What was the first synthetic polymer?
List of synthetic polymers
Some familiar household synthetic polymers include: Nylons in textiles and fabrics, Teflon in non-stick pans, Bakelite for electrical switches, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in pipes, etc. The common PET bottles are made of a synthetic polymer, polyethylene terephthalate. The plastic kits and covers are mostly made of synthetic polymers like polythene and tires are manufactured from Buna rubbers. However, due to the environmental issues created by these synthetic polymers which are mostly non-biodegradable and often synthesized from petroleum, alternatives like bioplastics are also being considered. They are however expensive when compared to the synthetic polymers.The eight most common types of synthetic organic polymers, which are commonly found in households are:
Plastic
After World War I, improvements in chemical technology led to an explosion in new forms of plastics, with mass production beginning in the 1940s and 1950s (around World War II). Among the earliest examples in the wave of new polymers were polystyrene (PS), first produced by BASF in the 1930s, and polyvinyl chloride (PVC), first created in 1872 but commercially produced in the late 1920s. In 1923, Durite Plastics Inc. was the first manufacturer of phenol-furfural resins. In 1933, polyethylene was discovered by Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) researchers Reginald Gibson and Eric Fawcett.
Cotton
The era of manufactured fibers began with the development of rayon in France in the 1890s. Rayon is derived from a natural cellulose and cannot be considered synthetic, but requires extensive processing in a manufacturing process, and led the less expensive replacement of more naturally derived materials. A succession of new synthetic fibers were introduced by the chemicals industry in the following decades. Acetate in fiber form was developed in 1924. Nylon, the first fiber synthesized entirely from petrochemicals, was introduced as a sewing thread by DuPont in 1936, followed by DuPont's acrylic in 1944. Some garments were created from fabrics based on these fibers, such as women's hosiery from nylon, but it was not until the introduction of polyester into the fiber marketplace in the early 1950s that the market for cotton came under threat. The rapid uptake of polyester garments in the 1960s caused economic hardship in cotton-exporting economies, especially in Central American countries, such as Nicaragua, where cotton production had boomed tenfold between 1950 and 1965 with the advent of cheap chemical pesticides. Cotton production recovered in the 1970s, but crashed to pre-1960 levels in the early 1990s.
PolyOne Corporation
1927 – BF Goodrich scientist Waldo Semon produces the first usable vinyl polymer, marketed under the trade name “Geon”
Bakelite
Bakelite was designated a National Historic Chemical Landmark on November 9, 1993, by the American Chemical Society in recognition of its significance as the world's first synthetic plastic.
Kraton (polymer)
Kraton is the trade name given to a number of high performance elastomers manufactured by Kraton Polymers (), and used as synthetic replacements for rubber. Kraton polymers offers many of the properties of natural rubber, such as flexibility, high traction, and sealing abilities, but with increased resistance to heat, weathering, and chemicals. It was first made by the chemical division of the Shell Oil Company in the 1950s, under the technical leadership of Norman R. Legge. Shell sold its Kraton polymers business to private equity firm Ripplewood Holdings in March 2001.
Glycerine phthalate
Glycerol phthalate was the first synthetic polyester. It came into use around World War I.
It was used for waterproofing. This polyester does not form linear chains, but is built as a three-dimensional structure.
Dimethylbutadiene
In 1909, Fritz Hofmann and a team working at Bayer succeeded in polymerizing dimethylbutadiene. It was then called methyl isoprene because it has one more methyl group than isoprene. Their polymer was the first synthetic rubber. The polymer had a number of deficiencies relative to natural rubber. The Bayer synthesis of dimethylbutadiene involved the dehydration of pinacol, as described above.
Bakelite
Baekeland then began experimenting on strengthening wood by impregnating it with a synthetic resin, rather than coating it. By controlling the pressure and temperature applied to phenol and formaldehyde, Baekeland produced a hard moldable material that he named "Bakelite", after himself. It was the first synthetic thermosetting plastic produced, and Baekeland speculated on "the thousand and one ... articles" it could be used to make. Baekeland considered the possibilities of using a wide variety of filling materials, including cotton, powdered bronze, and slate dust, but was most successful with wood and asbestos fibers.
Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)
The synthesis of poly("N"-isopropylacrylamide) began with the synthesis of the acrylamide monomer by Sprecht in 1956. In 1957, Shearer patented the first application for what would be later identified as PNIPA for the use as a rodent repellent. Early work was piqued by theoretical curiosity of the material properties of PNIPA. The first report of PNIPA came in 1968, which elucidated the unique thermal behavior in aqueous solutions. The 1980s marked an explosion in interest in PNIPAs with the realization of potential applications due to its unique thermal behavior in aqueous solutions.
Synthetic rubber
In 1935, German chemists synthesized the first of a series of synthetic rubbers known as Buna rubbers. These were copolymers, meaning the polymers were made up from two monomers in alternating sequence. Other brands included "Koroseal", which Waldo Semon developed in 1935, and "Sovprene", which Russian researchers created in 1940.
Emulsion polymerization
The first "true" emulsion polymerizations, which used a surface-active agent and polymerization initiator, were conducted in the 1920s to polymerize isoprene. Over the next twenty years, through the end of World War II, efficient methods for production of several forms of synthetic rubber by emulsion polymerization were developed, but relatively few publications in the scientific literature appeared: most disclosures were confined to patents or were kept secret due to wartime needs.
Hexachlorophosphazene
Hexachlorophosphazene is a precursor to poly(dichlorophosphazene) or "inorganic rubber", whose discovery is attributed to H. N. Stokes in 1896. Upon heating to ca. 250 °C, the trimer undergoes ring-opening polymerization to give the linear polymer (PNCl). Subsequent replacement of the chloride centers by other groups, especially alkoxides, yields many polyphosphazenes, some with commercial uses.
Cellulose
Cellulose was discovered in 1838 by the French chemist Anselme Payen, who isolated it from plant matter and determined its chemical formula. Cellulose was used to produce the first successful thermoplastic polymer, celluloid, by Hyatt Manufacturing Company in 1870. Production of rayon ("artificial silk") from cellulose began in the 1890s and cellophane was invented in 1912. Hermann Staudinger determined the polymer structure of cellulose in 1920. The compound was first chemically synthesized (without the use of any biologically derived enzymes) in 1992, by Kobayashi and Shoda.
Polymer
Polymers are studied in the fields of biophysics and macromolecular science, and polymer science (which includes polymer chemistry and polymer physics). Historically, products arising from the linkage of repeating units by covalent chemical bonds have been the primary focus of polymer science; emerging important areas of the science now focus on non-covalent links. Polyisoprene of latex rubber is an example of a natural/biological polymer, and the polystyrene of styrofoam is an example of a synthetic polymer. In biological contexts, essentially all biological macromolecules—i.e., proteins (polyamides), nucleic acids (polynucleotides), and polysaccharides—are purely polymeric, or are composed in large part of polymeric components—e.g., isoprenylated/lipid-modified glycoproteins, where small lipidic molecules and oligosaccharide modifications occur on the polyamide backbone of the protein.
