Roy Plunkett and the Invention of Teflon

Roy Plunkett and the Invention of Teflon Dr. Roy Plunkett discovered PTFE or polytetrafluoroethylene, the basis of Teflon ®, in April 1938. It’s one of those discoveries that happened by accident. Plunkett Discovers PTFE Plunkett held a Bachelor of Arts degree, a Master of Science degree, and his PhD in organic chemistry when he went to work at the DuPont research laboratories in Edison, New Jersey. He  was working with gases related to Freon ®Ã‚  refrigerants when he stumbled upon PTFE. Plunkett and his assistant, Jack Rebok, were charged with developing an alternative refrigerant and came up with tetrafluorethylene or TFE. They ended up making about 100 pounds of TFE and were faced with the dilemma of storing it all. They placed the TFE in small cylinders and froze them.  When they later checked on the refrigerant, they found the cylinders effectively empty, even though they felt heavy enough that they should still have been full. They cut one open and found that the TFE had polymerized into a white, waxy powder polytetrafluoroethylene or PTFE resin. Plunkett was an inveterate scientist. He had this new substance on his hands, but what to do with it? It was slippery, chemically stable and had a high melting point. He began playing with it, attempting to find out if it would serve any useful purpose at all. Ultimately, the challenge was taken out of his hands when he was promoted and sent to a different division. The TFE was sent to DuPont’s Central Research Department. The scientists there were instructed to experiment with the substance, and Teflon ® was born. Teflon Properties The molecular weight of Teflon ® can exceed 30 million, making it one of the largest molecules known to man. A colorless, odorless powder, it is a fluoroplastic with many properties that  give it an increasingly wide range of uses. The surface is so slippery, virtually nothing sticks to it or is absorbed by it – the Guinness Book of World Records once listed it as the slipperiest substance on earth. It’s still the only known substance that a geckos feet cant stick to.   The Teflon Trademark PTFE was first marketed under the DuPont Teflon ® trademark in 1945.   No wonder Teflon ® was chosen to be used on non-stick cooking pans, but it was originally used only for industrial and military purposes because it was so expensive to make. The first non-stick pan using  Teflon ® was marketed in France as Tefal in 1954. The U.S. followed with its own Teflon ®-coated pan the Happy Pan in 1861. Teflon Today Teflon ® can be found just about everywhere these days: as a stain repellant in fabrics, carpets and furniture, in automobile windshield wipers, hair products, lightbulbs, eyeglasses, electrical wires and infrared decoy flares. As for those cooking pans, feel free to take a wire whisk or any other utensil to them – unlike in the old days, you won’t risk scratching the Teflon ® coating because its been improved. . Dr. Plunkett stayed with DuPont until his retirement in 1975. He died in 1994, but not before being inducted into the Plastics Hall of Fame and the National Inventors’ Hall of Fame.

Recovery Hydrogen sulphide from Oil Refinery an enviroeconomic study Essay

Recovery Hydrogen sulphide from Oil Refinery an enviroeconomic study - Essay Example Additionally, the iron sulfide can cause upsets in treating systems and plugging in disposal wells. Aside from its corrosive nature, H2S is also a very toxic and very flammable gas. At low levels, H2S has a "rotten egg" smell. At levels of 100 ppm, H2S will paralyze the olfactory system, making it appear odorless. At levels above 700 ppm, H2S can kill instantly. To add to the threat this creates, H2S is heavier than air, allowing it to creep along the surface where it becomes a potentially life threatening, explosive hazard. Therefore it is extremely important to extract this compound from refineries for safety of humans and expensive machinery. However, Hydrogen Sulphide also has some significant uses. The most important industrial use of hydrogen sulfide is as a source of about 25% of the world production of elemental sulphur. The manufacturing process is based on burning about 1/3 of hydrogen sulfide to sulphur dioxide, then letting the resulting SO2 react with H2S. Other uses are in metallurgy for the preparation of metallic sulfides. It also finds use in preparation of phosphors and oil additives, in separation of metals, removal of metallic impurities, and in organic chemical synthesis. Hydrogen sulfide is also used in nuclear engineering, in the Girdler Sulfide process of manufacturing heavy water. The primary source of H2S is the Desulfovibrio sulfide reducing bacteria (SRB). SRBs reduce naturally occurring sulfate found in oilfield waters to hydrogen sulfide, which in turn reacts with iron to form iron sulfide. They are especially efficient in low-oxygen environments, such as in swamps and standing waters. Some other anaerobic bacteria liberate hydrogen sulfide when they digest sulfur-containing amino acids. Hydrogen Sulphide can be created anywhere where sulphur comes in contact with organic material at high temperatures. Processes for Hydrogen Sulphide recovery The most obvious method to avoid creation of Hydrogen Sulphide is to eliminate the sulphate from water prior to its injection. This can be done by using a nanofiltration membrane which removes all particles greater than one one-thousands of a micron resulting in high quality injection water free of silica and bacterial materials thereby insuring continued injection rates reflective of initial reservoir conditions.This process is very cost effective because it reduces the cost related to sour gas and oil treatment or dedicated "sour safe" pipelines and allows use of less costly metallurgy for the operation due to reduced stress cracking and corrosion. It also reduces the potential for necessary addition equipment on a platform with limited space and weight capacities. Another method for removing Hydrogen Sulphide is by caustic washing. Caustic treating (sweetening) removes all the hydrogen sulphide and convert most of the mercaptans to disulphides. Chlorine is also used to control odor and for H2S control. Continuous chlorination is a widely used and effective method for oxidizing hydrogen sulfide, especially if the water pH is 6.0-8.0. Chlorine is usually administered as sodium hypochlorite, which reacts with sulfide, hydrogen sulfide, and bisulfates to form compounds that do not cause foul taste or odors. Other oxidizing agents besides chlorine can be added to the water to oxidize H2S. These include hydrogen peroxide, potassium

