Abstract: In a process for the preparation of butanedicarboxylic acid esters by(a) reacting butadiene or hydrocarbon mixtures containing butadiene with carbon monoxide and a C.sub.1 -C.sub.4 -alkanol in the presence of a tertiary nitrogen base and a cobalt carbonyl catalyst at from 80.degree. to 150.degree. C. under superatmospheric pressure,(b) removing the greater part of the tertiary nitrogen base together with any excess hydrocarbon and(c) reacting the resulting pentenoic acid ester, in the presence of the catalyst remaining in the reaction mixture, and in the presence of the remaining amount of tertiary nitrogen base, with carbon monoxide and a C.sub.1 - to C.sub.4 -alkanol at from 140.degree. to 200.degree. C. under superatmospheric pressure, to give the butanedicarboxylic acid ester, the improvement wherein the reaction mixture in stage c) is substantially free from dissolved butadiene or butadiene bonded to the catalyst.Butanedicarboxylic acid esters may be used for the preparation of polymers.

Abstract: The present invention provides new linear phosphorus- and halogen-containing flame retardant polyester additives for normally flammable polymers and coatings for normally flammable natural and synthetic films and fibers, for instance, polyester and cellulose ester films and fibers. The phosphorus- and halogen-containing polymers of the invention are water dispersible or can be rendered water-soluble. They can be prepared by reacting a phosphorus acid reactant such as phosphoric acid with at least one halogenated difunctional monomer. The water-soluble polyesters can be cross-linked to render them insoluble in water by heating together with a methylol compound.Said halogenated monomer is preferably an oxyalkylated diacid or diol and said halogen is attached either on one or more aromatic rings or on a cycloaliphatic ring.

Abstract: Catalysts which consist of a molded carrier, the surface of which is coated with an active catalyst composition of the general formula Mo.sub.12 A.sub.a B.sub.b C.sub.c D.sub.d O.sub.x, where A is V and/or W, B is Cu and/or Fe and/or Mn and/or Ni and/or Cr, C is Nb and/or Ta and/or Bi and/or Sb and/or Sn and/or Th and/or Ce and/or U, D is Li and/or Na and/or K and/or Rb and/or Cs and/or Tl and a is from 0.1 to 18, b is from 0 to 8, c is from 0 to 10, d is from 0 to 2 and x is from 36 to 135, which are particularly active and selective for the oxidation of acrolein and methacrolein with oxygen-containing gases to give acrylic acid and methacrylic acid, respectively, are obtained by first manufacturing the catalyst composition, before applying it to the carrier, from thermally easily decomposed salts of the components by mixing aqueous solutions, slurries or moist solid masses of the salts of the components, drying the mixture and calcining the dried composition at from 140.degree. to 600.degree. C.

Abstract: A process for the manufacture of acicular magnetic iron oxides which consist of a core of gamma-iron(III) oxide and a shell of a magnetite modified with zinc(II) ions and/or manganese(II) ions and which contain, based on the total modified gamma-iron(III) oxide, from 0.1 to 20 percent by weight of iron(II) ions, from 0.1 to 10 percent by weight of zinc(II) ions and/or from 0.1 to 10 percent by weight of manganese(II) ions.

Abstract: Polytetramethylene ether glycols with molecular weights of from 300 to 4500 are produced by polymerizing tetrahydrofuran with an adduct of antimony pentachloride with carboxylic acids or carboxylic acid esters as the catalyst in the presence of a carboxylic acid anhydride, e.g., acetic anhydride, as the promoter. Esterified, e.g., acetylated, polytetramethylene ether glycols produced are subsequently converted to polytetramethylene ether glycols by saponification or transesterification. The process causes substantially less environmental pollution than do prior art methods, yet it is both economical and flexible.

Abstract: There are disclosed graft polyesters useful as adhesives and coatings and especially useful in processes for sizing spun and continuous filament synthetic organic and inorganic fibrous yarn. One embodiment of the invention is a textile size composition having free carboxyl groups which is prepared in situ on a textile yarn by the application of heat or radiation to a mixture of an unsaturated polyester reactant and a monovinyl monomer reactant comprising an acidic monovinyl monomer having at least one carboxyl group or mixtures thereof with any monovinyl monomer. Desizing can be accomplished by partial neutralization of the size to a pH of at least 6 by reacting the size with a base to render the graft polyester water-dispersible or water-soluble.

