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The Emeryville Research Center of Shell Development Company in Emeryville, California was a major research facility of Shell Oil Company in the United States from 1928 until 1972, when Shell Development relocated to Houston, Texas. [1] Shell Development's Emeryville facilities were located on about 27 acres (110,000 m2), included nearly 90 buildings at its peak, and when decommissioned in 1972, employed a staff of about 1500.
Tricresyl phosphate (TCP) and other gasoline additives were developed at Emeryville. Tar sands extraction and other techniques to increase oil reserves were studied at bench scale and in pilot plants. Shell Development also pioneered de-sulfurization methods and standards for gasoline and motor oil, which were significant in reducing acid rain and other adverse environmental effects of auto exhaust gases. Shell Development scientist Thomas Schatzky also pioneered fingerprinting techniques to identify oil spills' origins.
Shell Development Emeryville scientists created the epoxy resins and expanded their applications. In an early dramatization of the new material, Shell Development's team recorded and pressed a musical performance on epoxy resin rather than on vinyl. A classical harpsichordist who was the wife of a scientist performed. Epoxy / carbon fiber and other advanced composites were also pioneered there.
Shell polymer scientists revised the scientific community's understanding of polymerization physics for styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR), a principal component of most tires since World War II. After natural rubber from rubber trees was made unavailable by the Japanese conquest of Southeast Asia, SBR provided a new material for tires for the Allies' military vehicles. Shell's Charles Wilcoxen later demonstrated the kinetics of the polymerization process, amending the assumptions of the Ziegler-Natta polymerization equations for which a Nobel prize was awarded in 1963. Shell Development also pioneered a class of materials called block copolymers, useful for medical applications such as artificial heart valves.
Shell Development had significant capital assets and technical resources, including a cyclotron, an early and long-running electron microscope facility, an elaborate radiation laboratory (whose facilities became Veedercrest Winery), and other then-advanced scientific tools.
Shell Development Emeryville made many contributions to the U.S. space program, including development of rocket fuels, and handling techniques and storage methods for these highly explosive compounds. Shell Development's labs also contributed significant support to California-based land speed record holder Craig Breedlove and the Spirit of America vehicles.
The American Chemical Society's archives refer to Shell Development as one of a small number of large, pre-eminent private research facilities on the West Coast. Shell scientists served as presidents and other officers of ACS during the decades when the facility was in operation.
Though self-identified as a conservative employer, many Shell scientists were politically progressive, championing causes such as the Sierra Club and no-growth economic strategies. Country Joe and the Fish, a '60's anti-war counterculture rock band, dedicated an early album to Martin Dimbat, a Shell Development scientist who contributed funding to their musical venture.
Unionized, with a comfortable work pace, elaborate medical benefits for employees, a company-paid lifetime retirement plan and almost-ironclad job security, Shell Development for decades provided the comforts of a socialistic work environment within a corporate giant of capitalism. Because of competitive disadvantages the company would experience if employees could publish freely, Shell Development scientists often experienced the minimal professional recognition compared to scientists in academia.
Shell Development's senior scientific ranks included scientists who had been graduate students of Glenn Seaborg, a Berkeley scientist who pioneered techniques to create and verify transuranium elements. Shell Development also bore the indirect imprint of Robert Oppenheimer, director of the Manhattan Project. Manhattan Project alumni worked at Shell / Emeryville, and Oppenheimer himself is asserted to have been an offstage force in unionizing parts of Shell Development's workforce.
After Shell Oil dissolved the Shell Development / Emeryville organization and decommissioned its facilities, its employee culture proved robust. For over forty years after Shell Development ceased to exist, employees continued monthly meetings at a marina restaurant nearby. Citing uninterrupted recordkeeping among the surviving employees, a spokesperson reported that somewhat less than half of the known employees from Shell Development were still alive in late 2006. Meetings were finally suspended in 2007.
Shell Development's facilities languished briefly following its 1972 departure from its Emeryville campus. The properties then became an early home of biotechnology pioneers Cetus and Chiron. In the 21st century, many of the buildings of the former Shell Development campus are occupied by pharmaceutical giant Novartis.
Los Alamos National Laboratory is one of the sixteen research and development laboratories of the United States Department of Energy (DOE), located a short distance northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico, in the American southwest. Best known for its central role in helping develop the first atomic bomb, LANL is one of the world's largest and most advanced scientific institutions.
Petrochemicals are the chemical products obtained from petroleum by refining. Some chemical compounds made from petroleum are also obtained from other fossil fuels, such as coal or natural gas, or renewable sources such as maize, palm fruit or sugar cane.
Epoxy is the family of basic components or cured end products of epoxy resins. Epoxy resins, also known as polyepoxides, are a class of reactive prepolymers and polymers which contain epoxide groups. The epoxide functional group is also collectively called epoxy. The IUPAC name for an epoxide group is an oxirane.
Frederic Stanley Kipping FRS was an English chemist. He undertook much of the pioneering work on silicon polymers and coined the term silicone.
The Molecular Foundry is a nanoscience user facility located at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, and is one of five Nanoscale Science Research Centers sponsored by the United States Department of Energy.
Styrene-butadiene or styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) describe families of synthetic rubbers derived from styrene and butadiene. These materials have good abrasion resistance and good aging stability when protected by additives. In 2012, more than 5.4 million tonnes of SBR were processed worldwide. About 50% of car tires are made from various types of SBR. The styrene/butadiene ratio influences the properties of the polymer: with high styrene content, the rubbers are harder and less rubbery. SBR is not to be confused with the thermoplastic elastomer, styrene-butadiene block copolymer, although being derived from the same monomers.
