Charles Goodyear medalist strives to help people

Sudhin Datta knew from a very early age that he wanted to make a difference.

It didn't matter that the 2015 Charles Goodyear medalist had been trained at some of the top academic institutions across the world—he earned an undergraduate degree from the Indian Institute of Technology at Kapur and a doctorate in organometallic chemistry from Harvard University, among other stops.

Datta wanted to perform research—not at an academic institution but in industry.

“I always wanted to be an industrial chemist because I want to see the realization of what I do,” Datta said during an interview at the recent ACS Rubber Division 187th Technical Meeting in Greenville, where he received his award during the Science and Technology Banquet. “I want to see concrete things. I want to see what I work on turn into reality and in turn helping people, advancing the science, advancing technology, advancing things.”

Mission accomplished.

For this last three decades, the 64-year-old Datta has been at the forefront of research and development of polyolefin elastomers, butyl and EPDM at ExxonMobil Chemical Co. in Baytown, Texas. He has been granted 108 U.S. patents, and his work has resulted in, among others, a line of propylene-based elastomers branded Vistamaxx and EPDM-based elastomers marketed as Vistalon.

The Vistamaxx line has applications in several sectors, including non-wovens, adhesives and films, while offering new solutions in compounding for polyolefinic blends and multi-layer structures. The product is used in such items as diapers, paint balls, shoe insoles, synthetic leather, packaging, and food and beverage containers.

The Vistalon line, meanwhile, has been used successfully in automotive, wire and cable, roofing and sheeting, industrial hose and belting applications. The company said it meets strict original equipment manufacturers' requirements for sponge door seals, glass run channel and other dense seal applications.

In other words, Datta's work has impacted products across all walks of life.

“That's why I do this work,” said Datta, the senior research associate in global chemical research at ExxonMobil. “If you drive a car, most American cars sold in this country will have a door seal or weather seal or a belt that the polymer for which was designed by me.

“The first 10 years (at ExxonMobil) I made EPDMs easier to use, and they got very wide acceptance. So when I see something, or when I look at black roof sheeting, chances are it's a polymer I designed. You look at it, and say, "That's why I don't want academia. That's why I work in the industry.' “

Datta's initial work on EPDM—he wrote the patent for the product in 1983 and just last year received two awards to recognize its financial success for the company—was based on a simple premise.

“We were not trying to invent a different mousetrap,” he said. “We were trying to invent a new EPDM which worked better, which processed better.”

His big breakthrough came through his research and interaction with colleagues in the firm's plastics division. The challenge, he said, was developing a new polymer that has all the properties of elastomers, yet could be fabricated easily and economically, while being marketed profitably.

“Everyone wants softness, everyone wants resilience, everyone wants toughness,” he said. “These are typically elastomer properties. What people don't want to bother with is the cost of elastomers and the fabrication costs.”

With ExxonMobil's Santoprene thermoplastic vulcanizates, used in engineered parts that require long-term performance, serving as an example, Datta and fellow researchers broke that paradigm. Driven by catalysis and other processes, they developed a polyolefin elastomer that demonstrates those desirable properties of rubber, yet has much lower manufacturing costs.

“You could fabricate these pieces, except these pieces were soft, they're resilient, they're tough, and they have all the rubber attributes except they came out of a plastics machine,” Datta said. “And this combination, the ease of manufacture and the ease of fabrication are what drive this particular invention.”

The medical field was a perfect application for the new polymer. “People are willing to put enormous value in material that will conform well, is soft, doesn't scratch your skin, etcetera, etcetera,” he said.

“This looks exactly like polyolefin, but it is not hard, rigid. It is very soft, very stretchy. That's what you're looking for; you want a diaper that conforms to the baby's size.”

Datta's team realized that by using the diameter of the fibers enough, the surface area was so large it would absorb moisture without wetting the skin. The diaper, therefore, is an obvious use, as well as sportswear.

Datta, an only child, was destined to become a chemist. He was born in Boston to a family with a history in chemistry. His father, Phani Dutta, was a chemist who had a post doctoral fellowship at Harvard, while his grandfather was a pharmacist, which was equivalent to a chemist.

His mother, Chhabi, also was a chemist who worked at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She later worked as a forensic chemist for the New York City Police Department, helping to solve crimes.

Datta spent his early years in India. He found himself living first in England, then in Germany, as his father accepted various assignments. “In those days,” Datta said, “being a chemist allowed him mobility.”

He returned to India, where he graduated as valedictorian from the Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur in 1974. “I wanted to do something with sciences,” he said. “I wasn't sure if I wanted to do physics or chemistry, so I ended up doing mostly chemistry with a little bit of physics thrown in.”

Datta soon returned to the U.S., and in 1978 he earned his doctorate from Harvard. He then found himself in Toronto—thanks to “an offer which I could not refuse in the "Godfather' sort of way” from his adviser at Harvard. There, in what amounted to his first job, he set up a laboratory.

He went to the University of Chicago, where he worked alongside Jack Halpern, a well-known inorganic chemist who remains a professor emeritus there.

Once he was offered a position with the Research and Technology Department of the elastomers business at Exxon Chemical Co., then in Linden, N.J., he jumped at the opportunity. His career started there on June 25, 1981.

It was a perfect fit: He had aspirations of witnessing his work turn into a commercial success, while ExxonMobil provided all the resources necessary to make that happen.

“Exxon in those days was a very invigorating place,” he said. “These people mentored me. They allowed me to learn the area, and they ensured that I could do all of these things without any disruption.”

Their relationship certainly has paid off. ExxonMobil awarded Datta with an outstanding patent recognition in both 2011 and 2014.

Datta said the firm created an environment conducive to research. “Once you get technology, how do you deploy it? How do you protect it? How do you take advantage of it? We got encouraged and taught how to write patents and how to recognize inventions very early on.”

He said he has had many mentors during his career, mentioning two: Charlie Cozewith, a former boss who assured him he was smart enough to “figure it out;” and Bill Gressley, who taught Datta polymer science over five years of eating lunches together.

Today, he finds himself in the opposite role, mentoring about 10 young scientists, including some stationed 30 hours away in ExxonMobil's technology center in Shanghai.

“I keep telling them, if they don't learn it now, they won't learn it ever,” he said. “That's a big part of mentorship.”