File:PC18-1Ba.jpg

Summary[edit]

I don't really know what I'm doing here, so I will repeat the above description.... The photo is one of several I made during my Masters program in Materials Engineering and Science degree that I earned through the SDSM&Tech’s Chemistry Department in 2001 (I think that is correct, I would have to call up and check the year) and shows the nucleation of a polymer, a polycarbonate (poly[2, 2-propanbis (4-pnenyl carbonate]) with polarized light and was from a mother liquor of laboratory grade chloroform, water, and ethanol and a few drops of isopropyl alcohol. The nucleating agent is one of several US patented materials (US patent # 6,734,229) and can be used in many oil based paints and clear or transparent coatings to increase the paint, coatings’ glass transition temperature (Tg). This increase can be demonstrated with the apparatus described in an article that I wrote and was published in the trade magazine, Paint and Coatings Industry (PCI), appearing in the 2007 issue, pages 92 through 94 and describes the general technique. While I did not copyright my Thesis, the magazine might still have copyright issues. I don’t know. But from my point of view, you are free to publish if you wish. While my Academic Advisor, Dr. John Bendler, suggested the general topic and thought that there might a way to use single crystals of montmorillonite (a major constituent of the clay, bentonite) we were thinking in terms of doing it from a melt. As a preliminary work up and starting experiments I did some calculations as to the reactive power of the montmorillonite using the Ph.D. Thesis of Dr. Richard A. Vaia --- Dr. Vaia as a guide (Dr. Vaia had done his work at Cornell University in Ithaca New York.). And as it turned out my arithmetic was wrong and I made one or two errors. I was very lucky as I did not know for several months that I had made an error and another bit of luck was that I had not yet constructed a method for testing Tg and had started with using chloroform as a stand in for the polymer as I guessed that the adage ‘like dissolves like’ might be an accurate observation. And the starting stuff made with my arithmetic error did not dissolve in the chloroform. The third bit of luck is that several years previous I had seen a how to on PBS about gas line freezing and the mechanics on that show went through several demonstrations with glass test tubes of gasoline and a layer of water in them using Heat and other commercial products. The commercial products failed miserably, I thought, as the water layer remained. Then one of the presenters pulled out a drug store bottle of 99% isopropyl alcohol and not quite as fast as snapping your fingers, the water layer disappeared in the gas layer. I thought that might work, as the lab quality chloroform already had water and ethanol and so on in it. So not exactly reagent grade mixture. I nipped over to a nearby pharmacy and got some 99% isopropyl alcohol and added two or three drops and when I looked at the test tube containing materials the next morning, the small nugget of my materials had dissolved in the chloroform mixture. I did that two or three times and those worked too. I then informed Dr. Bender who after listening to me rattle on for a bit encouraged me to continue with my tinkering. It was only till the following spring he called me on my mistake. And then I performed a similar experiment with commercial hand soap with no admixture of montmorillonite and I got the same results as those listed in Dr. Vaia’s Thesis (by this time I had make my widget described in the magazine article and that is how that worked). So told my Advisor. And I eventually was able to propose the different mechanism of nucleation, which was different than the one proposed in Dr. Vaia’s Thesis which was intercalation. The accepted mechanism was intercalation that had been around since the 1880s or so starting in Germany. As I said, ‘very lucky’. Right, my address has changed to Jim Parsons, 2201 Mich. Ave., Rapid City, SD 57701, and a new e-mail address 1jimyyy@gmail.com. I can be contacted through the law firm of record if anyone is interested purchasing my patent, which I still own. A bit long winded, but there you are. The dates for my making the first batch is a guess, I would have to check with my lab book, which is down in the bank lock box along with several samples that I had made way back when.

Licensing[edit]

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This image was uploaded as part of Wiki Science Competition 2017.