After Barnes left Princeton for American Cyanamid, he directed funding to Brattain and others to study the infrared absorption spectra of organic compounds such as benzene, toluene, and naphthalene.
[9] Due to financial pressures of the Great Depression, Robert Brattain left Princeton in 1938 without completing his degree.
His goal was to use infrared spectrometry as an analytical tool for industrial chemical process control, reliably measuring the isomers in petroleum mixtures.
[9] Brattain again began to build a research-quality infrared spectrophotometer, this time incorporating the ideas of E. Bright Wilson and Harold Gershinowitz at Harvard University.
By incorporating two prisms, one of rock salt and one of potassium bromide, it was possible to examine a greater range of infrared wavelengths.
By 1939 Brattain was able to use his "IRS #1" to distinguish between the isomers isobutane and n-butane by measuring a single wavelength of infrared radiation.
White of Standard Oil, Brattain was able to put together an order of 10 instruments - enough to convince Beckman to go into production.
In addition to the C4 hydrocarbon isomers isobutane and n-butane (important in aviation fuels) Brattain was able to identify a set of four butenes, 1-butene, cis-2-butene, trans-2-butene, and isobutene.
[13] Brattain's former professor R. Bowling Barnes, now at Cyanamid, promoted the use of infrared spectrophotometers in the US synthetic rubber program.
[13] In 1942 the Office of Rubber Reserve arranged secret meetings in Detroit between Robert Brattain of the Shell Development Company, Arnold O. Beckman of Beckman Instruments, and R. Bowling Barnes of American Cyanamid, seeking a source of reliable instruments for infrared spectroscopy and the analysis of butadiene polymers.
[1]: 16–18, 62 [13][15] Production of the instruments was given a AAA priority rating, which ensured that they had access to limited war-time resources.
[9] This government-supported collaboration led to quick development and rapid transmission of the technology within a network of war-time companies, but the secrecy restrictions limited the extent to which the Brattain-Beckman work became publicly known.
During World War II, the drug was in demand to treat both wounds and life-threatening illnesses such as meningitis, pneumonia and syphilis.
[18][19][20] The US Office of Scientific Research and Development approached Shell during the summer of 1944, and Robert Brattain assembled a team to study the problem using infrared spectrophotometry.
[21] Working independently in Britain, Dorothy Crowfoot and Barbara Low in Oxford, England used x-ray diffraction to study penicillin's structure, as did researchers at Imperial Chemical Industries.