Abstract: There are disclosed lubricated synthetic yarn and processes therefore wherein heteric copolymers of tetrahydrofuran and at least one C.sub.3 to C.sub.4 alkylene oxide initiated with a polyhydric alcohol are utilized as lubricants. The copolymers have a molecular weight of about 500 to about 10,000 and are initiated with polyhydric alcohols having a total of not more than 20 carbon atoms which are free of elements other than carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. Said initiators have 2 to about 6 reactive hydrogen atoms. The heteric copolymers of the invention capped with at least one lower alkylene oxide residue are also useful as fiber lubricants.

Abstract: Tricyclic nitrogenous compounds having strong plant growth regulating properties are disclosed. The compounds display the general formula ##STR1## wherein A is one of several nitrogen-containing radicals, R.sup.1, R.sup.2, R.sup.3 and R.sup.4 are selected from various recited aliphatic, aryl, araliphatic and heterocyclic groups. R.sup.3 and R.sup.4 may also together form one of a number of nitrogen, sulfur and oxygen containing radicals. These compounds have a variety of uses, including the reduction of plant growth height without harm to the plant.

Abstract: A process for the manufacture of dimensionally stable polyurethane foams by releasing, and curing by interaction with the atmosphere, a mixture, which is under pressure, of prepolymers, containing isocyanate groups, and blowing agents, with or without assistants and additives, wherein the prepolymers, containing isocyanate groups, are obtained by reaction of organic polyisocyanates with difunctional to octafunctional polyester-polyols and/or polyether-polyols, containing chemically bonded tertiary amino groups in the polymer chain, or, preferably, with mixtures of such polyester-polyols and/or polyether-polyols and nitrogen-free polyester-polyols and/or polyether-polyols.

Abstract: Multistep process for the preparation of butanedicarboxylic acid by the hydrogenation of carbon monoxide under pressure in the presence of a cobalt carbonyl catalyst, the improvement of heating at a temperature of 250.degree. to 350.degree. C. under superatmospheric pressure the resulting aqueous solution of cobalt carbonyl hydride that has been extracted with butadiene or with mixtures thereof before using in a subsequent step of the multistep process.

Abstract: Quaternary ammonium compounds of the formula ##STR1## where R.sup.1 and R.sup.2 are identical or different and each is H, halogen, phenyl, alkyl, alkoxy or alkylthio,R.sup.3 is H or alkyl, hydroxyalkyl, cycloalkyl or aralkyl,R.sup.4 and R.sup.5 are identical or different and each is alkyl, phenyl, cycloalkyl or aralkyl orR.sup.4 and R.sup.5 together are a --(CH.sub.2).sub.4 -- bridge, a --(CH.sub.2).sub.5 -- bridge or a --(CH.sub.2).sub.2 --O--(CH.sub.2).sub.2 -- bridge,R.sup.6 is alkyl andX.sup..crclbar. is Cl.sup..crclbar., Br.sup..crclbar., I.sup..crclbar., CH.sub.3 SO.sub.4.sup..crclbar. or C.sub.2 H.sub.5 SO.sub.4.sup..crclbar., a process for their preparation from Mannich bases of the formula ##STR2## and alkylating agents, and the use of these quaternary ammonium compounds as initiators for the photopolymerization of polymerizable mixtures containing olefinically unsaturated compounds, especially for the preparation of aqueous polymer dispersions or polymer solutions.

Abstract: New and valuable polycyclic compounds which contain nitrogen-containing rings and have a strong action on plants, agents for influencing plant growth containing these compounds, and a method of influencing plant growth with these compounds.

Abstract: The invention concerns a process for the manufacture of flame resistant flexible polyurethane foams by reacting a mixture of diphenylmethane diisocyanates and polyphenylene polymethylene polyisocyanates having a functionality greater than 2 containing 40 to 90 percent by weight diphenylmethane diisocyanate based on the total weight of said mixture; polyols, cyanic acid derivatives such as cyanamide, dicyandiamide, guanidine, biguanidine, melamine, cyanuric alkyl esterhydrazides and -amides as flame inhibitors, and blowing agents; as well as, possibly, chain extenders and other additives. The flexible polyurethane foams are suited for the familiar areas of applications, but especially as sound-insulation material for the construction industry.

Abstract: A process for discharging a granular organic polymer, which is sensitive to molecular oxygen at elevated temperatures, from a treatment zone in which it has been continuously treated, at above 70.degree. C., with an inert gas which is free from molecular oxygen, and has subsequently been cooled, which process comprises withdrawing the polymer at .ltoreq.50.degree. C. through a narrow elongate tubular discharge zone, the said zone always being filled with granular polymer.

