High Polymer Labs, the flagship company of the HPL group, is a leading manufacturer of polymer additives, speciality chemicals and industrial chemicals. High Polymer has established a formidable reputation in both the domestic and international markets as a producer of world-class chemicals. Its range of products includes property extenders, polymer additives, modifiers, polymerisation catalysts, speciality chemicals for water treatment, pharmaceutical intermediates and industrial chemicals.
Established in 1964, the company has emerged as the single largest player with over 75% share of the Indian market for most of its products. Its products have also been widely accepted in the West. The company has diversified into biocides, polymerisation catalysts, photographic chemicals, pharmaceutical and agro chemicals intermediates. POLYMER ADDITIVES
Antioxidants are used to retard the reaction of organic material with atmospheric oxygen, which can cause degradation. These chemicals are responsible for retarding oxidation during manufacturing, processing, storage, as well as the end product. The range of Kinox-Phenolics & Phosphites belong to primary and secondary antioxidants. These Phenolic antioxidants are responsible for imparting long-term thermal and processing stability to the end application.
UV light stabilisers prevent photo degradation processes in polymers, such as colour changes, chalking, cracking and loss of mechanical properties such as tensile strength, impact strength, etc. The range of Hilite-HALS (Hindered Amine Light Stabilisers), Benzophenones and Benzotriazoles belong to this class of UV light stabilisers. While Hindered Amine light Stabilisers work best for the thin section applications, UV absorbers work best for the thick section applications.
Chain extenders are cross-linking agents for biodegradable polymeric films used in drug delivery systems. This is also used as a stabiliser for synthetic fibres. The range of Hichem-ADH belongs to this category.
Optical brighteners are used widely to improve the colour of various plastics. They are often used in combination with other dyes or with pigments to bring about specific shades. These alter the visual properties of polymers and are also known as fluorescent whitening agents. These mask inherent yellowness in discoloured polymers and impart unique, robust colour to speciality plastic products. MODIFIERS
Chemical blowing agents are used for production of unicellular products. Tailor-made products are provided for customer-specific needs and operating conditions when required decomposition mechanism in the end application. Particle size is crucial for these products.
The Mikrofine range for CBA’s have a whole range of products for different applications. The range is designed to provide lowest possible relative density, reduced surface yellowing and smooth surface. Modifiers include Azobisnitriles, Azodicarbonamide, Dinitrosopentamethylenetetramine, Sulfonyl Hydrazides and Sulfonyl Semicarbazides.
POLYMERISATION CATALYSTS
Polyazo initiators are known sources of free radicals and are used in the polymerisation of common monomers like vinyl chloride, styrene, vinyl acetate, ethylene and methyl methacrylate. These Polyazo initiators can be classified into two groups – organic solvent soluble Azo initiators and water soluble Azo initiators. The Polyazo initiators include products such as Polyazo AZDN, Polyazo AZDV, Polyazo AZMB and Polyazo AZCC. The function of these products relies upon decomposition to generate free radicals in a wide range of solvents at almost first order rates. SPECIALITY CHEMICALS
Biocides are used for industrial water treatment and effluent management system, for cooling towers, evaporative condensers, pulp and paper mill effluents and oil recovery systems. Biocides are also used for disinfecting swimming pool and special applications. INDUSTRIAL CHEMICALS
The company manufactures Hydrazine Hydrate, which is used in pharmaceuticals and agricultural chemicals intermediates and also in the production of chemical blowing agents. Hydrazine Hydrate is also being used in the manufacture of polymerization catalysts, food additives, soldering fluxes, surfactants, detergents and plasticizer
Giulio Natta was born at Imperia on February 26, 1903. He graduated in Chemical Engineering at the Polytechnic of Milan in 1924 and passed the examinations entitling him to teach there in 1927. In 1933 he was established on the staff of Pavia University as a full professor and at the same time was appointed director of the Institute of General Chemistry at that University, where he stayed till 1935, that is until he was appointed full professor in physical chemistry at the University of Rome. From 1936 to 1938 he was full professor and director of the Institute of Industrial Chemistry at the Polytechnic of Turin. He has been full professor and director of the Department of Industrial Chemistry at the Milan Polytechnic since 1938.
Now a world famous scientist, Prof. Natta began his career with a study of solids by means of X-rays and electron diffraction. He then used the same methods for studying catalysts and the structure of some high organic polymers (the latter from 1934). His kinetic research on methanol synthesis, on selective hydrogenation of unsaturated organic compounds and on oxosynthesis led to an understanding of the mechanism of these reactions and to an improvement in the selectivity of catalysts.
