Vol. 80, Issue 1
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Volume 80, Issue 1 Spring/Summer 2003 Call for Manuscripts and Peer-reviewers Ethical Behavior President’s Message Highlights from the AIC Board of Directors Meeting List of Contributors Cobalt (I) Salt Formation in Hydroformylation Catalysis Using the Senses to Turn Students Onto Chemistry: A Comparison Between The United States and Japan Book Reviews Books Available for Review Manuscript Style Guide AIC Board of Directors and Committee Chairs ETHICAL BEHAVIOR A Story Mr. Albert C. Holler, FAIC As CEO of a large company, do I take stock • Your accountants and outside options, my high salary, etc., for my consultants will not “cook the books.” compensation for the year? This total will be • Why not divide the 120 million dollars 120 million dollars. As the CEO, I know that among your employees? It may not be the company is “bleeding” with a debt of 26 very much for each but you will have billion dollars! their respect for an ethical leader. They will do anything for you! I have over the years “wined” and “dined” ethics. Now knocking at the door is “greed.” Greed Which do I choose? The door has no latch on Does “greed” overshadow “ethics”? Only you the outside. Do I open it for my “greedy” self or can help your employees bring back a healthy keep it shut for my loyal employees? Is the life to your company. Your “greed” will not do word “ethics” still to be my goal and behavior it! Help them! now and in the future or does “greed” keep • A couple of asterisk remarks: knocking at the door and I in a moment of o It all comes out even at the end weakness let him in? of the day! (Winston Churchill) o The mills of the god’s grind Let’s look briefly at each for a moment: slowly but exceedingly fine! (A Chinese proverb) Ethics “Greed” leads its distrust and disgust for you. Since childhood, I (ACH) have learned about Ethical behavior leads to a well-lived fair play, sportsmanship, honesty, integrity and respectable life for you. to be trustworthy, believe in God are the ways to go through life. Treat other people, your Do you as a member of the American Institute of employees, and associates the way you would Chemists subscribe and put into practice the AIC like to be treated. Nice things happen to ethical Code of Ethics? persons. • You can sleep at nights! Reread it and give it some deep thought. Note • No federal agents or other people will especially the items 1 thru 11. Don’t let “greed” come to you with subpoenas to open into your life! your books and financial files. AIC PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE… EVOLVING PERCEPTIONS David Riley Communications is an important aspect of the that we have. Or it may be due to some Institute. One aspect of this is the desire of our experience that we have had. This is why we members to search for answers to the complex need to have technical articles in The Chemist. topic of professionalism. We attempt to do this Otherwise, the journal would simply be called in many different forms, one of which being The “The Thought.” After all, even though we may Chemist. Yes, we have some technical papers in have widely divergent interests and activities, our journal because there must be a connection we are all chemists. between the ethereal aspect of professionalism and the real scientific world of activity; The premise, then, is a conceivably pertinent however, we must also set the pattern for idea or direction. How do we judge the value of interpretation of all elements of our technical a premise? We inspect the various aspects of the life. The professional aspect of the American premise and try to ascertain if it might have Institute of Chemists is copied by many others some reason for further thought. In mathematics, (this is the leadership quality of professionalism) it is quite clear that an exact answer can then be and involves not only our Code of Ethics and the derived. This is why, in scientific terms, the quality of our professional life, but also how rigor of mathematics is desired and needed. This well we apply the Scientific Method to all our is also why it is necessary for someone skilled in endeavors. How, you say, does the Method the art to develop the simplest terms for become our way of life (look at the means by expressing the relationships involved in a which we run our lives)? Do we take what we premise. Mathematics also allows us to express see for granted (and make unreasonable errors as these relationships in measurable terms, such as a consequence)? Or, do we look to see if there levels of uncertainty or, more commonly, by are other sides to all questions? Indeed, the standard deviations. latter case is our mode for life—it is to our inane curiosity. Furthermore, we also test what we do For example; 40 years ago, I was employed by a and ask for pertinent information that applies to branch of AT&T known as Western Electric. each subject, no matter how trivial it is. Some of Western Electric hired me to study its extruders us have a penchant for measuring how well an and the processing of poly(vinyl chloride), or answer represents what we want to do with it. PVC. PVC is the primary insulation for wires and cables. No one had been able to get Since it is near and dear to our hearts, let us look consistent processing of PVC or even run a melt at the basis of the Scientific Method. Our every flow test on PVC because it was inherently day activity might be clearer if we looked at this unstable. I bought $150,000 worth of equipment technique. How do we start? A premise (or including an Instron capillary rheometer, an figment of our imagination) occurs to us. This infrared spectrometer, a gas chromatograph, a premise can be world-shaking or simply a new roll mill, and a melt indexer. I also joined the venture in a usually technical topic. It usually American Society of Testing and Materials requires some rational thought or direction. It is (ASTM) to learn as much as I could. After a few conceivably untenable after we think about it; months of study, I concluded that, with the hence, the premise is discarded as useless. In Instron Capillary rheometer and information contrast, there usually is some basis of reasoning from the infrared spectrophotometer, the most as to why we initially conjured up the premise. meaningful information I could get was from the Frequently, the reason for the thought is some melt indexer. I could, with this simple tool, technical program, need, or basic knowledge determine the degree of instability with a long land die and a low temperature (175°C), a high tetrahydrofuran (a good solvent for PVC) weight on the ram (20 kg), and a low charge in decreased directly as the temperature increase the bore (2.15 g). I found that the PVC, after (QED). Of course, the definition of a polymer being sheared in an extruder, first decreased in being crosslinked is that the polymer be totally molecular weight (increase in flow in the melt insoluble in a good solvent. Therefore, I indexer) and then significantly increased in developed the term “incipient crosslinking” to molecular weight through more shearing indicate this progressively increasing measure of (decreased flow in the melt indexer). My basic molecular growth. premise was that the shearing initially caused the molecules of PVC to be broken apart into In conjunction with this increasing insolubility, I smaller pieces, then eventually, the free radicals observed a progressive change in the color I of the broken fragments would recombine into could associate with the increase in consecutive larger, more complex but stable molecules. double bond formation in the PVC structure that Everything I tested gave me the same results; so is indicative of the controlled selective process after a few thousand of these tests, I concluded I of removing HCl from adjacent vinyl chloride was right and began to publish my results, segments of the polymer. After the double bond expounding the data as a purported hypothesis. formation reaches six to ten members, a This is the next step of building a theory. But progressive color formation occurs, indicating a even with this remarkable amount of data, I selective and controlled process of molecular knew I needed additional corroboration. As a change. This fit with my theory of molecular new technique, I extracted the plasticizer and shifting and potential growth. found the viscosity of the extract increased over that of the original plasticizer. If I dissolved For 30 years, I observed this same phenomenon PVC in the plasticizer, I found that a small with tens of thousands of samples and thought percentage increased the viscosity over that of my theory was secure. Only two flies appeared the original plasticizer by the amount equal to in the ointment. When the plasticizer content got that of the extracted material. I therefore to be almost 50% of the formulation, the plastic concluded the hypothesis proven. I now had a could be sheared as much as one could apply to real theory. it without change in molecular structure. And, when one of my clients used specific fire I went to ASTM and developed the technique retardants aluminum oxide trihydrate combined for running both the melt indexer and the with molybdenum disulfide, the molecular extraction as standard methods; the importance structure had no severe crosslinking; only some of this was that it employed a round robin increase in the rate of flow, indicating that the system to prove others could get the same fire retardants were capable of controlling the answers.