R E S E A R C H

Research Dollars from Cooperative Organizations

Type oforganization

Trade associations Professional and

technical societies Agricultural coop­

eratives Research-educational

cooperatives Other cooperative

groups

Total

4Drganùza-tions] οζση

fezboralories ("fn House") ΛΓο. Amt. 3 3 $4*998

Ô 2<54

-5 2,754

1*6 7<56

7 «596

&6 $9,478

Members' laboratories NO. Amt.

11 $254

0 —

0 —

0 —

0 —

11 $254

Nonprofit research institutes

No. Amt. 30 $ 1 , 8 2 3

4 77

0 —

0 —

10 395

44 $2,295

Com­mercial research labora­tories

No. Amt. IS $457

2 5

1 34:

0 —

5 144:

26 $640 *

{rovern-ment

agencies' labora­tories

No. Amt. 11 $345

5 146

2 20

0 —

4 54

2 2 $565

[

College or university

laboratories No. Amt. 55 $2,039

19 1,162

2 6

0 —

5 351

81 $3,558

Other

No. 20

' 1

0

υ 1

22

Amt. $ 1 , 0 9 8

7

__ —

8

$1,113

JVo.e

111

2 1

5

16

2 0

173

Total

Amt. $11 ,013

1,663

2 ,813

766

1,647

$17,902

category.

jytfe^ilhl

Type of organization Trade associations Professional and

technical societies Agricultural coopera­

tives Research-educational

cooperatives Other cooperative

groups

Total

mmmm_ AL ppropriation

from general revenue JVo. Amt.

7 8 $ 5 ,145

15 450

3 229

0 —

3 380

^ 9 S 6 , 2 0 4

suHBi Regularly recurring research

assessment No. Ami. 24 $3 ,511

4 201

2 2 , 346

16 707

13 723

59 $7 ,488

^̂ ^̂ ^̂ S Special assess-

ment for general

research No. Amt. 5 $63

0 —

1 182

0 —

1 1

7 $246

Special assess-

ment for specific research projects

No. Amt. 14 S760

1 87

0 —

1 19

2 61

18 $927

Special grants or

endow­ments

No. Amt. 1 5 $255

8 185

0 —

2 43

1 110 !

2 6 $593

Other No. Amt. 15 $1 ,790 '

9 951

2 57

2 12

8 377

36 $3 ,187

Total

\ No.a Amt. i 119 $11 ,524

1 25 1,875 | 5 2,813

16 781

2 0 1,652

| 185 6 $18,645 α Number of organizations not equal to numbers in individual categories because 60 organizations reported more than one category. 6 Includes $742,600 spent for social science research.

NSF continues its definitive series of research ex­penditures reporting on cooperative organizations

JL>i 1953, 531 cooperative organizations spent $20.4 million £or technical re­search and development, according to the latest of the National Science Foun­dation's definitive reports on research and development in t t ie U, S. Accord­ing to earlier reports, industry's bill was $3.7 billion (C&EN, Jan . 2, page 24) and the larger foundation's $26 million (C&EN, Feb. 13, page 686).

Included in this preliminary survey are 5 3 1 trade associations, professional and technical societies (including the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY), agri­cultural cooperatives, a n d research-edu­cational cooperatives.

NSF then narrowed its sample to

185 organizations ( 12 of which later re­ported no technical research and de­velopment); these 185 represent 8895? of the total expenditures.

Of the $17.9 million the 173 organi­zations spent, $9.5 million was used i n laboratories owned by 66 of therrx.

Research by the cooperative organi­zations influences other agencies i n varying degrees. Organizations ori­ented toward the physical and engi­neering sciences appear to affect all other research in the same fields. For example, the American Society for Testing Materials coordinates researcL· by industrial organizations and govern­mental agencies for development o f

standards. The American Petroleum Institute performs a large share of the basic research for its industry.

The true significance of research by the societies—which represents only 0.1% of total R&D funds in the U. S . -appears to he in the permeation of those research results throughout the American economy. Support of basic research has been the predorriinant in­terest of the societies since the early 1900's. Performance of that research by members of the societies, as well as most of the other basic research under­taken in this country, amplifies the in­fluence of the societies.

