The following details my interaction with companies that manufacture polyisobutene and butyl rubber.
BASF: For those who do not know, I have had dealings with BASF on and off for about 8+ years. This began not long after I started my first company (Stewart’s Technologies, LLC) at the Corporate Research Center at Virginia Tech. At the time I was one of the first members in a program of theirs called KnowledgeWorks. This program was to help foster startups and they really dropped the ball big time when it came to me (the program is an absolute joke). I had the manager at the time for BASF’s North Americas segment of polyisobutylene products scheduled for a visit and the KnowledgeWorks choads didn’t even bother to show up (leaving me without much needed av equipment). In any event, BASF never supplied any R&D funding and in an attempt to entice them I foolishly provided > $200 of a difficult to make, air sensitive Lewis acid coinitiator only to later learn they didn’t even have a glove box required to properly handle it! That fact still blows my mind to be quite frank.
Fast forward about 7 years and I contact Dr.? Vineet Bajpai (Bus. Manager- Fuel Solutions and Polyisobutylene for BASF here in the US). I simply request that BASF supply some rudimentary information for my book on cationic polymerization, the bulk of which has already appeared in print years before. What was the response that that I got from him and Ulrich Eichenauer and Anette Eckerle (titles unknown)? Nein, asking BASF to do such a thing was verboten! To say that I am disappointed with BASF’s stance is a major understatement. My thinking was that this company might be progressive in the way they conduct themselves and that they were truly dedicated to the betterment of mankind. Guess I was wrong there. Again, my hope is that someone in charge will prove to me that BASF is truly dedicated to education in the chemical sector and do the right thing and cooperate with me. I will say this, I have talked with other people there (high ranking R&D scientists) and they share my sentiments. That is, since the chemistry is well known and there is no IP risk whatsoever what is the big deal especially since it is free promotion of BASF and for the educational benefit of scientists in training!!!
ExxonMobil: I contacted this company around the time I first started having dealings with BASF. At the time I had recently invented the first aqueous polymerization system for isobutene and I recall the people who I talked with (in their butyl R&D department) being completely ignorant of the fact that polymer could be made under such conditions. My attempts at developing some sort of collaboration with them didn’t even get past the conversational stage so I quickly decided to stop wasting my time with them. Once I started writing the second book chapter (on polyisobutene and butyl rubber) I contacted one of their main R&D scientists via phone (Dr. Tim Shaffer). At that time I was excited to talk with him as I held him in high regard. When I requested information from him instead of providing me with the resources I was looking for he instead suggested I simply read the most recent summary that he and others from Exxon had published. It was a major disappointment to me especially since there was really nothing new in their summary compared to those written about 20+ years prior to its publication. Interestingly when I dug into Exxon’s newest and greatest technologies I wasn’t impressed as they really amount to a major waste of millions of R&D funds and no real improvements from an environmental standpoint. Even their energy efficient initiator system is only about 90 years old!!! I’m not overly surprised by the waste given the fact that when I attempted to contact Rex Tillerson (the CEO of Exxon) the head of their Chemical R&D department (Michael C. Kirby) told me that my chemistry (isobutene polymerization) had no overlap with any products produced by Exxon (see letter below). Someone should remind me to eventually point out the significance of the date in this letter. So the breaking news story from Exxon should be Exxon no longer makes butyl rubber!
TPC: Some months ago I wrote to Ms. Sara Cronin (corporate communications) of this company. I never received a response from anyone there. At this moment I do not know of anyone in their R&D sector and my guess is their chemistry is antiquated at best. Should anyone from this company have a desire to provide basic information and get a free plug in my upcoming book by all means please feel free to contact me through my website. Such a collaboration could have ancillary benefits as well (I do know a thing or two about IB polymerization).