Polyethylene
Polyethylene was first synthesized by the German chemist Hans von Pechmann, who prepared it by accident in 1898 while investigating diazomethane. When his colleagues Eugen Bamberger and Friedrich Tschirner characterized the white, waxy substance that he had created, they recognized that it contained long –CH– chains and termed it "polymethylene".
The first industrially practical polyethylene synthesis (diazomethane is a notoriously unstable substance that is generally avoided in industrial application) was discovered in 1933 by Eric Fawcett and Reginald Gibson, again by accident, at the Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) works in Northwich, England. Upon applying extremely high pressure (several hundred atmospheres) to a mixture of ethylene and benzaldehyde they again produced a white, waxy material. Because the reaction had been initiated by trace oxygen contamination in their apparatus, the experiment was, at first, difficult to reproduce. It was not until 1935 that another ICI chemist, Michael Perrin, developed this accident into a reproducible high-pressure synthesis for polyethylene that became the basis for industrial low-density polyethylene (LDPE) production beginning in 1939. Because polyethylene was found to have very low-loss properties at very high frequency radio waves, commercial distribution in Britain was suspended on the outbreak of World War II, secrecy imposed, and the new process was used to produce insulation for UHF and SHF coaxial cables of radar sets. During World War II, further research was done on the ICI process and in 1944 Bakelite Corporation at Sabine, Texas, and Du Pont at Charleston, West Virginia, began large-scale commercial production under license from ICI.
Nanofiber
However, cellular recognition of natural polymers can easily initiate an immune response. Consequently, synthetic polymers such as poly(lactic acid) (PLA), polycaprolactone (PCL), polyurethane (PU), poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA), poly(L-lactide) (PLLA), and poly(ethylene-co-vinylacetate) (PEVA) have been developed as alternatives for integration into scaffolds. Being biodegradable and biocompatible, these synthetic polymers can be used to form matrices with a fiber diameter within the nanometer range. Out of these synthetic polymers, PCL has generated considerable enthusiasm among researchers. PCL is a type of biodegradable polyester that can be prepared via ring-opening polymerization of ε-caprolactone using catalysts. It shows low toxicity, low cost and slow degradation. PCL can be combined with other materials such as gelatin, collagen, chitosan, and calcium phosphate to improve the differentiation and proliferation capacity (2, 17). PLLA is another popular synthetic polymer. PLLA is well known for its superior mechanical properties, biodegradability and biocompatibility. It shows efficient cell migration ability due to its high spatial interconnectivity, high porosity and controlled alignment. A blend of PLLA and PLGA scaffold matrix has shown proper biomimetic structure, good mechanical strength and favorable bioactivity.
Plastic
The plastics industry was revolutionized in the 1930s with the announcement of polyamide (PA), far better known by its trade name nylon. Nylon was the first purely synthetic fiber, introduced by DuPont Corporation at the 1939 World's Fair in New York City.
Polymer
The list of synthetic polymers, roughly in order of worldwide demand, includes polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride, synthetic rubber, phenol formaldehyde resin (or Bakelite), neoprene, nylon, polyacrylonitrile, PVB, silicone, and many more. More than 330 million tons of these polymers are made every year (2015).
Synthetic rubber
The expanded use of bicycles, and particularly their pneumatic tires, starting in the 1890s, created increased demand for rubber. In 1909, a team headed by Fritz Hofmann, working at the Bayer laboratory in Elberfeld, Germany, succeeded in polymerizing isoprene, the first synthetic rubber.
Polymer chemistry
Synthetic polymers are the structural materials manifested in plastics, synthetic fibers, paints, building materials, furniture, mechanical parts, and adhesives. Synthetic polymers may be divided into thermoplastic polymers and thermoset plastics. Thermoplastic polymers include polyethylene, teflon, polystyrene, polypropylene, polyester, polyurethane, Poly(methyl methacrylate), polyvinyl chloride, nylons, and rayon. Thermoset plastics include vulcanized rubber, bakelite, Kevlar, and polyepoxide. Almost all synthetic polymers are derived from petrochemicals.
Step-growth polymerization
Most natural polymers being employed at early stage of human society are of condensation type. The synthesis of first truly synthetic polymeric material, Bakelite, was announced by Leo Baekeland in 1907, through a typical step-growth polymerization fashion of phenol and formaldehyde. 
The pioneer of synthetic polymer science, Wallace Carothers, developed a new means of making polyesters through step-growth polymerization in 1930s as a research group leader at DuPont. It was the first reaction designed and carried out with the specific purpose of creating high molecular weight polymer molecules, as well as the first polymerization reaction whose results had been predicted beforehand by scientific theory. Carothers developed a series of mathematic equations to describe the behavior of step-growth polymerization systems which are still known as the Carothers equations today. Collaborating with Paul Flory, a physical chemist, they developed theories that describe more mathematical aspects of step-growth polymerization including kinetics, stoichiometry, and molecular weight distribution etc. Carothers is also well known for his invention of Nylon.
Prussian blue
Prussian blue was the first modern synthetic pigment. It is prepared as a very fine colloidal dispersion, because the compound is not soluble in water. It contains variable amounts of other ions and its appearance depends sensitively on the size of the colloidal particles. The pigment is used in paints, and it is the traditional "blue" in blueprints and () Japanese woodblock prints.
Acrylic fiber
Acrylic fibers are synthetic fibers made from a polymer (polyacrylonitrile) with an average molecular weight of ~100,000, about 1900 monomer units. For a fiber to be called "acrylic" in the US, the polymer must contain at least 85% acrylonitrile monomer. Typical comonomers are vinyl acetate or methyl acrylate. DuPont created the first acrylic fibers in 1941 and trademarked them under the name Orlon. It was first developed in the mid-1940s but was not produced in large quantities until the 1950s. Strong and warm, acrylic fiber is often used for sweaters and tracksuits and as linings for boots and gloves, as well as in furnishing fabrics and carpets. It is manufactured as a filament, then cut into short staple lengths similar to wool hairs, and spun into yarn.
Polymer science
This science comprises three main sub-disciplines:The first modern example of polymer science is Henri Braconnot's work in the 1830s. Henri, along with Christian Schönbein and others, developed derivatives of the natural polymer cellulose, producing new, semi-synthetic materials, such as celluloid and cellulose acetate. The term "polymer" was coined in 1833 by Jöns Jakob Berzelius, though Berzelius did little that would be considered polymer science in the modern sense. In the 1840s, Friedrich Ludersdorf and Nathaniel Hayward independently discovered that adding sulfur to raw natural rubber (polyisoprene) helped prevent the material from becoming sticky. In 1844 Charles Goodyear received a U.S. patent for vulcanizing natural rubber with sulfur and heat. Thomas Hancock had received a patent for the same process in the UK the year before. This process strengthened natural rubber and prevented it from melting with heat without losing flexibility. This made practical products such as waterproofed articles possible. It also facilitated practical manufacture of such rubberized materials. Vulcanized rubber represents the first commercially successful product of polymer research. In 1884 Hilaire de Chardonnet started the first artificial fiber plant based on regenerated cellulose, or viscose rayon, as a substitute for silk, but it was very flammable. In 1907 Leo Baekeland invented the first synthetic plastic, a thermosetting phenol–formaldehyde resin called Bakelite.
