Editing Butadiene (section)

==History==
In 1863, French chemist E. Caventou isolated butadiene from the [[pyrolysis]] of [[amyl alcohol]].<ref name=Caventou>{{cite journal |last=Caventou |first=E. |year=1863 |journal=Justus Liebigs Annalen der Chemie |volume=127 |pages=93–97 |title=Ueber eine mit dem zweifach-gebromten Brombutylen isomere Verbindung und über die bromhaltigen Derivate des Brombutylens |doi=10.1002/jlac.18631270112 |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1427203}}</ref> This hydrocarbon was identified as butadiene in 1886, after [[Henry Edward Armstrong]] isolated it from among the pyrolysis products of petroleum.<ref name=Armstrong>{{cite journal |last1=Armstrong |first1=H. E. |last2=Miller |first2=A. K. |year=1886 |title=The decomposition and genesis of hydrocarbons at high temperatures. I. The products of the manufacture of gas from petroleum |journal=J. Chem. Soc. |volume=49 |pages=74–93 |doi=10.1039/CT8864900074| url=https://zenodo.org/record/1716439}}</ref> In 1910, the Russian chemist [[Sergei Vasilyevich Lebedev|Sergei Lebedev]] polymerized butadiene and obtained a material with rubber-like properties. This polymer was, however, found to be too soft to replace natural rubber in many applications, notably automobile tires.

The butadiene industry originated in the years before World War II. Many of the belligerent nations realized that in the event of war, they could be cut off from rubber plantations controlled by the [[British Empire]], and sought to reduce their dependence on natural rubber.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=7yHlAgAAQBAJ&dq=butadiene+dependence+on+natural+rubber&pg=PA23 Simple Things Won't Save the Earth], J. Robert Hunter</ref> In 1929, [[Eduard Tschunker]] and [[Walter Bock]], working for [[IG Farben]] in Germany, made a copolymer of [[styrene]] and butadiene that could be used in automobile tires. Worldwide production quickly ensued, with butadiene being produced from [[ethanol|grain alcohol]] in the Soviet Union and the United States, and from coal-derived [[acetylene]] in Germany.