Synthetic rubber (Buna)
Caucho sintético (Buna)
- Date
- 1909–1935 · confidence medium
- Place
- Leverkusen, Germany
- Credited to
- Fritz Hofmann (Bayer, 1909); IG Farben (Buna S, 1935); Wallace Carothers (neoprene, DuPont, 1930); US GR-S programme (1942)
- People
- 👤 Wallace Carothers1896–1937
- Field
- Matter & energy
What it is
Elastomers polymerised from butadiene and styrene, substitutes for natural rubber. They let Germany and the United States sustain motorised warfare without Asian plantations.
Russia (Lebedev, 1928-1932) independently developed butadiene rubber.
What it led to
- Strategic independence from colonial rubber
- Post-war tyres and seals
- IG Farben's Monowitz plant (Auschwitz III)
Built on
- Vulcanization of rubber1839 (patente 1844)
- Pneumatic tyre1888–1891
- Polymers as covalent macromolecules (Staudinger)1920-1922
- Staudinger's macromolecular theory
Made possible
- Radial tyre (Michelin X)1946
- Modern tyre
- Neoprene
- Elastomers