Elmer Keiser Bolton
Bolton's group's work on synthetic rubber began with the polymerization of butadiene obtained from the hydrogenation of diacetylene, and at first not much progress was made. At the end of 1925 Bolton met chemist Julius Arthur Nieuwland from the University of Notre Dame who had discovered a way to polymerize acetylene using a cuprous oxide catalyst. Unfortunately the resulting polymer would explode when struck, but Bolton believed the process could be modified to produce a stable compound that would replace butadiene in the reaction. Bolton brought Nieuwland into the project as a consultant to DuPont, and Nieuwland taught the DuPont chemists how to use his catalyst. A continuous-flow reactor was developed that would produce a good yield of the stable polymer Bolton was seeking. While the polymer was highly chemical resistant, it degraded with exposure to light.
Bert Meijer
Meijer's career took off with breakthrough results in dendrimer chemistry including a dendritic box and super-amphiphiles (being the first examples of polymersomes). He synthesized poly(propylene imine) dendrimers that are now produced at commercially relevant quantities (at multiple kilogram scale) worldwide. His dendrimers form the basic compound of a phosphate binder currently used in the clinic. Meijer also developed novel semiconducting polymers with high electron mobilities. His exploration of the combination of chirality and mesoscopic morphology in these polymers led to the fabrication of an LED that emits circularly polarized light. Many years later the insights into chiral semiconductors were used to optimize the water splitting in a photoelectrochemical cell.
Polymer chemistry
Polymers are major components of composite materials such as carbon fiber-epoxy.
The work of Henri Braconnot in 1777 and the work of Christian Schönbein in 1846 led to the discovery of nitrocellulose, which, when treated with camphor, produced celluloid. Dissolved in ether or acetone, it is collodion, used as a wound dressing since the U.S. Civil War. Cellulose acetate was first prepared in 1865. In years 1834-1844 the properties of rubber (polyisoprene) were found to be greatly improved by heating with sulfur, thus founding the vulcanization process.
PolyDADMAC
PolyDADMAC polymers were first prepared and studied in 1957 by Professor George Butler at the University of Florida. It was remarkable as it was soluble in water in contrast at the time to other known synthetic polymers formed by polymerization of monomers containing more than one vinyl functionality. The structure and reaction path was determined in 2002 with NMR studies.
Janus particles
This method uses the well-studied methods of producing block copolymers with well-defined geometries and compositions across a large variety of substrates. Synthesis of Janus particles by self-assembly via block copolymers was first described in 2001 by Erhardt "et al." They produced a triblock polymer from polymethylacrylate, polystyrene and low-molecular-weight polybutadiene. The polystyrene and polymethylacrylate formed alternating layers in between which polybutadiene sat in nanosized spheres. The blocks were then cross-linked and dissolved in THF, and after several washing steps, yielded spherical Janus particles with polystyrene on one face and polymethylacrylate on the other, with a polybutadiene core. The production of Janus spheres, cylinders, sheets, and ribbons is possible using this method by adjusting the molecular weights of the blocks in the initial polymer and also the degree of cross-linking.
Radical polymerization
The stereochemistry of polymerization is concerned with the difference in atom connectivity and spatial orientation in polymers that has the same chemical composition.
Staudinger studied the stereoisomerism in chain polymerization of vinyl monomers in late 1920s, and it took another two decades for people to fully appreciate the idea that each of the propagation steps in the polymer growth could give rise to stereoisomerism. The major milestone in the stereochemistry was established by Ziegler and Natta and their coworkers in 1950s, as they developed metal based catalyst to synthesize stereoregular polymers. The reason why the stereochemistry of the polymer is of particular interest is because the physical behavior of a polymer depends not only on the general chemical composition but also on the more subtle differences in microstructure. Atactic polymers consist of a random arrangement of stereochemistry and are amorphous (noncrystalline), soft materials with lower physical strength. The corresponding isotactic (like substituents all on the same side) and syndiotactic (like substituents of alternate repeating units on the same side) polymers are usually obtained as highly crystalline materials. It is easier for the stereoregular polymers to pack into a crystal lattice since they are more ordered and the resulting crystallinity leads to higher physical strength and increased solvent and chemical resistance as well as differences in other properties that depend on crystallinity. The prime example of the industrial utility of stereoregular polymers is polypropene. Isotactic polypropene is a high-melting (165 °C), strong, crystalline polymer, which is used as both a plastic and fiber. Atactic polypropene is an amorphous material with an oily to waxy soft appearance that finds use in asphalt blends and formulations for lubricants, sealants, and adhesives, but the volumes are minuscule compared to that of isotactic polypropene.
Hermann Staudinger
Staudinger’s groundbreaking elucidation of the nature of the high-molecular weight compounds he termed "Makromoleküle" paved the way for the birth of the field of polymer chemistry. Staudinger himself saw the potential for this science long before it was fully realized. “It is not improbable,” Staudinger smartly commented in 1936, “that sooner or later a way will be discovered to prepare artificial fibers from synthetic high-molecular products, because the strength and elasticity of natural fibers depend exclusively on their macro-molecular structure – i.e., on their long thread-shaped molecules.” Staudinger founded the first polymer chemistry journal in 1940, and in 1953 received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for “his discoveries in the field of macromolecular chemistry.” In 1999, the American Chemical Society and Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker designated Staudinger's work as an International Historic Chemical Landmark. His pioneering research has afforded the world myriad plastics, textiles, and other polymeric materials which make consumer products more affordable, attractive and fun, while helping engineers develop lighter and more durable structures.
Graft polymer
High impact polystyrene (HIPS) was discovered by Charles F. Fryling in 1961. HIPS is a low cost, plastic material that is easy to fabricate and often used for low strength structural applications when impact resistance, machinability, and low cost are required. Its major applications include machined prototypes, low-strength structural components, housings, and covers. In order to produce the graft polymer, polybutadiene (rubber) or any similar elastomeric polymer is dissolved in styrene and polymerized. This reaction allows for two simultaneous polymerizations, that of styrene to polystyrene and that of the graft polymerization of styrene-rubber. During commercial use, it can be prepared by graft copolymerization with additional polymer to give the product specific characteristics.
The advantages of HIPS includes:By grafting polymers onto polymer backbones, the final grafted copolymers gain new properties from their parent polymers. Specifically, cellulose graft copolymers have various different applications that are dependent on the structure of the polymer grafted onto the cellulose. Some of the new properties that cellulose gains from different monomers grafted onto it include:
Electroactive polymers
The majority of historic actuators are made of ceramic piezoelectric materials. While these materials are able to withstand large forces, they commonly will only deform a fraction of a percent. In the late 1990s, it has been demonstrated that some EAPs can exhibit up to a 380% strain, which is much more than any ceramic actuator. One of the most common applications for EAPs is in the field of robotics in the development of artificial muscles; thus, an electroactive polymer is often referred to as an artificial muscle.
