using solid
fuels based on synthetic rubber, mixed with ammonium perchlorate and high proportions of aluminum powder.
Such solid fuels could be cast into large, uniform blocks
that had no cracks or other defects that would cause
nonuniform burning. Ultimately, all large military
rockets and missiles would use synthetic rubber based
solid fuels, and they would also play a significant part
in the civilian space effort.
An interesting synthetic rubber site:
International Institute of Synthetic Rubber Producers
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