Abstract
Some investigators believe that rubber consists of associated molecules, and others accept Staudinger's view that long-chain molecules are formed by polymerization. Pummerer, Andriessen and Gündel have obtained a molecular weight as low as 600. Meyer and Mark believe that it is approximately 5,000, although they calculated on the basis of osmotic pressures values as high as 350,000. They, as well as Pummerer, consider that rubber is an associated colloid and that high molecular weights are caused by aggregates, sometimes called micelles. Staudinger, however, considers that the long-chain rubber molecule itself has a molecular weight of 200,000 or even 350,000, and that products with lower values, which may be formed in rubber, result from degradation. if the molecules are small it might be possible to distil them if their vapor pressure could be sufficiently increased, but none would distil without decomposition if the molecules are very large. Because the vapor pressure of rubber below its decomposition temperature is low, it appeared of interest to attempt to distil the material in a molecular still. Paraffin wax and sugar, both substances of relatively high molecular weight, have been successfully distilled in this type of apparatus. Subsequent to the work described in this paper, the molecular weight of sol rubber prepared at this Bureau was determined by Kraemer and Lansing of E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Inc. They used the Svedberg method of sedimentation equilibrium in an ultracentrifuge with ethereal solutions of sol rubber. The temperature of the solutions during determinations was approximately 10° C, and an average value of 460,000 was obtained. There was evidenced of a mixture of molecular species.
THE DETERMINATION OF MOLECULAR WEIGHT
