Famous Chemistry Inventions and Accidents

By
Dr. Anand S. Burange

Ph.D. (ICT, Mumbai), CSIR-NET, GATE,

CSIR-Nehru PDF (NCL, Pune), CSIR-RA
Asst. Professor in Chemistry
Wilson College, Mumbai

6th January 2018

 Discovery and Invention

 Act of finding or
exploring something
which already existed Discovery
but not perceived
before.

 Creation or designing
of an item or a
Invention
process which has
never been existed
before
 What is Serendipity?

Serendipity is an accidental discovery. In history, there are various fascinating

stories of accidental discoveries. But serendipity doesn’t happen with everyone,
it needs

curious mind fine observer

Chemistry Inventions that changed the world
 Acrylic Paint
 Otto and Haas cofounded a company and
started selling Shatter Proof acrylic glass (Trade
names: Plexiglass® , Perspex® and Lucite). US
started manufacturing 10,000 air crafts every
year all with plexiglass canopies. Röhm and Haas had
worked in area of acrylics
for decades but they did
Otto Röhm during his not invent the acrylic
Ph.D. studied acrylic paints.
paints (1901).
Thesis Title:
Polymerization Plexiglass canopies
Products of Acrylic
Acid
(He was originally Acrylic paints
trained as a
pharmacist assistant).
 Leonard Bocour (1941): Acrylic Paints

 Bocour used to prepare and sale oil paints to

artists. He observed that use of acrylic sample
makes colour more white. He started working
with Röhm and Haas company and began
selling first acrylic paint “Magna.” IT WAS THE FIRST BIG CHANGE IN PAINT TECHNOLOGY
SINCE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.

Chemical Composition
 Acrylic paint has several advantages over oil
paints (dries faster ; can be applied on variety of Paint is composed of pigment,
materials like paper, card, canvas board, etc.) binder (resin), solvent and
additives.
 Röhm and Haas in 1953 again introduced O

water based acrylic paints useful for interior

Me
walls. O

Me

Binder:Methyl methacrylate
 Aerogel

Gel is a solid or semi solid (jelly like) stage of a colloidal

solution bearing honey comb like structure. It can be converted
into sol (liquid state of colloidal solution) on heating.

 From the gel, if liquid is completely removed and replaced by

Aerogel was invented an air then it gives an aerogel. (Sometimes called frozen smoke).
by Steven S. Kistler, a
chemical engineer  Kistler was doing acidic condensation of sodium silicate, after
from the college of formation of gel he managed to stop volume reduction by
Pacific California in replacing water by low surface tension alcohol and finally got an
1931. Aerogel.
 Aerogel and NASA
 In 1970s French Rocket engineers observwed
that an aerogel with 99% air as a thermal
insulator and safe storage medium for rocker
fuels.

 Aerogel was used by NASA’s Stardust

Program. (The primary aim of the stardust
The National Aeronautics and mission was to collect samples of a comet)
Space Administration
 Among various aerogels, silica aerogel is
cheaper and prepared from
tetramethylorthosilicate, base and methanol.

O O
Me
Me
Si
Me
O Me
O

Stardust robotic space probe Structure of tetramethylorthosilicate

 Anesthesia (2000 B.C.E.)
Ancient
 During pregnacy, Egyptians discovered that use
of Opium could help to ease the pain while
Assirians (people of middle east for example Syria,
Iraq, etc) used painkilling mixtures of belladonna,
Opium
cannabis and mandrake root.
 Midieval Arabs developed a form of inhalation
anesthesia.

The rise of modern anesthesia was seen in 18 th

centrury when Joseph Priestley isolate nitrous
oxide.

Cannabis
 Euphoria

N2O shows euphoria

Impatient Dentist

O N N O N N

Halothane: Current Anaesthetic

 Atomic Bomb
 MOTIVATION: Scientists who escaped from the Nazi
regime had revealed that Germany had confirmed the
theoretical possibility of atomic bomb.

 In 1939, in fear of Nazis (weapon may developed),

Einstein and others wrote a letter to President Franklin D.
Roosevelt and warned him about need of atomic research.

Manhattan Project

US $ 2 billion; ultrasecret development research program.

In 1942, Robert Oppenheimer was appointed as Project Scientific
Director.
 TRINITY
Manhattan Project

To first man made explosion, Oppenhemer called ‘Trinity’ and testing was done on 16 th
July 1945 at Alamgordo, New Mexico.

Nuclear fission chain reactions of U-235 or

Pu-239 used in atomic bombing.

Trinity: Code name for first detonation

atomic bomb
 Catalytic Converter

Eugene Houdry, a French mechanical engineer known for a process of cracking/

Hundry process also invented first catalytic converter in 1956.

In 1970s, US Environmental
protecting Agency set strict
emssion control standards and
in 1974 first cars with catalytic
converter were produced. In
Three way catalytic converter
1985, it was adapted in Europe.
Unfortunately, catalytic
converters were not used until
after Houdry’s death.

