Color Reactions of Rubber and Gutta-Percha
Abstract THE present paper was suggested by a recent publication of Pauly on the same subject, who applied the well known sterol reactions of Hesse, Liebermann, Tschugajeff, etc., to the hydrocarbons of rubber and gutta-percha. These reactions depend either upon the action of concentrated H2SO4 on chloroform solutions of the substances in the presence or absence of acetic anhydride (Liebermann, Burchard and Hesse reactions) or other solvents, or condensation reagents are used, such as acetyl chloride and zinc chloride by Tschugajeff, and acetic acid with arsenic trichloride by Kahlenberg, and trichloroacetic acid with a trace of formaldehyde by Godoletz. All the known sterol reactions take place also with rubber or gutta-percha, with the appearance of intense red or violet colorations of varying stability, the color depending in part upon the quality and in part upon the purity of the samples. The Burchard reaction in particular is very sensitive in these respects. Thus with rubber purified with alkali by the Pummerer method, the color is a Bordeaux red which does not change for a long time, whereas solutions of unpurified rubber change rapidly, a change which is rightly ascribed by Pauly to relatively rapid oxidation in the presence of oxidation products in the case of the unpurified rubber.