Quantitative Reasoning About Duggan's Article Essay

Quantitative Reasoning About Duggan's Article - Essay Example   Duggan et al do not comprehensively describe study design they adopted to test the stated hypothesis. The researchers do not also describe sampling method they adopted in the study. According to Lohr (2009), the success of a research in achieving study objectives depend on research design adopted. Findings of Duggan et al are, therefore, questionable. In other words, the study possibly had certain prejudices. Research biases, also known as systematic errors, distort reproducibility of a study. In particular, the study of Duggan et al was associated with selection biases and measurement biases. Selection biases occur when an unrepresentative sample is used in a study. Because sampling method is not clearly explained in the study, there is a high likelihood that a no randomized sample was used. There is a possibility of measurement bias because no clear model is used to gun-related crimes and location and time of a gun show. In addition, statistical testing procedures are not clear ly discussed.Data Analysis procedures and Ethical ConcernsTo test the hypothesis, Duggan et al computed the correlation coefficient between the rate of guns and magazines sale and gun shows. The procedure yielded a perfect strong correlation. The researchers, however, assumed a linear and direct relationship between the sale of guns or magazines and gun-related crimes. As a statistical procedure, Duggan et al arrived at a conclusion based on the outcome of correlation computations.

Consumer Behaviour Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Consumer Behaviour - Essay Example In this respect, it is especially important in determining its characteristics. In addition, there is also insight it provides with regards to the consumer behavior and likely actions, which allow for the identification of problems and opportunities in marketing the product afterwards. There are at least five stages/steps by which the consumer makes his or her purchases: 1) need recognition; 2) information search; 3) evaluation of alternatives; 4) purchase; and, 5) postpurchase behavior (Lamb, Hair and McDaniel 2008, 140). Some experts add some stages in the process, such as with the model developed by Engle, Kollat and Blackswell, which divided the consumption stage into two - consumption and post-consumption - and adding a unique element in the form of divestment (Verma 2007, 178). All in all, the stages are pretty straightforward and speak for themselves. For instance, need recognition pertains to the actual desire, want or need of a consumer. This is usually the first stage in th e process, but the rest of the stages do not strictly follow the order by which they were outlined here in this paper. The stages as outlined by this paper highlight the fact that consumer purchase decisions are influenced by several factors - both external and internal influences. Personal desires, wants and needs as well as the available information and influencers are just some of these variables. They have to be understood in order to make sense of the complexity of the process. Finally, there is also the fact that consumer decision-making process does not end with the purchase of the product. For product developers, it may as well be an endless cycle that is why understanding the process is crucial in order to identify some semblance of pattern and coherence and make use of it in product development and in marketing. Theory 2: Family Roles influence on decision Making   Certainly, the motivating factors behind each consumer's purchase behavior are unique and different. Howeve r, the role of the family as a single most important variable in the decision-making process for all consumers is the same for most consumers in most purchase decisions. This powerful influence, according to Blythe (2006) is due to three reasons: 1. the parental influence in the case of the children is deeply embedded because it started the earliest and therefore impact the children's perception of everything that follows; 2. the parental desire to do what is best for the children and the family; and, 3. the influence of siblings as role models, particularly when the sibling is older or in some cases the carer or the adviser (138). The above reasons were just the fundamental ones especially when considering the fact that in some families, membership is not confined to the parents and their offspring. Rather, there are also the extended family such as aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents. Finally, it must be underscored that within the family or within household, a relationship ex ists, wherein each member has a role and participates in every decision-making process. This relationship, role and participation are underpinned by other issues such as gender and other variables that characterize the interpersonal relations within. Collectively, they can define who

