Abstract: Leather is finished with a synthetic carboxylated rubber dispersion to which as much as 50% by weight of one or more oxides and/or hydroxides of divalent and/or trivalent metals may have been added, finishing being carried out by a process in which the carboxylated rubber dispersion is prepared by the emulsion feed method, with a conversion of more than 90%, in such a way that it contains from 20 to 60% by weight of carboxylated rubber which is soluble in dimethylformamide at room temperature.

Abstract: In the hydrogenation of polymers or copolymers synthesized from dienes, or containing diene hydrocarbons, which is as a rule carried out in an organic solvent using hydrogen in the presence of conventional complex hydrogenation catalysts based on metals of sub-group 8 of the periodic table of the elements and aluminum trialkyls it is important to have from 0.5 to 50 moles of water present in the hydrogenation zone per mole of the heavy metal component of the catalyst. The hydrogenation time can be substantially reduced by this measure.

Abstract: Hot-melt pressure-sensitive adhesive composition based on a rubbery block copolymer of a monovinyl-aromatic compound or monovinylidene-aromatic compound and butadiene.The composition contains a selectively hydrogenated radial block copolymer with terminal polymer blocks of the monovinyl- or mono-vinylidene-aromatic compound and, in the middle position, butadiene-based polymer blocks which had a 1,2-vinyl content of from 30 to 70 per cent by weight prior to hydrogenation. The compositions may be used, in particular, for the production of self-adhesive materials.