In 1938 Prof. Natta began to study the production of synthetic rubber in Italy; he took part in research work on butadiene and was the first to accomplish physical separation of butadiene from 1-butadiene by a new method of extractive distillation.
In 1938 he began to investigate the polymerisation of olefins and the kinetics of subsequent concurrent reactions. In 1953, with financial aid from a large Italian chemical company, Montecatini, Prof. Natta extended the research conducted by Ziegler on organometallic catalysts to the stereospecific polymerization, thus discovering new classes of polymers with a sterically ordered structure, viz. isotactic, syndiotactic and di-isotactic polymers and linear non branched olefinic polymers and copolymers with an atactic (or sterically nonordered) structure. These studies, which were developed for industrial application in Montecatini's laboratories, led to the realisation of a thermoplastic material, isotactic polypropylene, which Montecatini were the first to produce on an industrial scale, in 1957, in their Ferrara plant. This product has been marketed successfully as a plastic material, by the name of Moplen, as a synthetic fibre, by the name of Meraklon, as a monofilament by the name of Merakrin and as packing film, by the name of Moplefan.
By X-ray investigations, Prof. Natta has also succeeded in determining the exact arrangement of chains in the lattice of the new crystalline polymers he has discovered.
No less important is his later research which led to the synthesis of completely new elastomers, in two different ways: by polymerization of butadiene into cis-1,4 polymers with a very high degree of steric purity and by copolymerization of ethylene with other a-olefins (propylene), originating extremely interesting materials such as saturated synthetic rubbers. The vulcanisation of these rubbers was made possible by the usual methods used for natural rubber, with the introduction of unsaturated monomeric units (terpolymers containing ethylene and propylene). The processes for the asymmetric synthesis, which allow the production of optically active macromolecules from optically inactive monomers, are of great scientific importance, due to their similarity to the natural biological processes. Other interesting results obtained by Natta in the field of macromolecular chemistry concern the synthesis of crystalline alternating copolymers of different couples of monomers and the synthesis of various sterically ordered polymers of non-hydrocarbon monomers. Prof. Natta's scientific and technical activity is documented in over 700 published papers, of which about 500 concern stereoregular polymers, and by a large number of patents in many different countries. In 1961 he was made an honorary life member of the New York Academy of Sciences of which he had been a fellow since 1958. In 1955 he became a "national member" of the Accademia dei Lincei; he is also a member of the Istituto Lombardo di Scienze e Lettere and of the Accademia delle Scienze of Turin. He was made honorary member of the Austrian (1960), Belgian (that awarded him the STAS medal) (1962), and Swiss (1963) Chemical Societies. Professor Natta received a gold medal from the town of Milan (1960), from the President of the Italian Republic (1961, reserved to those who gained merits in the field of school, culture and art), the first international gold medal of the synthetic rubber industry (1961); a gold medal from the Milan district (1962) and from the Society of Plastic Engineers (New York, 1963), the Perrin medal from the French Chemical Physical Society, and the Lavoisier medal from the Chemical Society of France (both in 1963), the Perkin gold medal of the English Society of Dyers and Colourists (1963), the John Scott award from the Board of Directors of the City Trust of Philadelphia, and the Medal "Leonardus Vincius Florentinus Doctor Ingenieurs" of FIDIIS, Paris (1971). The Turin University gave him an honorary degree in pure chemistry, and in 1963 Prof. Natta received an honorary degree from Mainz University.
Prof. Natta is a honorary member of the Industrial Chemical Society of Paris (1966) and of the Chemical Society of London (1970); an honorary member of the Rotary Club; associated foreign member of the Académie des Sciences de l'Institut de France (1964); member of the National Academy of XL, Rome (1964); joined member of the International Academy of Astronautics, Paris (1965); foreign member of the Academy of Sciences of Moscow, U.S.S.R. (1966); honorary president of the Italian Section of the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE). He holds the following awards and honorary degrees: gold medal of the Union of Italian Chemists (1964); gold medal "Lomonosov" of the Moscow Academy of Sciences (1969); the "Carl-Dietrich-Harries-Plakette, of the Deutsche Kautschuk Gesellschaft, Frankfurt/Main (1971); honorary degrees from the University of Genoa (1964), the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, New York (1964), the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium (1965), and in 1971 from ESPI, University of Paris