The field of EAPs emerged back in 1880, when Wilhelm Röntgen designed an experiment in which he tested the effect of an electrostatic field on the mechanical properties of a stripe of natural rubber. The rubber stripe was fixed at one end and was attached to a mass at the other. Electric charges were then sprayed onto the rubber, and it was observed that the length changed. It was in 1925 that the first piezoelectric polymer was discovered (Electret). Electret was formed by combining carnauba wax, rosin and beeswax, and then cooling the solution while it is subject to an applied DC electrical bias. The mixture would then solidify into a polymeric material that exhibited a piezoelectric effect.
Cellulose acetate
Cellulose acetate fiber, one of the earliest synthetic fibers, is based on cotton or tree pulp cellulose ("biopolymers"). These "cellulosic fibers" have been replaced in many applications by cheaper petro-based fibers (nylon and polyester) in recent decades.
Morada (company)
The Cohen brothers were looking for a commercial edge and became aware, in 1894, that Charles Cross, Edward Bevan and Clayton Beadle had patented their "artificial silk" which they named "Viscose" in the UK and "Rayon" in the US, and sold under the trade name "Dacron". Although natural polymers have been with around since time began, synthetic polymers are more recent and owe their origin to Alexander Parkes and his exhibits at the International Exhibition in London in 1862. The most basic building block of a polymer is a monomer, which, when combined with oxygen, nitrogen, chlorine, or fluoride, becomes a "polymers". The most important polymer, for fabric construction is Polyethylene terephthalate, more commonly known as "polyester". The bright vibrant synthetic fabrics made from these synthetic "building blocks" exhibit a silk "handle"; and all the comfort properties of natural fibres, imitating silk, wool and linen.
History of chemistry
In 1862, Alexander Parkes exhibited Parkesine, one of the earliest synthetic polymers, at the International Exhibition in London. This discovery formed the foundation of the modern plastics industry. In 1864, Cato Maximilian Guldberg and Peter Waage, building on Claude Louis Berthollet's ideas, proposed the law of mass action. In 1865, Johann Josef Loschmidt determined the exact number of molecules in a mole, later named Avogadro's number.
Plastic
Natural rubber is an elastomer (an elastic hydrocarbon polymer) that originally was derived from "latex", a milky colloidal suspension found in specialised vessels in some plants. It is useful directly in this form (indeed, the first appearance of rubber in Europe was cloth waterproofed with unvulcanized latex from Brazil). However, in 1839, Charles Goodyear invented vulcanized rubber; a form of natural rubber heated with sulfur (and a few other chemicals), forming cross-links between polymer chains (vulcanization), improving elasticity and durability.
Sergey Lebedev (chemist)
Sergei Vasilievich Lebedev (; 13 July 1874 – 2 May 1934) was a Russian/Soviet chemist and the inventor of polybutadiene synthetic rubber, the first commercially viable and mass-produced type of synthetic rubber.
Nafion
Nafion is a brand name for a sulfonated tetrafluoroethylene based fluoropolymer-copolymer discovered in the late 1960s by Walther Grot of DuPont. Nafion is a brand of the Chemours company. It is the first of a class of synthetic polymers with ionic properties which are called ionomers. Nafion's unique ionic properties are a result of incorporating perfluorovinyl ether groups terminated with sulfonate groups onto a tetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) backbone. Nafion has received a considerable amount of attention as a proton conductor for proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells because of its excellent thermal and mechanical stability.
Two-dimensional polymer
First attempts to synthesize 2DPs date back to the 1930s when Gee reported interfacial polymerizations at the air/water interface in which a monolayer of an unsaturated fatty acid derivative was laterally polymerized to give a 2D cross-linked material. Since then a number of important attempts were reported in terms of cross-linking polymerization of monomers confined to layered templates or various interfaces. These approaches provide easy accesses to sheet-like polymers. However, the sheets' internal network structures are intrinsically irregular and the term "repeat unit" is not applicable (See for example:). In organic chemistry, creation of 2D periodic network structures has been a dream for decades. Another noteworthy approach is "on-surface polymerization" whereby 2DPs with lateral dimensions not exceeding some tens of nanometers were reported. Laminar crystals are readily available, each layer of which can ideally be regarded as latent 2DP. There have been a number of attempts to isolate the individual layers by exfoliation techniques (see for example:).
Natural fiber
Natural fibers are also used in composite materials, much like synthetic or glass fibers. These composites, called biocomposites, are a natural fiber in a matrix of synthetic polymers. One of the first biofiber-reinforced plastics in use was a cellulose fiber in phenolics in 1908. Usage includes applications where energy absorption is important, such as insulation, noise absorbing panels, or collapsable areas in automobiles.
Polymer science
The World War II era marked the emergence of a strong commercial polymer industry. The limited or restricted supply of natural materials such as silk and rubber necessitated the increased production of synthetic substitutes, such as nylon and synthetic rubber. In the intervening years, the development of advanced polymers such as Kevlar and Teflon have continued to fuel a strong and growing polymer industry.
Polybutylene succinate
The synthesis of succinic acid based polyesters was first performed in 1863. In that time the Portuguese professor Agostinho Vicente Lourenço described in his "Recherche sur les composés polyatomiques" (Research on polyatomic compounds), the reaction between succinic acid and ethylene glycol to form what he named "succino-ethylenic acid". He noticed that this acid was losing water when it was heated at high temperatures (300 °C) and that a crystalline mass when obtained after cooling. 
Unfortunately, Lourenço did not study much the structure of the material he obtained.
Interfacial polymerization
Interfacial polymerization is a type of step-growth polymerization in which polymerization occurs at an interface between an aqueous solution containing one monomer and an organic solution containing a second monomer. The process was invented by Chemist (later Laboratory Director) Emerson Wittbecker in 1959, and he used the term “interfacial polycondensation” when studied this method. The most common polymer made by this method is polyamide, where diamine and diacid chloride react to form polyamide and hydrogen chloride.
Vinyl composition tile
In 1926, Waldo Semon, working in the United States, invented plasticized polyvinyl chloride. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is a plastic containing carbon, hydrogen and chlorine. It is produced by the process of polymerisation. Molecules of vinyl chloride monomers combine to make long chain molecules of polyvinyl chloride. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) based floor coverings, commonly known as vinyls made its big splash when a vinyl composition tile was displayed at the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago. Because of the scarcity of vinyl during the war years, vinyl flooring was not widely marketed until the late 1940s, eventually became the most popular choice for flooring in just about any hard-surface application.
Billiard ball
Although not the first artificial substance to be used for the balls (e.g. Sorel cement, invented in 1867, was marketed as an artificial ivory), John Wesley Hyatt invented a composition material in 1869 called nitrocellulose for billiard balls (US patent 50359, the first American patent for billiard balls). It is unclear if the cash prize was ever awarded, and there is no evidence suggesting he did in fact win it. By 1870 it was commercially branded Celluloid, the first industrial plastic. However, the nature of celluloid made it volatile in production, occasionally exploding, which ultimately made this early plastic impractical. Subsequently, to avoid the problem of celluloid instability, the industry experimented with various other synthetic materials for billiard balls such as Bakelite, Crystallite and other plastic compounds.
Hackney Wick
The world's first true synthetic plastic, parkesine, invented by Alexander Parkes, was manufactured here from 1866 to 1868, though Parkes' company failed due to high production costs.
