William J. Sparks

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William Joseph Sparks (born February 26, 1905 in Wilkinson (Indiana) , † October 23, 1976 in Coral Gables ) was an American chemist who is known for the development of butyl rubber in the United States.

life and work

Sparks grew up on a farm and studied at Indiana University Bloomington with a bachelor's degree in 1926 and a master's degree in 1929. He received his doctorate in chemistry from the University of Illinois in 1936 . From 1929 to 1934 he worked at DuPont Nemours in Niagara Falls, New York. In 1936 he became a research chemist at Standard Oil of New Jersey (now Exxon ) in their research laboratories in Linden, New Jersey. There he stayed until a short time in 1939/40 as a senior chemist at the US Department of Agriculture in Peoria, Illinois (where he initiated the development of elastomers (Norepol) from vegetable oils). From 1946 to 1957 he was director of chemical research at Exxon and then until his retirement in 1967 Exxon's Scientific Advisor, a newly created position that was considered the highest honor for scientists at Exxon.

Sparks was particularly concerned with petrochemicals and rubber chemistry. In 1937 he developed butyl rubber at Standard Oil with Robert M. Thomas. In contrast to the majority of competitors in the field of synthetic rubber, they went beyond the use of dienes such as isoprene by copolymerizing with isobutene . The patent application was made in the same year (1937), it was commercially available in 1943. Because of its airtight seal, it was widely used in the tire industry for the US military during World War II. In Germany, isobutene was used in rubber-like polyisobutylene (PIB) from 1931 by BASF (Oppanol). This was further developed by Sparks and Thomas to create butyl rubber (IIR). In the 1950s and 1960s, improved halogenated butyl rubbers (halobutyl) were developed (by Thomas et al.), Which became the most important material for tire inner tubes.

He held around 145 patents, not only on polymers, but also on fuels, gasoline additives, packaging films and oxidants.

In 1954 he received the gold medal of the American Institute of Chemists, the Perkin Medal in 1964 , the Charles Goodyear Medal in 1963, the Priestley Medal in 1965 and the Chemical Pioneer Award in 1970 . He received honorary degrees from Indiana University and Michigan Technological University. In 1967 he was accepted into the National Academy of Engineering . In 1966 he was President of the American Chemical Society , where he campaigned for the social responsibility of scientists, which, according to Sparks, should be promoted in university education. He was chairman of the chemistry department of the National Research Council.

In 1999 he was inducted into the International Rubber Science Hall of Fame with Thomas. In 2016 he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame .

literature

  • Thomas, Sparks Butyl Rubber , in GS Whitby (Ed.), Synthetic Rubber, Wiley 1954
  • William Sparks, co-inventor of butyl rubber, in RB Seymour, Pioneers in Polymer Science, Kluwer 1989, pp. 177-192

Web links

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ Died 1984. He studied at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute (Bachelor's degree), was from 1929 at Standard Oil (later Exxon) and was involved in 80 patents at Exxon. In 1965 he retired. In 1969 he received the Goodyear Medal.
  2. ^ CPMA, Butyl Rubber
  3. ^ Rubber Hall of Fame
personal data
SURNAME Sparks, William J.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sparks, William Joseph (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American chemist
DATE OF BIRTH February 26, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Wilkinson, Indiana
DATE OF DEATH October 23, 1976
Place of death Coral Gables