Pre-preg is a composite material made from "pre-impregnated" fibers and a partially cured polymer matrix, such as epoxy or phenolic resin, or even thermoplastic mixed with liquid rubbers or resins. The fibers often take the form of a weave and the matrix is used to bond them together and to other components during manufacture. The thermoset matrix is only partially cured to allow easy handling; this B-Stage material requires cold storage to prevent complete curing. B-Stage pre-preg is always stored in cooled areas since heat accelerates complete polymerization. Hence, composite structures built of pre-pregs will mostly require an oven or autoclave to cure. The main idea behind a pre-preg material is the use of anisotropic mechanical properties along the fibers, while the polymer matrix provides filling properties, keeping the fibers in a single system.
Araldite is a registered trademark of Huntsman Advanced Materials referring to their range of engineering and structural epoxy, acrylic, and polyurethane adhesives. Swiss manufacturers originally launched Araldite DIY adhesive products in 1946. The first batches of Araldite epoxy resins, for which the brand is best known, were made in Duxford, England in 1950.
Polybutadiene [butadiene rubber BR] is a synthetic rubber. Polybutadiene rubber is a polymer formed from the polymerization of the monomer 1,3-butadiene. Polybutadiene has a high resistance to wear and is used especially in the manufacture of tires, which consumes about 70% of the production. Another 25% is used as an additive to improve the toughness of plastics such as polystyrene and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS). Polybutadiene rubber accounted for about a quarter of total global consumption of synthetic rubbers in 2012. It is also used to manufacture golf balls, various elastic objects and to coat or encapsulate electronic assemblies, offering high electrical resistivity.
Polymer science or macromolecular science is a subfield of materials science concerned with polymers, primarily synthetic polymers such as plastics and elastomers. The field of polymer science includes researchers in multiple disciplines including chemistry, physics, and engineering.
Kraton is the trade name given to a number of high-performance elastomers manufactured by Kraton Polymers, and used as synthetic replacements for rubber. Kraton polymers offer many of the properties of natural rubber, such as flexibility, high traction, and sealing abilities, but with increased resistance to heat, weathering, and chemicals.
Polymer engineering is generally an engineering field that designs, analyses, and modifies polymer materials. Polymer engineering covers aspects of the petrochemical industry, polymerization, structure and characterization of polymers, properties of polymers, compounding and processing of polymers and description of major polymers, structure property relations and applications.
Rubber toughening is a process in which rubber nanoparticles are interspersed within a polymer matrix to increase the mechanical robustness, or toughness, of the material. By "toughening" a polymer it is meant that the ability of the polymeric substance to absorb energy and plastically deform without fracture is increased. Considering the significant advantages in mechanical properties that rubber toughening offers, most major thermoplastics are available in rubber-toughened versions; for many engineering applications, material toughness is a deciding factor in final material selection.
Resin casting is a method of plastic casting where a mold is filled with a liquid synthetic resin, which then hardens. It is primarily used for small-scale production like industrial prototypes and dentistry. It can be done by amateur hobbyists with little initial investment, and is used in the production of collectible toys, models and figures, as well as small-scale jewellery production.
The Charles Goodyear Medal is the highest honor conferred by the American Chemical Society, Rubber Division. Established in 1941, the award is named after Charles Goodyear, the discoverer of vulcanization, and consists of a gold medal, a framed certificate and prize money. The medal honors individuals for "outstanding invention, innovation, or development which has resulted in a significant change or contribution to the nature of the rubber industry". Awardees give a lecture at an ACS Rubber Division meeting, and publish a review of their work in the society's scientific journal Rubber Chemistry and Technology.
Kumho Petrochemical Co., Ltd. is a multinational chemical company based in South Korea, with headquarters in Seoul. It was founded in 1970 when Kumho Group struggled to secure raw materials for its bus and tire businesses. Kumho Petrochemical has a global market leadership in the manufacturing of synthetic rubbers with the world's largest production capacity based on SBR and BR by IISRP 2012. It focuses on synthetic rubbers, synthetic resins, specialty chemicals, electronic chemicals, energy, building materials and advanced materials as its core business.
R. Robert Brattain was an American physicist at Shell Development Company. He was involved in a number of secret projects during World War II. He is recognized as one of America's leading infrared spectroscopists for his work in designing several models of spectrophotometer, and for using the infrared spectrophotometer to determine the β-lactam structure of penicillin. His instrumentation work was essential to the subsequent study and understanding of structures in organic chemistry.
Sylvia Marie Stoesser, was an American chemist. She was the first woman to be employed as a chemist at Dow Chemical Company. During her time at Dow, she made a number of major contributions, holding more than two dozen patents as a result of her research.
Waterborne resins are sometimes called water-based resins. They are resins or polymeric resins that use water as the carrying medium as opposed to solvent or solvent-less. Resins are used in the production of coatings, adhesives, sealants, elastomers and composite materials. When the phrase waterborne resin is used, it usually describes all resins which have water as the main carrying solvent. The resin could be water soluble, water reducible or water dispersed.
Fossil preparation is a complex of tasks that can include excavating, revealing, conserving, and replicating the ancient remains and traces of organisms. It is an integral part of the science of paleontology, of museum exhibition, and the preservation of fossils held in the public trust. It involves a wide variety of techniques, from the mechanical to the chemical, depending upon the qualities of the specimen being prepared and the goals of the effort. Fossil preparation may be executed by scientists, students or collections personnel, but is often undertaken by professional fossil preparators.
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