In contrast shellac, a natural polymer was manufactured at the Lea Works by A.F. Suter and Co. at the Victory Works for many years. The factory at nos 83/4 Eastway commenced operation in 1927. Subsequently they relocated to Dace Road in Bow.
For many years Hackney Wick was the location of the oil distiller Carless, Capel & Leonard, credited with introduction of the term petrol in the 1890s. The distinguished chemist and academic Sir Frederick Warner worked at Carless's Hackney Wick factory from 1948–1956. William J Leonard (1857–1923) was followed by his son Julian Mayard Leonard (1900–1978) into the firm, where he became managing director and deputy chairman.
Joseph C. Patrick
Dr. Joseph Cecil Patrick (August 28, 1892 – April 12, 1965) invented Thiokol, America's first synthetic rubber in the early 1920s. While seeking a formulation for automotive antifreeze, he attempted to hydrolyze ethylene dichloride with sodium polysulfide. In doing so, he produced a brown, insoluble gum that later became known as Thiokol. He solved commercial production problems by inventing the suspension polymerization process, and solved compounding problems by degrading high molecular weight polymer to a low molecular weight liquid polymer. This material is one of the principal binders for rocket propellant.
Nylon
DuPont's invention of nylon spanned an eleven-year period, ranging from the initial research program in polymers in 1927 to its announcement in 1938, shortly before the opening of the 1939 New York World's Fair. The project grew from a new organizational structure at DuPont, suggested by Charles Stine in 1927, in which the chemical department would be composed of several small research teams that would focus on “pioneering research” in chemistry and would “lead to practical applications”. Harvard instructor Wallace Hume Carothers was hired to direct the polymer research group. Initially he was allowed to focus on pure research, building on and testing the theories of German chemist Hermann Staudinger. He was very successful as research he undertook greatly improved the knowledge of polymers and contributed to science.
Kevlar
Poly-paraphenylene terephthalamide – branded Kevlar – was invented by Polish-American chemist Stephanie Kwolek while working for DuPont, in anticipation of a gasoline shortage. In 1964, her group began searching for a new lightweight strong fiber to use for light but strong tires. The polymers she had been working with at the time, poly-p-phenylene-terephthalate and polybenzamide, formed liquid crystal while in solution, something unique to those polymers at the time.
Ziegler–Natta catalyst
The 1963 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to German Karl Ziegler, for his discovery of first titanium-based catalysts, and Italian Giulio Natta, for using them to prepare stereoregular polymers from propylene. Ziegler–Natta catalysts have been used in the commercial manufacture of various polyolefins since 1956. As of 2010, the total volume of plastics, elastomers, and rubbers produced from alkenes with these and related (especially Phillips) catalysts worldwide exceeds 100 million tonnes. Together, these polymers represent the largest-volume commodity plastics as well as the largest-volume commodity chemicals in the world.
Plastic
The first fully synthetic rubber was synthesized by Sergei Lebedev in 1910. In World War II, supply blockades of natural rubber from South East Asia caused a boom in development of synthetic rubber, notably styrene-butadiene rubber. In 1941, annual production of synthetic rubber in the U.S. was only 231 tonnes which increased to 840,000 tonnes in 1945. In the space race and nuclear arms race, Caltech researchers experimented with using synthetic rubbers for solid fuel for rockets. Ultimately, all large military rockets and missiles would use synthetic rubber based solid fuels, and they would also play a significant part in the civilian space effort.
List of DuPont Experimental Station inventions
Neoprene, the world's first synthetic rubbers
Geopolymer
According to T.F. Yen geopolymers can be classified into two major groups: pure inorganic geopolymers and organic containing geopolymers, synthetic analogues of naturally occurring macromolecules. In the following presentation, a geopolymer is essentially a mineral chemical compound or mixture of compounds consisting of repeating units, for example silico-oxide (-Si-O-Si-O-), silico-aluminate (-Si-O-Al-O-), ferro-silico-aluminate (-Fe-O-Si-O-Al-O-) or alumino-phosphate (-Al-O-P-O-), created through a process of geopolymerization. This mineral synthesis (geosynthesis) was first presented at an IUPAC symposium in 1976.
Zylon
Zylon (IUPAC name: poly("p"-phenylene-2,6-benzobisoxazole)) is a trademarked name for a range of thermoset liquid-crystalline polyoxazole. This synthetic polymer material was invented and developed by SRI International in the 1980s and is manufactured by the Toyobo Corporation. In generic usage, the fiber is referred to as PBO.
List of synthetic polymers
Synthetic polymers are human-made polymers. From the utility point of view they can be classified into four main categories: thermoplastics, thermosets, elastomers and synthetic fibers. They are found commonly in a variety of consumer products such as money, glue, etc.
Fibre-reinforced plastic
Bakelite was the first fibre-reinforced plastic. Leo Baekeland had originally set out to find a replacement for shellac (made from the excretion of lac beetles). Chemists had begun to recognize that many natural resins and fibres were polymers, and Baekeland investigated the reactions of phenol and formaldehyde. He first produced a soluble phenol-formaldehyde shellac called "Novolak" that never became a market success, then turned to developing a binder for asbestos which, at that time, was moulded with rubber. By controlling the pressure and temperature applied to phenol and formaldehyde, he found in 1905 he could produce his dreamed-of hard mouldable material (the world's first synthetic plastic): bakelite. 
He announced his invention at a meeting of the American Chemical Society on February 5, 1909.
Water purification
Organic polymers were developed in the 1960s as aids to coagulants and, in some cases, as replacements for the inorganic metal salt coagulants. Synthetic organic polymers are high molecular weight compounds that carry negative, positive or neutral charges. When organic polymers are added to water with particulates, the high molecular weight compounds adsorb onto particle surfaces and through interparticle bridging coalesce with other particles to form floc. PolyDADMAC is a popular cationic (positively charged) organic polymer used in water purification plants.
Polymer science
Despite significant advances in polymer synthesis, the molecular nature of polymers was not understood until the work of Hermann Staudinger in 1922. Prior to Staudinger's work, polymers were understood in terms of the association theory or aggregate theory, which originated with Thomas Graham in 1861. Graham proposed that cellulose and other polymers were colloids, aggregates of molecules having small molecular mass connected by an unknown intermolecular force. Hermann Staudinger was the first to propose that polymers consisted of long chains of atoms held together by covalent bonds. It took over a decade for Staudinger's work to gain wide acceptance in the scientific community, work for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1953.
Jakey Kovac
First Kovac team looked into the acetylene family of chemicals. This resulted in more than 20 papers and patents. By 1931, DuPont was manufacturing a synthetic rubber that this team created: neoprene. Due to political and trade troubles with Japan, the United States' main source of silk, that fiber was getting harder and more expensive to come by. DuPont wanted to develop a synthetic fiber that could replace it. Kovac and his team tackled this, too. In 1934 they pulled their first long, strong, flexible strands of a synthetic polymer fiber out of a test tube (pbs kovac). The corporation patented it as "nylon" the following year. In the course of this discovery, Kovac published 31 papers, establishing general theories about polymers and regularizing the terminology of the field. He had brought the world not just nylon, but knowledge of natural polymers and how they are formed.
