Page 41 - Carrahers_Polymer_Chemistry,_Eighth_Edition

4 Carraher’s Polymer Chemistry

were converted to thermosets by addition of more formaldehyde. While other polymers had been
synthesized in the laboratory, Bakelite was the first truly synthetic plastic. The “recipes” used today

differ little from the ones developed by Baekeland and show his ingenuity and knowledge of the
chemistry of the condensation of the trifunctional phenol and difunctional formaldehyde.
While poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) was initially formed by Baumann in 1872, it awaited inter-
est until 1926 when B. F. Goodrich discovered how to make sheets and adhesives from PVC—

and the “vinyl-age” began. While polystyrene was probably first formed by Simon in 1839, it
was almost 100 years latter, 1930, that the German giant company I. G. Farben placed polysty-
rene on the market. Polystyrene molded parts became commonplace. Rohm and Haas bought

out Plexiglass from a British firm in 1935 and began the production of clear plastic parts and
goods, including replacements for glass as camera lenses, aircraft windows, clock faces, and car
taillights.
To this time, polymer science was largely empirical, instinctive, and intuitive. Before World
War I, celluloid, shellac, Galalith (casein), Bakelite, and cellulose acetate plastics; hevea rubber, cot-
ton, wool, silk rayon fibers; Glyptal polyester coatings; bitumen or asphalt and coumarone-indene

and petroleum resins were all commercially available. However, as evidenced by the chronological
data shown in Table 1.1, there was little additional development in polymers prior to World War
II because of a general lack of fundamental knowledge of polymers. But the theoretical basis was
being built. Only a few of many giants will be mentioned.

TABLE 1.1
Chronological Developments of Commercial Polymers (upto 1991)
Before 1800 Cotton, flax, wool, and silk fibers; bitumens caulking materials; glass and hydraulic cements; leather

and cellulose sheet (paper); natural rubber (Hevea brasiliensis), gutta percha, balata, and shellac
1839 Vulcanization of rubber (Charles Goodyear)
1845 Cellulose esters (Schonbein)
1846 Nitration of cellulose (Schonbein)
1851 Ebonite (hard rubber; Nelson Goodyear)
1860 Molding of shellac and gutta percha
1868 Celluloid (plasticized cellulose nitrate; Hyatt)
1888 Pneumatic tires (Dunlop)
1889 Cellulose nitrate photographic fi lms (Reinchenbach)
1890 Cuprammonia rayon fi bers (Despeisses)

1892 Viscose rayon fibers (Cross, Bevan, and Beadle)
1903 First tubeless tire (Litchfield of Goodyear Tire Co.)

1897 Poly(phenylene sulfi de)
1901 Glyptal polyesters
1907 Phenol-formaldehyde resins (Bakelite; Baekeland)
1908 Cellulose acetate photographic fi bers
1912 Regenerated cellulose sheet (cellophane)
1913 Poly(vinyl acetate)
1914 Simultaneous interpenetrating network (SIN)
1920 Urea-formaldehyde resins
1923 Cellulose nitrate automobile lacquers
1924 Cellulose acetate fi bers
1926 Alkyd polyester (Kienle)
1927 Poly(vinyl chloride) wall covering
1927 Cellulose acetate sheet and rods
1927 Graft copolymers
1928 Nylon (Carothers, Dupont)

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