Arnold Miller Collins (1899-1982) was a chemist at DuPont who, working under Elmer Bolton and Wallace Carothers with Ira Williams, first isolated polychloroprene and 2-chloro-1, 3-butadiene in 1930.[1]
Born 1899. Married Helen Clark Collins. Died October 8, 1982.[2]
Collins attended Columbia College, graduating in 1921 with the AB degree.[3]
Doctoral degree. Columbia College 1924. His dissertation was entitled "Electrolytic introduction of alkyl groups", Columbia University, New York, New York.[4]
At Dupont, Collins worked under Wallace Carothers. Carothers assigned Collins to produce a sample of divinylacetylene.[5] In March 1930, while distilling the products of the acetylene reaction, Collins obtained a small quantity of an unknown liquid, which he put aside in stoppered test tubes. He later found that the liquid had congealed into a clear homogeneous mass. When Collins removed the mass from the test tube, it bounced. Further analysis showed that the mass was a polymer of chloroprene, formed with chlorine from the cuprous chloride catalyst. Collins had stumbled upon a new synthetic rubber.[6]
Following this breakthrough, DuPont began to manufacture its first artificial rubber, DuPrene, in September 1931. In 1936, it was renamed neoprene a term to be used generically.[7]