Polyacrylonitrile
Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) was first synthesized in 1930 by Hans Fikentscher and Claus Heuck in the Ludwigshafen works of the German chemical conglomerate IG Farben. However, as PAN is non-fusible, and did not dissolve in any of the industrial solvents being used at the time, further research into the material was halted. In 1931, Herbert Rein, head of polymer fiber chemistry at the Bitterfeld plant of IG Farben, obtained a sample of PAN while visiting the Ludwigshafen works. He found that pyridinium benzylchloride, an ionic liquid, would dissolve PAN. He spun the first fibers based on PAN in 1938, using aqueous solutions of quaternary ammonium sodium thiocyanate and aluminum perchlorate for the production process and considered other solvents including DMF. However, commercial introduction was delayed due to the wartime stresses on infrastructure, inability to melt the polymer without degradation, and solvents to allow solution processing were not known yet (Cox and McIntyre, 2000). The first mass production run of PAN fiber was in 1946 by American chemical conglomerate DuPont. The German intellectual property had been stolen in Operation Paperclip. The product, branded as Orlon, was based on a patent filed exactly seven days after a nearly identical German claim.
Polymer
The term "polymer" derives from the Greek word πολύς ("polus", meaning "many, much") and μέρος ("meros", meaning "part"), and refers to a molecule whose structure is composed of multiple repeating units, from which originates a characteristic of high relative molecular mass and attendant properties. The units composing polymers derive, actually or conceptually, from molecules of low relative molecular mass. The term was coined in 1833 by Jöns Jacob Berzelius, though with a definition distinct from the modern IUPAC definition. The modern concept of polymers as covalently bonded macromolecular structures was proposed in 1920 by Hermann Staudinger, who spent the next decade finding experimental evidence for this hypothesis.
Polymersome
Polymersomes can be used to make an artificial cell if hemoglobin and other components are added. The first artificial cell was made by Thomas Chang.
Poloxamer
Poloxamers are nonionic triblock copolymers composed of a central hydrophobic chain of polyoxypropylene (poly(propylene oxide)) flanked by two hydrophilic chains of polyoxyethylene (poly(ethylene oxide)). The word was coined by the inventor, Irving Schmolka, who received the patent for these materials in 1973. Poloxamers are also known by the trade names Synperonics, Pluronics, and Kolliphor.
Contact lens
Comfilcon A (Biofinity, CooperVision) was the first third-generation polymer. Its patent claims that the material uses two siloxy macromers of different sizes that, when used in combination, produce very high oxygen permeability (for a given water content). Enfilcon A (Avaira, CooperVision) is another third-generation material that is naturally wettable; its water content is 46%.
Wallace Carothers
Carothers was a group leader at the DuPont Experimental Station laboratory, near Wilmington, Delaware, where most polymer research was done. Carothers was an organic chemist who, in addition to first developing nylon, also helped lay the groundwork for neoprene. After receiving his Ph.D., he taught at several universities before he was hired by DuPont to work on fundamental research.
Solid state ionics
In 1975, Peter V. Wright, a polymer chemist from Sheffield (UK), produced the first polymer electrolyte, which contained sodium and potassium salts in a polyethylene oxide (PEO) matrix. Later another type of polymer electrolytes, polyelectrolyte, was put forward, where ions moved through an electrically charged, rather than neutral, polymer matrix. Polymer electrolytes showed lower conductivities than glasses, but they were cheaper, much more flexible and could be easier machined and shaped into various forms. While ionic glasses are typically operated below, polymer conductors are typically heated above their glass transition temperatures. Consequently, both the electric field and mechanical deformation decay on a similar time scale in polymers, but not in glasses.
Between 1983 and 2001 it was believed that the amorphous fraction is responsible for ionic conductivity, i.e., that (nearly) complete structural disorder is essential for the fast ionic transport in polymers. However, a number of crystalline polymers have been described in 2001 and later with ionic conductivity as high as 0.01 S/cm 30 °C and activation energy of only 0.24 eV.
List of synthetic polymers
A wide variety of synthetic polymers are available with variations in main chain as well as side chains. The back bones of common synthetic polymers such as polythene, polystyrene and poly acrylates are made up of carbon-carbon bonds, whereas hetero chain polymers such as polyamides, polyesters, polyurethanes, polysulfides and polycarbonates have other elements (e.g. oxygen, sulfur, nitrogen) inserted along the backbone. Also silicon forms similar materials without the need of carbon atoms, such as silicones through siloxane linkages; these compounds are thus said to be inorganic polymers. Coordination polymers may contain a range of metals in the backbone, with non-covalent bonding present.
Charles C. Price
He was known as a pioneer of polymer science. He co-organized the first Reaction Mechanisms Conference in 1946. He was also a founding co-editor of the "Journal of Polymer Science" in 1946.
He studied polymerization processes as part of the U.S. synthetic rubber program during World War II and invented and patented polyether polyurethane foam rubber. He also contributed to the detection of chemical weapons, the develop of chloroquine as a treatment for malaria, and treatments for cancer.
MBI (Michigan Biotechnology Institute)
Historically, MBI also worked with Michigan State University and Cargill to develop PLA, the first biodegradable polymer in global use.
Biodegradable polymer
The concept of synthetic biodegradable plastics and polymers was first introduced in the 1980s. In 1992, an international meeting was called where leaders in biodegradable polymers met to discuss a definition, standard, and testing protocol for biodegradable polymers. Also, oversight organizations such as American Society for Testing of Materials (ASTM) and the International Standards Organization (ISO) were created. Large clothing and grocery store chains have pushed to utilize biodegradable bags in the late 2010s. Biodegradable polymers also received notice from various fields in 2012 when Professor Geoffrey Coates of Cornell University received the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award. As of 2013, 5-10% of the plastic market focused on biodegradable polymer derived plastics.
Polymer clay
Bakelite, an early plastic, was popular with designers and was an early form of polymer clay, but the phenol base of uncured Bakelite was flammable and was eventually discontinued. Polymer clays were first formulated as a possible replacement for Bakelite. One of these formulations was brought to the attention of German doll maker Käthe Kruse in 1939. While it was not suitable for use in her factory, Kruse gave some to her daughter Sophie, who was known in the family as "Fifi", who successfully used it as modeling clay. The formulation was later sold to Eberhard Faber and marketed under the name "FIMO" (FIfi's MOdeling compound).
Poly(methacrylic acid)
Poly(methacrylic acid) (PMAA) is a polymer made from methacrylic acid. It is often available as its sodium salt, poly(methacrylic acid) sodium salt. preferred IUPAC name 2-Methylprop-2-enoic acid), which is a carboxylic acid. It is a viscous liquid with a pungent odour. The first polymeric form of methacrylic acid was described in 1880 by Engelhorn and Fittig. The use of high purity monomers is required for proper polymerization conditions and therefore it is necessary to remove any inhibitors by extraction (phenolic inhibitors) or via distillation. To prevent inhibition by dissolved oxygen, monomers should be carefully degassed prior to the start of the polymerization.
