Date of Award
8-1949
Document Type
Thesis - Restricted
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
Chemistry
First Advisor
John R. Koch
Second Advisor
Virgil Roach
Third Advisor
Hermann Karl
Fourth Advisor
John Surak
Abstract
Because of an interest in organic aromatic fluorine chemistry, a little over a year ago Mr. Hermann Karl gave the author a series of reports published by the War and Navy Departments in Washington, D.C., concerning the research work done by Germany during the war on aromatic fluorides. In reading the reports, it was learned that the Germans had made a compound called difluor diphenyl trichlor ethane (DFDT) that was seven times as potent as our dichlor diphenyl trichlor ethane (DDT) as an insecticide. Everybody in America has been DDT conscious since that powerful insecticide was re-discovered here, and to find a compound that was supposed to have exceeded it in potency certainly aroused interest.
Germany used the DFDT during the war in the African Campaign and it proved very successful. America has always used DDT even during the war and little has been published by the fluor derivative and nothing has been published at all on the chlor-fluor derivatives.
Because the author had experience in preparing fluorbenzene and other fluorides by the Balz-Shiemann procedure, she was encouraged to attempt the synthesis of the necessary starting reagents for the DFDT and other members of the series. The project started with the preparation of DDT, DFDT, and associated chlor-flour derivatives. As study of the physical properties of the compounds was made with the ultimate aim of comparing their relative toxicities. As the work for the thesis progressed, the problem of the preparation of the DFDT and associated compounds as well as studying their physical properties proved to be greater than anticipated and the thesis had to be concluded there. Nevertheless because literature research had been done on methods of comparing their relative toxicities, this will be included in the introduction in the hope that it will benefit a later worker continuing along similar lines.
Recommended Citation
Jennings, Jean Ann, "Preparation and Physical Properties of DDT and Some of Its Halogen Analogs, Designated for Further Use as Comparative Insecticides" (1949). Master's Theses (1922-2009) Access restricted to Marquette Campus. 5655.
https://epublications.marquette.edu/theses/5655