Page 52 - Encyclopedia of Chemical Compounds 3 Vols

H H

H C C H

C C

H H

OTHER NAMES:
Biethylene; bivinyl;
divinyl; erythrene;
vinylethylene
FORMULA:
1,3-Butadiene
CH 2 =CHCH=CH 2
ELEMENTS:
Carbon, hydrogen
COMPOUND TYPE:
OVERVIEW
Alkene (unsaturated KE
hydrocarbon) 1,3-butadiene (one-three-byoo-tah-DYE-een) is a colorless
gas with a mild, slightly sweet odor. It occurs naturally in
STATE:
Y
petroleum, from which it is extracted at refineries. The com-
Gas F
pound was first discovered in petroleum in 1886 by the
MOLECULAR WEIGHT: A English chemist Henry E. Armstrong (1848–1937) and his
54.09 g/mol C
colleague A. K. Miller (no dates available). This discovery
MELTING POINT: T apparently had no practical application until 1910 when the

108.91 C S Russian chemist Sergei Lebedev (1874–1934) developed a

( 164.04 F) method for polymerizing butadiene to make a rubber-like
substance. Even then, Lebedev’s invention, called polybuta-
BOILING POINT:

4.41 C( 24.1 F) diene, was primarily a laboratory curiosity. There was rela-
tively little demand for rubber products that could not be
SOLUBILITY:
met by the vast supplies of natural rubber from Southeast
Insoluble in water;
Asia.
soluble in alcohol,
ether, and benzene That situation began to change in the 1920s and 1930s.
The demand for rubber products in automobiles and other
motor vehicles, especially tires, grew rapidly as car and truck
production increased rapidly year after year. At the same
CHEMICAL COMPOUNDS 1