I N D U S T R Y & B U S I N E S S

Organotin Compounds Get Boost Metal & Thermit transfers production to a greatly expanded plant in Kentucky

U.s . OUTPUT of organotin compounds is slated for a hefty increase as Metal & Thermit starts u p production a t its brand-new plant in Carrollton, Ky. This $3.5-million installation is de­scribed by Metal & Thermit's president H. E. Martin as the world's largest for making organic tin compounds. In its first year or so of operation, it will turn out about 2.5 million pounds of these compounds, with a sales value of about $4.5 million.

For the immediate future, the plant will make only organic compounds con­taining tin. However, long-range plans call for also making organic compounds of zinc, cadmium, and phosphorus.

The Carrollton plant replaces the much smaller semiworks plant that Metal & Thermit has been operating for a number of years at Rahway, N. J. In the future, the Rahway setup will be used by the company's development di­vision for pilot plant work on new organometallic compounds and other products.

• Var ie ty of Der iva t ives . Products to be made at Carrollton include di­butyltin maleate, dibutyltin dilaurate,

dibutyltin oxide, tetrabutyltin, tributyl-tin acetate, and others, including a series of t rademarked products called Thermolites.

A leading use for several of these compounds is as a stabilizer for poly­vinyl chloride plastics, to help keep heat and light from discoloring or mak­ing them brittle. Other organotin com­pounds are used to reduce the slime problem in pape r mills, catalyze silicone curing, control a poultry disease, or act as a chemical intermediate. One com­pound serves as an additive to chlori­nated liquids used to insulate and cool transformers.

Metal & Thermit is not the only pro­ducer of organotin compounds. For about five years now, Union Carbide Chemicals, for example, has been mak­ing dibutyl t in dilaurate at its South Charleston, W . Va., plant for sale as a vinyl stabilizer.

A key intermediate in Metal & Ther­mit's production of a number of or­ganotin compounds is dibutyltin di-chloride. I t ' s m a d e by a modified Grignard reaction in which butyl chlo­ride first reacts with magnesium to

form butyl magnesium chloride. This then reacts witih tin tetrachloride to yield dibutyltin dichloride. This reac­tion also gives magnesium chloride as a by-product.

An important modification of the standard Grignard process is using a vehicle other than the conventional di­ethyl ether. The improved vehicle, the company says, results in higher yields and less hazardous operation.

In the past , the company has been producing the required tin tetrachlo­ride for the Grignard process at i ts Car­teret, N. J., plant. In the very near future, this compound will also be made in Carrollton.

• No Newcomer . Actually, Metal & Thermit has been in the tin field from the very outset. Founded in 1908 as Goldschmitt Detinning Co. , i t s first plant was built at Carteret to recover tin by a chemical process from the scrap produced in making tin cans. At the same t ime, it is also began producing inorganic tin compounds. I t s tin tetra­chloride was used in weighting silk, and its tin oxide helped to make opaque the glazes on ceramic ware.

Production of organic tin compounds is much more recent. Research on these compounds by Metal & Thermit be ­gan in 1945, and very limited manu­facture of a few of them started shortly

A P R I L 14, 1 9 5 8 C & E N 2 5

INDUSTRY & BUSINESS

Better Days Ahead for ILO? Technical discussions, less argument over resolu­tions may feature next meeting, says MCA's Crass

afterwards. In particular, t h e expand­ing demand for dibutyltin dilaurate and dibutyltin maleate in stabilizing poly­vinyl chloride gave this development a much needed push.

Like most organometallics, the or­ganic tin compounds are relatively new, but growing. As Metal & Thermit points out, its Carrollton plant is now using only 12 acres of a 150-acre site. There's lots of room for expansion—both in a bigger plant and also in number of products.

N20 on Wheels

The Army has i ts eyes on a portable nitrous oxide generator. It has awarded a contract to Lummus to design, build, and test a skid-mounted unit that can be carried on a flatcar or truck. T h e generator will produce gas for use as an anesthetic under combat conditions, the Army says.

Lummus will design the generator to produce 40 pounds per hour of liquid nitrous oxide from ammonium nitrate. The entire unit will b e built and op­erated at the company's engineering development center in Newark, N. J., for the Engineering Research and De­velopment Laboratories of the Corps of Engineers.

The center has previous experience in developing mobile plants. It built a portable refiner)' unit with a 1000-bar-rel-per-day capacity for t h e Navy, as well as its own truck-mounted pilot plant for producing olefins.

The nitrous oxide generator is but one recent contract awarded to the Lummus development center. I t is also building a test loop, under contract with General Electric, for the engineer­ing test reactor a t Idaho Falls, Idaho. The loop consists of a pressurized water heat exchange system and demineraliz-ing equipment. Lummus will erect all out-of-pile equipment and simulate the in-pile section when checking opera­tion of the loop. The equipment will then be dismantled and shipped to Idaho Falls this summer to be reas­sembled at the ETR site.

Lummus expects, too, t o fabricate a similar test loop for Westinghouse. This one will be used to check design and materials of construction to be in­stalled in the nuclear power plant being built by Yankee Atomic Electric at Rowe, Mass.

1 H E NEXT MEETING of the Chemical

Industries Committee of the Interna­tional Labor Organization, probably set for 1960, may be the best one yet, Maurice F . Crass, Jr., secretary of Manufacturing Chemists' Association, tells C&EN. Reason: The outlook is improving for more emphasis on ex­changing technical information and ex-

MCA's Crass '. . . best ILO meeting . . .'

perience, less time wasted wrangling over details in resolutions.

A hopeful sign, says Crass, is the probability that there will be some new items on the agenda at the next meet­ing. One item, suggested by the U. S. employers delegation, is on the use of audio-visual aids in teaching safety. As outlined by the American group, this items calls for panel discussions and other ways of exchanging informa­tion on the subject among delegates from member countries.

More activities of this kind that give delegates a chance to learn something from their fellow delegates will make ILO meetings much more valuable, Crass says.

• Good Meeting. Crass has just come back from the Chemical Indus­

tries Committee meeting of ILO, held in February a t Geneva. He was a member of the U. S. employers delega­tion. "This meeting was the best ILO meeting I have at tended," Crass says; he has been a delegate to two previous meetings. This time, he says, "There was less argument, fewer inflammatory speeches, and more constructive accom­plishments than I have seen before."

A good deal was accomplished in the field of safety, Crass says. Major achievements:

• A resolution to continue collecting information on dangerous substances and their control with a view to issuing safety data sheets.

• A resolution to continue preparing basic information to appear on warning labels.

• A resolution urging the United Na­tions and ILO to come to early agree­ment on uniform international symbols for hazardous substances.

• A resolution setting out construc­tive details for reducing the incidence of occupational disease and poisoning.

The proposals to issue safety data sheets and warning labels for dangerous chemicals were pat terned after U. S. practice. As guides, the series of safety data sheets and standards for warning labels developed by MCA will be used.

* This system of standardizing safety in­formation has worked very well in this country, as well as in the U. K., Crass says, and should prove very valuable in developing safety standards in the chemical industry of other countries. In countries where the chemical indus­try is not as far advanced as in the U. S., the MCA-developed information should be a big help in improving safety standards, Crass says.

One thing that impressed Crass at the ILO meeting was the cordial treat­ment the American delegation received. Delegates from other countries sought out the American group on a number of occasions to discuss specific phases of the subjects a t issue. Many discussions, both formal and informal were held. This type of cooperation, Crass says, generated a good bit of mutual good

2 6 C & E N A P R I L 14, 1958