Electroactive polymers
In 1999, Yoseph Bar-Cohen proposed the Armwrestling Match of EAP Robotic Arm Against Human Challenge. This was a challenge in which research groups around the world competed to design a robotic arm consisting of EAP muscles that could defeat a human in an arm wrestling match. The first challenge was held at the Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices Conference in 2005. Another major milestone of the field is that the first commercially developed device including EAPs as an artificial muscle was produced in 2002 by Eamex in Japan. This device was a fish that was able to swim on its own, moving its tail using an EAP muscle. But the progress in practical development has not been satisfactory.
Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)
Poly("N"-isopropylacrylamide) (variously abbreviated PNIPA, PNIPAAm, NIPA, PNIPAA or PNIPAm) is a temperature-responsive polymer that was first synthesized in the 1950s. It can be synthesized from "N"-isopropylacrylamide which is commercially available. It is synthesized via free-radical polymerization and is readily functionalized making it useful in a variety of applications.
Phenol formaldehyde resin
Phenol formaldehyde resins (PF) or phenolic resins are synthetic polymers obtained by the reaction of phenol or substituted phenol with formaldehyde. Used as the basis for Bakelite, PFs were the first commercial synthetic resins (plastics). They have been widely used for the production of molded products including billiard balls, laboratory countertops, and as coatings and adhesives. They were at one time the primary material used for the production of circuit boards but have been largely replaced with epoxy resins and fiberglass cloth, as with fire-resistant FR-4 circuit board materials.
Polymer soil stabilization
Synthetic polymers began replacing other chemical binders for soil stabilization in agriculture in the late 20th century. Compared to traditional chemical binders, polymer soil additives can achieve the same amount of strengthening at much lower concentrations – for example, mixtures of 0.5-1% of various biopolymers have strength levels that match or exceed those of 10% cement mixtures in soils. Synthetic polymers, including geopolymers, and biopolymers have been tested for their beneficial interactions with soils. Methods for introducing polymers into soils include mixing, injection, spraying, and grouting. Liquid polymers, sold as concentrated solutions, can be applied deep within the soil through pressure injection or applied directly to uncompacted soil.
Geopolymer cement
The first geopolymer cement developed in the 1980s was of the type (K,Na,Ca)-poly(sialate) (or slag-based geopolymer cement) and resulted from the research developments carried out by Joseph Davidovits and J.L. Sawyer at Lone Star Industries, USA and yielded the invention of Pyrament® cement. The American patent application was filed in 1984 and the patent US 4,509,985 was granted on April 9, 1985 with the title 'Early high-strength mineral polymer'.
DuPont
In the 1920s, DuPont continued its emphasis on materials science, hiring Wallace Carothers to work on polymers in 1928. Carothers invented neoprene, a synthetic rubber; the first polyester superpolymer; and, in 1935, nylon. The invention of Teflon followed a few years later. DuPont introduced phenothiazine as an insecticide in 1935.
Textile manufacturing
The first artificial fiber, known as art silk from 1799 onwards, became known as viscose around 1894, and finally rayon in 1924. A similar product known as cellulose acetate was discovered in 1865. Rayon and acetate are both artificial fibers, but not truly synthetic, being made from wood. Although these artificial fibers were discovered in the mid-nineteenth century, successful modern manufacture began much later in the 1930s. Nylon, the first synthetic fiber, made its debut in the United States as a replacement for silk, and was used for parachutes and other military uses.
Phillips catalyst
The Phillips catalyst, or the Phillips supported chromium catalyst, is the catalyst used to produce approximately half of the world's polyethylene. A heterogeneous catalyst, it consists of a chromium oxide supported on silica gel. Polyethylene, the most abundant synthetic polymer, is produced industrially by the polymerization of ethylene:
Although exergonic (i.e., thermodynamically favorable), the reaction requires catalysts. Three main catalysts are employed commercially: the Phillips catalyst, Ziegler-Natta catalysts (based on titanium trichloride), and, for specialty polymers, metallocene-based catalysts.
Herman Francis Mark
In 1926 Kurt Meyer of IG Farben offered Mark the assistant directorship of research at one of the company's laboratories. In his years at Farben, Mark worked on the first serious attempts at the commercialization of polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride, polyvinyl alcohol, and the first synthetic rubbers. Mark helped make Farben a leader in manufacturing and distribution of new polymers and co-polymers.
Winnington Laboratory
On 24 March 1933 two scientists conducted an experiment that produced polythene (polyethylene). Benzaldehyde was reacted with ethene (ethylene) at 2,000 atmospheres pressure. Sir Michael Perrin worked with this group of scientists from October 1933 until 1938. In December 1935 he conducted an experiment that allowed polythene to be created. Polythene is the world's most widespread plastic.
Polyester
In 1926, United States-based E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. began research on large molecules and synthetic fibers. This early research, headed by W.H. Carothers, centered on what became nylon, which was the first synthetic fiber. Carothers was working for duPont at the time. Carother’s research was incomplete and had not advanced to investigating the polyester formed from mixing ethylene glycol and terephthalic acid. The project was revived by British scientists Whinfield and Dickson who patented PET or PETE in 1941. Polyethylene terephthalate forms the basis for synthetic fibers like Dacron, Terylene and polyester. In 1946, duPont bought all legal rights from Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI).
Emulsion polymerization
The early history of emulsion polymerization is connected with the field of synthetic rubber. The idea of using an emulsified monomer in an aqueous suspension or emulsion was first conceived at Bayer, before World War I, in an attempt to prepare synthetic rubber. The impetus for this development was the observation that natural rubber is produced at room temperature in dispersed particles stabilized by colloidal polymers, so the industrial chemists tried to duplicate these conditions. The Bayer workers used naturally occurring polymers such as gelatin, egg albumin, and starch to stabilize their dispersion. By today's definition these were not true emulsion polymerizations, but suspension polymerizations.
Polythiazyl
Polythiazyl (polymeric sulfur nitride), (SN), is an electrically conductive, gold- or bronze-colored polymer with metallic luster. It was the first conductive inorganic polymer discovered and was also found to be a superconductor at very low temperatures (below 0.26 K). It is a fibrous solid, described as "lustrous golden on the faces and dark blue-black", depending on the orientation of the sample. It is air stable and insoluble in all solvents.
Polymer capacitor
Polypyrrole (PPy) is a conducting polymer formed by oxidative polymerization of pyrrole. A suitable oxidizing agent is iron (III) chloride (FeCl3). Water, methanol, ethanol, acetonitrile and other polar solvents may be used for the synthesis of PPy. As a solid conducting polymer electrolyte It reaches conductivities up to 100 S/m. Polypyrrole was the first conductive polymer used in polymer Al-e-caps as well as in polymer Ta-e-caps.
Albany Billiard Ball Company
In the 1860s, John Wesley Hyatt of Albany, New York acquired British chemist Alexander Parkes's 1855 patent for Parkesine, an early polymer, made of nitrocellulose, oil and various solvents. Parkes's own attempt to build a business around the new material, the first industrial plastic, had failed by 1868. Hyatt began experimenting with cellulose nitrate with the intention of manufacturing billiard balls, which until that time were principally made from ivory (cheaper balls were made of clay or wood). Using cloth, ivory dust, and shellac, Hyatt devised a method of covering billiard balls with the addition of collodion in 1868.