Of the $17.9 million, $5.3 million went for basic research, predominantly i n engineering and chemistry. Total expenditures for basic ,resear^ plied research -rana^àévèlbp^^

3 5 5 0 C & E N J U L Y 23.. 19 5 6

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MOi-YBDiC O — k e y to n e w f aimi

Molybdic oxide, MoO s , and the related molyb-dates, R>Mo04 , form chelates or complexes with many organic oxygen, sulfur and nitrogen compounds. Among these are:

Poly basic acids

Polyalcohols

Polyphenols

Thiophenols

Xanthates

β-d iketones

Aromat ic bases

A m i n e s

Each of these classes of compounds forms a number of complexes with varying properties. For example, oxalic acid forms complexes with molybdenum in the + 3 , 4-4, + 5 and 4-6 valence states. Some typical properties of these oxalates are described at right.

Mo1 1 1 o x a l a t e s ar«e non-ionic. Examples are the water-soluble Mo 2O(C 2O 4U e6IH 20 and the insoluble M o 4 0 3 ( C 2 0 4 ) 3 · 1 2 H 2 0 .

M o ! V oxalates» ares both ionic and non-ionic. Ionic complexes of !he type R2Mo304(C->04)3 * 2 H 2 0 are strong reducing agents. They a re red in acîêrsolutîon, blue In alkaline. Among non-ionic complexes are the purple/uAo506(C i i04)4 and the brown M o 4 0 5 ( C 2 0 4 ) 3 · 10H 2 O, both soluble in "wafer but insoluble in organic solvents.

M o v o x a l a t e s cire ihighly colored. Salts o f the type R M o 0 2 ( C 2 O J · l-LO are red ire concentrated water solution, but turn yellow on dilution. Mineral acrads convert them to other highly colored com­pounds; for acompte H C I yields green complexes of the type R2(MoOCIr>). Offlher iMov complexes include the orange (C 5 H 6 N)H· Mo0 4 O 8 (C 2 O 4 ) f e -orU0, the red Κ M o 0 2 ( C 2 0 4 ) · H 2 0 , and the yellow (C9HsN)MoO2(CU04) - H 2 0 and M o 2 0 3 ( C 2 O J 2 - 4 H 2 0 .

M o v l o x a l a t e s are These compIe*e=s arc

: water soluble, but their amine salts are not. ι apparently ionic-

Can you USQ these chelating powers of molybdenum? They are dSscus=sed more fully in a new bulletin, "Organic Complexes of Molybdenum*". Wirite for it and for samples of mofybdic oxide or sodium molybdate io» Cliranax Molybdenum Company, Dept. 2 2 , 500 Fifth Avenue, New York 3S6, ML Y.

J U L Y 2 3. 1 9 5 6 G & E N 3 5 5 1 :

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RESEARCH

significantly among the categories-Trade associations spend about three times as much for applied as for basic* while professional and technical socie­ties spend about five times as much on basic as on applied.

On the other hand, 21 trade associa­tions support only basic research, leav­ing applied to their company members. A number of these indicated that they believe their members are not taking full advantage of association research.

Officials of three trade associations, leaders in research programs, felt that each association should be spending $3 million annually to keep abreast of technical developments. They believe that effective use of present basic re­search results would help "sell" their members on need for such a program.

In the professional and technical so­cieties and research-education cooper­atives, 12 organizations divided their expenditures equally between basic and applied research, whereas 25 sup­ported one or the other.

A number of the cooperative organi­zations feel that "farming out" tends to segregate results of basic research, and industry's applied effort then makes little use of basic results. If these con­ditions hold for all cooperative or­ganizations supporting basic research, only about one fourth of the basic re­search covered in NSF's report sustains the applied research and development in the appropriate industry.

• Where It Comes from. Industry, in the form of company memberships, is the chief source of revenue for co­operatively supported research. While the full extent of this industrial support is difficult to measure, NSF feels it is safe to say that at least $15 million of the net technical R&D expenditure is derived from industrial sources.

