Reactions
2020; American Chemical Society; Volume: 98; Issue: 28 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1021/cen-09828-reactions
ISSN2474-7408
ResumoOPINION Reactions ShareShare onFacebookTwitterWechatLinked InRedditEmail C&EN, 2020, 98 (28), pp 6–7July 20, 2020Cite this:C&EN 98, 28, 6-7▸Letters to the Editor DuPont's FilmTec wins Heroes of Chemistry AwardIn the referenced article (C&EN, May 18, 2020, page 37), the fourth paragraph contains the line "DuPont developed FilmTec." In fact, the story was quite different. FilmTec was founded and developed by researchers from North Star Research and Development Institute who had developed an improved membrane through an interfacial polymerization process. FilmTec was highly successful and was eventually acquired by Dow Chemical. The Dow-FilmTec group became such a powerhouse that it led to one of its competitors, DuPont, withdrawing its product (Permasep) from the desalination field. The more recent merger and reorganization of Dow and DuPont has resulted in the reassignment of the FilmTec product line to continue under the DuPont flag. Thus it is a bit of a stretch to say that DuPont developed FilmTec.Jim BirkettNobleboro, MaineA bit more on historical ice coresThank you for the cover article, "A scientific record at risk," in the June 15, 2020, issue of C&EN (page 28). Researchers on the chemical record in ice cores (in my case, on Svalbard for 20 years) appreciate the attention given to our work. I would like to offer a bit of clarification about items mentioned in the article. While we understand that tropospheric temperatures in the Arctic in recent years have been increasing faster than other places on Earth, we know that glaciers on Svalbard have been losing mass continuously since the end of the Little Ice Age in about 1860. Also, the diagram on page 33 is missing some information. For example, the period of atmospheric nuclear testing residue (oftentimes cesium-137) found in ice cores (and lake sediments) was from 1954 to 1963 when tests were ended by the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Also, in the eastern Arctic, on Svalbard (and perhaps Greenland), the peak years were 1961–2 after detonation of Tsar Bomba on Novaya Zemlya on Oct. 30, 1961. This was the largest atmospheric nuclear detonation (50 megatons of TNT) in world history.Mark H. HermansonMinneapolisI read with interest the article by Katherine Bourzac in the May 11, 2020, issue of C&EN (page 8) on how C2–C4 polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) are now being detected in arctic ice cores. The origins of these pollutants were attributed to decomposition of compounds that replace CFCs [chlorofluorocarbons]. However, the reported research was unable to identify the source of the C3 perfluorinated compound. One potential source that was not considered in the research is emissions by the microelectronics industry. Perfluorinated C3 and C4 compounds are used extensively as etchants in thin-film manufacturing and chamber-cleaning processes. Results suggested these pollutants have been increasing in the environment since 1990, and that progression mirrors the rise in the microelectronics industry. In the US, emissions are tightly regulated, and any microelectronics manufacturing plants are required to have active scrubbing devices in place to prevent these compounds from getting released into the atmosphere. Many of today's active microelectronics fabrication operations occur in Asia, where emissions are not as tightly regulated. Jet stream patterns would carry these emissions directly into the area of the Arctic where the cores were collected.Ed SmithOcean View, Delaware Corrections June 29, 2020, page 4: The news story about combining mass spectrometry and circular dichroism spectroscopy included the wrong DOI for the Science paper. It is 10.1126/science.abb1822.June 29, 2020, page 22: The feature story about drug production in the US incorrectly stated that Eric Edwards, CEO of the drug manufacturing company Phlow, was previously CEO of Kaléo. He is a former executive of Kaléo, but he was not CEO. In the same story, Thermo Fisher Scientific is said to produce an injectable form of Paratek Pharmaceuticals' antibiotic in the UK. In fact, it is produced in Italy.July 13, 2020, page 30: In the cover story about European battery production, due to an editing error, the unit "gigawatt-hour" was abbreviated throughout the article and graphics as "gW h." The correct abbreviation is "GW h."July 13, 2020, page 40: The Newscripts column misstated Nick Thomas's affiliation. Thomas is not a chemistry professor at Auburn University, which is in Auburn, Alabama. Rather, he's a professor at Auburn University at Montgomery.Download PDF
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