Kurt Gottlob – ein Leben für den Kautschuk

The chemist Kurt Gottlob (1881–1925) was one of the best‐known rubber technologists of the early 20th century. Kurt Gottlob's contributions were covering nearly all areas of rubber chemistry. Kurt Gottlob was one of the most important and creative members of the team around Fritz Hofmann (1866–1956) at Farbenfabriken, vorm. Friedr. Bayer, which developed methyl rubber, the world's first synthetic rubber. Together with Fritz Hofmann he discovered the organic accelerators, which revolutionized the vulcanization process of rubber. With his polymerization of isoprene in the presence of aqueous colloidal solutions of albumin he applied the principle of emulsion polymerization for the first time.