Aspects of High Polymeric Chemistry

Abstract

INTRODUCTION WHEN the magnificent structure known as organic chemistry was built up in the second half of last century, it contained not only an enormous number of new substances with interesting and valuable properties, but also embodied a series of more or less general laws on the relations between the structure and the qualities of a molecule. It was realized, for example, that the presence of certain atomic groups (OH, NH2, HSO3) had as a consequence solubility in water, that other combinations of atoms impressed on the molecule the property of a dyestuff, others again made it a narcotic, or an explosive, and so on. These laws did not appear suddenly in clear and definite shape, but grew slowly with the development of chemical science. They were nearly all formulated at first as preliminary rules, and their validity checked by the aid of the continually increasing experimental material. Some of them did not successfully pass this test; they are forgotten to-day and many of them are no longer known; others have survived and represent our present knowledge of the possibilities of constructing a molecule with required properties. They can be called the leading principles of preparative organic chemistry, and are of utmost value for all synthetic work in chemical industry.