Ostromyslenskii, Ivan Ivanovich

Born 1880; died 1939. Russian chemist; emigrated to the United States in 1922.

Most of Ostromyslenskii’s research dealt with the synthesis of base monomers and with the synthesis and vulcanization of caoutchouc. In 1911, Ostromyslenskii proposed the addition of organic bases, for example, toluidines and naphthylamines, to synthetic rubber in order to improve its properties. In 1915 he developed a method of obtaining butadiene, or divinyl, by passing a mixture of ethyl alcohol and acetaldehyde vapors over aluminum oxide at a temperature of 440°–460°C.