My contribution to this field

 Epoxy Resin

Epoxy resin (originally used for dental fixtures) is

the adhesive of choice and used in holding bits of
aircrafts together and rotor blades of wind turbine.
Epoxy resins are resistant to heat and chemicals
and some are water proof too.
Swiss Chemist, Pierre Castan and Americal Sylvan
Greenlee both filed patent independently at the

Wind turbine same time in 1936.

Biggest market for epoxy resin is a protective

coating.

HO OH
O

Cl

Epichlorohydrin
Bisphenol A
 Non-stick Pans
Teflon: Serendipity

The story of Teflon began April

6, 1938, at the Chemours
Jackson Laboratory of Dupont.
Dr. Roy J. Plunkett, was
working with gases related to
Freon refrigerants, while Upon
checking a frozen, compressed
sample of tetrafluoroethylene,
he and his associates
discovered that the sample had
polymerized spontaneously into
a white, waxy solid to form
polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)

F F F F F F F F F F F F F F

F F F F F F F F F F F F
F F

PTFE
 Non-stick Pans: Role of wife

Mark Gregoire (French engineer) succesfully found out ways to coat PTFE on
Aluminium base appliances.

Mark shared with his wife his finding that non

sticky nature was observed on coating PTFE on
aluminium based materials. His wife, Colette
asked him to coat it on her cooking pans…
It worked well… Patent filed in 1954
Mark and Colette Invention: Formed company
Tefal (Teflon + Aluminium).

By 1958 they sold one million non stick items

from their company.

LESSON: ALWAYS LISTEN TO WIFE

 Saccharin

On 27th Feb 1879, Ira Ramsen and C. Fahlberg from

John Hopkins University got saccharin while working
with oxidation of o-toluenesulphonamide.
Work was published in 1880 and Fahlberg alone
patented it.
Serendipity : Food was sweet (Unwashed hands)

Structure of Saccharine ANYBODY WHO SAYS

SACCHARIN IS
INJURIOUS TO HEALTH
It is calorie free artificial IS AN IDIOT
sweetner. Its safety has
always been in controversy. President :T. Roosevelt

Controversies
1970s Rat feds with large amount of saccharin found to developed a risk of bladder cancer;
but few scientists argued its due to impurities in saccharin.
2000 Bill Clinton signed a bill to remove warning label from saccharin products.
Saccharin synthesis
 Dynamite

1846 Italian chemist Ascnio Sobrero discovered that

nitrating glycerin, he could make a fearsomely
explosive.
Alfred Nobel took a dangerous and risky task of
converting nitro-glycerin into marketable product.
Nitro-glycerin 1864 One of the explosions killed his brother and
workers at family’s factory. Later he successfully
combined nitroglycerin with mercury fulminate but due
1866 Mixture of nitroglycerin
to some more accidents and risks the product was
with diatomaceous earth (a
banned.
chalk like sedimentary rock)
was successful named as
Dynamite (Power in Greek). In 1867 Dynamite was patented. “Era of
high explosives.’
Merchant of death

In 1888, Alfred Nobel was shocked when read his

premature obituary in which he was described as a
“merchant of death”

This may motivated him to leave his all fortune for

NOBEL PRIZE.
Famous Industrial Accidents
 Seveso Disaster (1976)

Chemical Accident occurred at small Italian town

Meda. The cloud of poison covered 6 Km long and
1Km wide area (Company name :  Icmesa.). One of
the company branch was also located in Seveso.
TCDD

Surprising
None of the people near plant were died but it killed
few thousands farm animals and pets
 Few Laboratory Accidents

Nitric acid and Acetone can explode vigorously.

Colour label sometimes may help. JM accident

Laboratory Safety
 Substance compatibility

DMSO and Perchloric acid : BARC Accident

Do you keep chemicals in rack in alphabetical order???

Sovents Vs Oxidants
Acids Vs Amines

Use of Solvent cabinets

PPE
MSDS
 Current Research Areas: Hot topics
 Catalysis (Homogeneous, heterogeneous, enzyme, environmental, green chemistry).

 Material Science (Electronics, sensing applications).

 Photo-catalysis (Water splitting).

 Novel molecule designing and synthesis

 Novel methodologies (Economic viability).

 Fundamental research (Mechanistic understandings): Operando spectroscopy

 DSSC.

 Waste Valorization.

 Energy incineration.
 Thank you
Contact Details
Dr. Anand S. Burange
M.Sc. Ph.D. NET, GATE, CSIR-Nehru PDF, CSIR-RA
Professor (Asst.) in Chemistry
Wilson College, Mumbai.
Email
Office: [email protected]
Personal :[email protected]

This talk is dedicated to my beloved father late. Shri. Sudhakar G. Burange