R&D support by cooperative organi­zations tends to be an established and continuing activity. Over 40% of R&D funds is derived from regularly recur­ring assessments. In addition, the growth of cooperatively supported re­search indicates that appropriations from general revenue funds and volun­tary contributions tend to be recurring in nature. Although the contribution of the individual member may vary from year to year, the record of the in­dustry for the past 20 years or more is justification for some planning for the future.

Predominant among the professional and technical societies are voluntary contributions (listed under "other" in the table) and appropriations from gen­eral revenue. However, one of the more successful programs by a tech­nical society is based on a research as­

sessment of individual engineer mem­bers. This society believes that such participation contributes more to the program than mere service on research-controlling committees.

• The Future. Despite pessimism of some trade association officials, expen­ditures for technical research and de­velopment hy cooperatives should con­tinue to rise.

The reasons for optimism:

• Existing programs will increase. Of the 185 organizations reporting plans for technical R&D five years in advance (1958) , 42 of them were willing to forecast expansions; they indicated as

YVHEN THE AVERAGE y o u n g do-it-yourself home owner paints his house or garage these days, he takes it for granted that the paint he buys will be uniformly smooth, easy to spread, color-fast, and durable. And even the average industrial user of multivariety paints is not aware of all the research that lies behind the gradual replace­ment of art with science i n paint production. The simplicity of modern paints with respect to use-even the rankest amateur can do an expert job when all that's necessary is to "apply and let dry"—belies the complexity of problems that researchers must tackle and solve in their steady march toward paint perfection.

Tackling long-range problems in the field of protective coatings has led this year's Joseph J. Mattiello lecturer, Maurice Van Loo of Sherwin-Williams, into an unusually varied array of re­search undertakings. As director of paint research at Sherwin-Williams, Van Loo is currently directing active investi­gations on no less than 36 separate projects, several of which are in turn "agglomerates" of a number of closely related smaller studies. And in the course of his 29 years of research at S-W, he has participated in more than 200 different research undertakings.

From this complexity of investiga­tions by Van Loo and his associates have emerged several major advances in protec'Ve coatings science. The earliest of these, a description of the vortex action accompanying volatiliza­tion of solvents from paint films, re­sulted from his graduate research work under F. E. Bartell at the University of Michigan in the early 1920,s. Recall-

much as a 2 8 ^ increase over 1953. • More organizations will be sup­

porting research. • Problems remain unsolved. Many

organizations feel they are faced with more unsolved problems than when they began their research programs.

Thus 1958, the report says, should find about 590 cooperative research or­ganizations controlling the expenditure of about $26 million for technical R&D, vs. 531 and $20.4 nullum in 1953.

A copy of "Research by Cooperative Organizations'* may be obtained for 35 cents from Superintendent of Docu­ments, Washington 25, D. C.

ing that in those days he had had little opportunity to work in close proximity to actual paint manufacturing facilities, and thus was unhampered by much practical experience, Van Loo says that then he "wrote with considerable au­thority" on paint technology—a view­point which moderated as the years passed.

A few years ago, a specialized form of metal surface attack, in which threadlike trails of corrosion develop under protective coatings on certain metals, usually in humid atmospheres, attracted the attention of protective coatings technologists. Although not the first to recognize and study the phenomenon, which differs from con­ventional rusting in that it has definite structure and directional growth, Van Loo's group did enough work on the problem to prove that the trouble lay with the metal substrate and environ­mental conditions rather than with the coating. The group's work also indi­cated that damage from "filiform cor­rosion" could be minimized through careful attention to the metal surface prior to paint or lacquer application.

Probably the most significant achieve­ment with which Van Loo has been intimately connected is development of the concept of critical pigment volume concentration. This characteristic of a paint system is the transition point above or below which substantial differ­ences in the appearance and behavior of a paint film are encountered. At this point in the pigment-vehicle relation­ship, just enough binder is present to fill completely the voids left between the pigment particles incorporated in the film after volatilization of thinner.

Complexity Yields Simplicity Diversity of research interests characterizes paint research career of Sherwin-William's Van Loo

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