The Crystal Structure of Rubber Hydrochloride
Abstract “Rubber hydrochloride”, the crystalline substances made by addition of hydrogen chloride to rubber, is of interest for two reasons. First, the periodicity along the fibre axis of drawn specimens indicates that the carbon chain has not the simple plane zigzag form found in paraffin hydrocarbons, but is somewhat shortened by folding. There is similar evidence that several other chain polymers also have folded chains; the elucidation of the geometry of such molecules would form a useful contribution to our knowledge of the stereochemistry of carbon compounds in general and chain polymers in particular. Rubber hydrochloride appeared to be a suitable substance for crystallographic investigation from this point of view: it gives a well-defined x-ray diffraction pattern. Moreover, a prediction of the chain form has been made on the basis of a knowledge of the periodicity and the use of a hypothesis which has been called the principle of staggered bonds. The determination of the structure by x-ray methods forms the first test of the validity and usefulness of this hypothesis. Secondly, rubber hydrochloride is interesting on account of its physical properties. Unlike rubber itself, it is crystalline at room temperature, “melting” at about 115° C. The present work on its crystal structure forms part of a program of research being carried out in this laboratory, and is a contribution to the attempt to understand the physical properties of chain polymers in terms of molecular structure.