Current issues in advertising (Marketing communications) Essay

Current issues in advertising (Marketing communications) - Essay Example arketing few of which include the statistical techniques that need to be properly fitted in to the equation, the usage of proper rules and methodologies for selecting the right target audiences, the manner in which they are segregated on the basis of their roles and positions in the society and not to forget the buying patterns of them as well, their decision making abilities in the market, the manner in which economical changes are shaping up the whole society and the drifts that are happening as a result, the changing consumer lifestyles with the advent of technological options and grouping all of these in a single database or a combination of databases which would make the work of the marketing communication practitioner easy. Rather the other way around has been seen, where the practitioner has been running from one end to another in the wake of devising the best possible database which will target the right people at the right time with the right offering. It is a difficult prop osition that has to be managed day in day out by the marketing communication practitioner but one that needs to be in place so as to enable growth on the part of the company and the link that is present between the business (company) and the customers that are being targeted upon by it. Database marketing is one of the most powerful tools that look at building a strong rapport between the company and its stakeholders, not only the customers but also the ones who have invested in its stocks, though in an indirect manner. The challenges thus faced account to problems ranging from handling all these records and files on not only a sequential basis but also that correlates with each other and thus comes up with results which precisely target the exact individuals (prospective or otherwise, customer) that have to be sent the newsletters, direct mail, brochures and so on and so forth. This also means that database marketing looks at revolving the glitches that may arise at some point in time

World Civilization I Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 2

World Civilization I - Essay Example There was also intimate association between the priests and the chieftains in Vedic India. In the society of Vedic India, there were also four major castes, that is, the Brahmins (priestly caste), the Ksatriyas (worrior caste), the Vaishyas (the farmer and tradesman caste), and the Shudras (servants and menial workers) (Indian History 205). Just like in the Vedic India, the societies in the Southeast Asia had also some structural features that acted as centers for political and military authority. Additionally, it is evident that the societies in the Southeast Asia also expanded like the territories in Vedic India. This is evidenced by the extension of the cities in the Southeast Asia to the surrounding areas. The demand for provision of defense in the Southeast Asia also led to the emergence of kingdoms like in the Vedic India which enhanced taxation. Just like castes in Vedic India, Southeast Asia had also empires such as Akkadians and Babylonians. Social distinction was also evident in Southeast Asia like in Vedic India. This is evidenced by the variation in the rate of punishment as a result of class distinction. Unlike Southeast Asia, the social structure of ancient China looks like that of Vedic India. This is evidenced by the social structure of China first having the kings and nobles in the highest level, then the lords and warriors, and finally the peasants in the lowest class. The roles of leaders in ancient China were also well stipulated. The kings led to government, the lords paid taxes to the kings as well as provided warriors to protect the land, and the peasants worked for the

Contoso Legal Department and Client Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Contoso Legal Department and Client - Term Paper Example An installation of Windows 7 would become an upgrade, as the Windows version was essentially released to upgrade the previous version. Upgrading the existing system would include installation of Windows 7. This upgrade would provide improved functioning of the existing features through the performance improvements included in the new Windows version. These features allow computers to perform numerous functions previously unavailable in the other Microsoft operating systems. Installation of Windows 7 would also include upgrading the server system through the installation of a compatible system in the server. The Windows server 2008 R2 could be identified as the best option for the server. The Microsoft Corporation released this server system as a counterpart for Windows 7 (Microsoft, 2012). These systems function in extreme uniformity once installed together, allowing quick access to company servers from the personal computers. Compatibility of these two systems remains essential in e nabling ad creasing efficiency of the entire system. This server system would significantly improve the capability of the installed operating system to access the company server. This server system becomes essential when using Windows 7 in ensuring proper functionality for the operating system. The system requires hardware configuration similar to those of the preceding versions released. The fundamental aspect of the system remains the capability to allow easy document sharing. The system image could be defined as the capability for a computer system to shut and return to the same state when restarted. This remains one of the essential changes present in the Windows 7 version, integrating the capability to hibernate computers. The new version presents systems with the ability to store information in volatile memories essentially allowing creation of system images. The proposed Windows version comes with the capability to hibernate, therefore, allowing the capability to operate the computers in energy saving modes. This feature remains critical in reducing the energy consumption of the entire company (Pogue, October 21, 2009). The system image feature becomes essential in allowing off-line operating system debugging. The operating system with the capability to create system images, allows the computer to return to operational mode immediately, upon command. This feature could assist the department in minimizing incidents of losing critical data, stored within the departmental computers. The creation of a system image remains a feature available only in this version of Microsoft windows. Windows 7 allows the user to create system images, enabling the mounting of system drives that cannot be modified. The system images allow performing of various actions aimed at recovering system information regarding the operating system. Microsoft Corporation introduced this feature when launching Windows 7, making the operating system the first Microsoft windows with the cap ability to mount system image independently. The inclusion of the system image significantly improves the capability to avail system backup, which could become critical in recovering lost system information. The operating system allows launching of this feature from different media including optical disks. Creating a system image during the first installation could enable the launching of the image from the computer hard disk. The hardware requirements for Windows 7 remain