Fire-safe polymers
Research on fire-retardant polymers was bolstered by the need for new types of synthetic polymers in World War II. The combination of a halogenated paraffin and antimony oxide was found to be successful as a fire retardant for canvas tenting. Synthesis of polymers, such as polyesters, with fire retardant monomers were also developed around this time. Incorporating flame-resistant additives into polymers became a common and relatively cheap way to reduce the flammability of polymers, while synthesizing intrinsically fire-resistant polymers has remained a more expensive alternative, although the properties of these polymers are usually more efficient at deterring combustion.
Polymer
Naturally occurring polymers such as cotton, starch and rubber were familiar materials for years before synthetic polymers such as polyethene and perspex appeared on the market. 
Many commercially important polymers are synthesized by chemical modification of naturally occurring polymers. Prominent examples include the reaction of nitric acid and cellulose to form nitrocellulose and the formation of vulcanized rubber by heating natural rubber in the presence of sulfur.
Ways in which polymers can be modified include oxidation, cross-linking and endcapping.
Polymer chemistry
In 1884 Hilaire de Chardonnet started the first artificial fiber plant based on regenerated cellulose, or viscose rayon, as a substitute for silk, but it was very flammable. In 1907 Leo Baekeland invented the first synthetic polymer, a thermosetting phenol-formaldehyde resin called Bakelite. Around the same time, Hermann Leuchs reported the synthesis of amino acid N-carboxyanhydrides and their high molecular weight products upon reaction with nucleophiles, but stopped short of referring to these as polymers, possibly due to the strong views espoused by Emil Fischer, his direct supervisor, denying the possibility of any covalent molecule exceeding 6,000 daltons. Cellophane was invented in 1908 by Jocques Brandenberger who treated sheets of viscose rayon with acid.
Nylon
The nomenclature used for nylon polymers was devised during the synthesis of the first simple aliphatic nylons and uses numbers to describe the number of carbons in each monomer unit, including the carbon(s) of the carboxylic acid(s). Subsequent use of cyclic and aromatic monomers required the use of letters or sets of letters. One number after 'PA' or 'Nylon' indicates a homopolymer which is "monadic" or based on one amino acid (minus HO) as monomer:
Electroactive polymers
DARPA-funded research in the 1990s at SRI International and led by Ron Pelrine developed an electroactive polymer using silicone and acrylic polymers; the technology was spun off into the company Artificial Muscle in 2003, with industrial production beginning in 2008. In 2010, Artificial Muscle became a subsidiary of Bayer MaterialScience.
Catalyst transfer polymerization
The first reports of CTP came simultaneously from the labs of Yokozawa and McCullough in 2004, with the recognition that polythiophene can be synthesized with low dispersity and control over molecular weight when a grignard thiophene monomer was polymerized with Nickel(1,2-bis(diphenylphosphino)ethane)dichloride. This recognition sparked interest in the system, and its expansion to other monomers. Despite major advances in the field, relatively few polymers can be synthesized via CTP because the lack of a "universal CTP catalyst" means that every monomer must be paired with a different catalyst in order to obtain ideal living chain-growth behavior. This need to pair monomers to catalysts means most conjugated polymers are synthesized via palladium catalyzed step-growth polycondensation cross-coupling reactions.
Synthetic setae
In the first developments of synthetic setae, polymers like polyimide, polypropylene and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) are frequently used since they are flexible and easily fabricated. Later, as nanotechnology rapidly developed, Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) are preferred by most research groups and used in most recent projects. CNTs have much larger possible length-to-diameter ratio than polymers, and they exhibit both extraordinary strength and flexibility, as well as good electrical properties. It is these novel properties that make synthetic setae more effective.
Synthetic rubber
Synthetic rubber, like other polymers, is made from various petroleum-based monomers. The most prevalent synthetic rubbers are styrene-butadiene rubbers (SBR) derived from the copolymerization of styrene and 1,3-butadiene. Other synthetic rubbers are prepared from isoprene (2-methyl-1,3-butadiene), chloroprene (2-chloro-1,3-butadiene), and isobutylene (methylpropene) with a small percentage of isoprene for cross-linking. These and other monomers can be mixed in various proportions to be copolymerized to produce products with a range of physical, mechanical, and chemical properties. The monomers can be produced pure, and the addition of impurities or additives can be controlled by design to give optimal properties. Polymerization of pure monomers can be better controlled to give a desired proportion of "cis" and "trans" double bonds.
Polyester
Polyester is a synthetic polymer made of purified terephthalic acid (PTA) or its dimethyl ester dimethyl terephthalate (DMT) and monoethylene glycol (MEG). With 18% market share of all plastic materials produced, it ranges third after polyethylene (33.5%) and polypropylene (19.5%).
Plastic
In 1988, to assist recycling of disposable items, the Plastic Bottle Institute of the U.S. Society of the Plastics Industry devised a now-familiar scheme to mark plastic bottles by plastic type. Under this scheme, a plastic container is marked with a triangle of three "chasing arrows", which encloses a number denoting the plastic type:The first plastic based on a synthetic polymer was made from phenol and formaldehyde, with the first viable and cheap synthesis methods invented in 1907, by Leo Hendrik Baekeland, a Belgian-born American living in New York state. Baekeland was looking for an insulating shellac to coat wires in electric motors and generators. He found that combining phenol (CHOH) and formaldehyde (HCOH) formed a sticky mass and later found that the material could be mixed with wood flour, asbestos, or slate dust to create strong and fire resistant "composite" materials. The new material tended to foam during synthesis, requiring that Baekeland build pressure vessels to force out the bubbles and provide a smooth, uniform product, as he announced in 1909, in a meeting of the American Chemical Society. Bakelite was originally used for electrical and mechanical parts, coming into widespread use in consumer goods and jewelry in the 1920s. Bakelite was a purely synthetic material, not derived from living matter. It was also an early thermosetting plastic.
Polymer chemistry
The chemist Hermann Staudinger first proposed that polymers consisted of long chains of atoms held together by covalent bonds, which he called macromolecules. His work expanded the chemical understanding of polymers and was followed by an expansion of the field of polymer chemistry during which such polymeric materials as neoprene, nylon and polyester were invented. Before Staudinger, polymers were thought to be clusters of small molecules (colloids), without definite molecular weights, held together by an unknown force. Staudinger received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1953. Wallace Carothers invented the first synthetic rubber called neoprene in 1931, the first polyester, and went on to invent nylon, a true silk replacement, in 1935. Paul Flory was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1974 for his work on polymer random coil configurations in solution in the 1950s. Stephanie Kwolek developed an aramid, or aromatic nylon named Kevlar, patented in 1966. Karl Ziegler and Giulio Natta received a Nobel Prize for their discovery of catalysts for the polymerization of alkenes. Alan J. Heeger, Alan MacDiarmid, and Hideki Shirakawa were awarded the 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development of polyacetylene and related conductive polymers. Polyacetylene itself did not find practical applications, but organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) emerged as one application of conducting polymers.
Polymer blend
A new polymers modification process, based on a simple mechanical mixture of two polymers first appeared when Thomas Hancock got one mixture of natural rubber with gutta-percha. This process generated a new polymer class called "polymer blends".