Abstract: .alpha.,.beta.-Dihaloalkyl isocyanates and a process for the preparation of such compounds by reacting .alpha.,.beta.-unsaturated alkyl isocyanates with halogen in the presence of an organic solvent which is inert under the reaction conditions, at from -35.degree. to +90.degree. C. The .alpha.,.beta.-dihaloalkyl isocyanates thus obtainable correspond to the formula ##STR1## where R.sup.1, R.sup.2 and R.sup.3 are identical or different and each is hydrogen, a saturated aliphatic radical of 1 to 10 carbon atoms, a cycloaliphatic radical of 3 to 12 carbon atoms, an araliphatic radical of 7 to 11 carbon atoms or an aromatic radical of 6 to 10 carbon atoms, or R.sup.1 and R.sup.2 together with the carbon atom on which they are present as substituents are cycloalkyl of 3 to 7 ring members, and X is halogen. The compounds are valuable intermediates for the preparation of dyes, surface-coating intermediates, crop protection agents and drugs.

Abstract: A process for the continuous preparation of .epsilon.-caprolactam by Beckmann rearrangement of cyclohexanone-oxime, dissolved in a solvent which is inert toward oleum and is immiscible with oleum and water, at an elevated temperature, with removal of the heat of rearrangement by evaporation of the solvent, wherein oleum containing caprolactam is circulated successively through a conveying zone, a mixing zone, a boiling zone and a separating zone, upstream of the conveying zone oleum is added at the rate at which it is consumed, in the mixing zone cyclohexanone-oxime dissolved in solvent is added under turbulent conditions, in the boiling zone the heat of rearrangement is removed in a conventional manner by evaporating the solvent and recycling the condensate, and in the separating zone the reaction mixture is separated into a solvent phase, from which solvent is withdrawn at the rate at which the phase is formed, and a caprolactam-containing oleum phase, which is removed at the rate at which it is formed.

Abstract: A process for the continuous manufacture of ethylene polymers by catalytic polymerization of the monomer at an elevated temperature and elevated partial pressures of ethylene in a hydrocarbon which is a solvent for the monomer but a non-solvent for the polymer formed, the polymer being isolated by (a) discharging a mixture of polymer, hydrocarbon and monomer from the polymerization chamber, (b) bringing the mixture from stage (a) to a pressure and temperature such that a gaseous phase consisting of the monomer and hydrocarbon and a solid phase consisting of the polymer, with adhering hydrocarbon, is formed, and (c) flushing the solid phase from stage (b) with an inert gas, so as to form a solid phase consisting of polymer and a gaseous phase consisting of hydrocarbon and inert gas, wherein, as additional measures (d), the gaseous phase from stage (c) is brought to a pressure and temperature such that a gaseous phase consisting of inert gas and a liquid phase consisting of hydrocarbon are formed and (e) the li

Abstract: Formulations of flavanthrone, pyranthrone, indanthrone, indigo, quinacridone, perylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic acid dianhydride and perylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic acid diimide pigments which contain, as additives, one or more compounds of the formula ##STR1## where X is an n-valent radical of a flavanthrone, pyranthrone, indigo, quinacridone, perylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic acid dianhydride or perylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic acid diimide pigment, R.sup.1, R.sup.3 and R.sup.4 are hydrogen or chlorine, R.sup.2 is hydrogen, chlorine, carboxyl, bromine, nitro, N-C.sub.1 -C.sub.5 -alkylcarbamyl, N-phenylcarbamyl or benzoylamino and n is 1, 2, 3 or 4.In solutions of surface-coating binders or of surface coatings, the above formulations give very deep colorations, coupled with high gloss and high transparency of the resulting films.

Abstract: Methine dyes of the general formula ##STR1## where the groups A are identical or different aryl or hetaryl, A.sup..crclbar. is an anion, R is hydrogen, methyl or ethyl and X is a bridge member, and the methine groups are in the .alpha.- or .gamma.-position. The compounds are preferably used for dyeing paper.

Abstract: The reaction of an organic polyisocyanate with an organic compound containing at least 2 active hydrogen containing groups is catalyzed with a synergistic co-catalyst combination of at least one organo-mercuric catalyst and at least one zinc salt of an alkylcarboxylic acid having about 2 to about 22 carbon atoms. Useful solid (non-cellular) and foamed polyurethane products are obtained which are produced at a faster curing rate than with use of either co-catalyst alone.