Abstract
The first synthetic polymer produced for commericial applications was phenolfor- maldehyde resin reinforced with cellulose fibers or sawdust. It was invented in 1907 by Leo Baekeland, USA, and marketed as Bakelite a few years later. During the early 1930s a few other synthetic polymers were developed in the USA and Germany and used as commercial plastic materials, e.g., polystyrene, poly(vinylchlortde) (PVC) and poly(methylmethacrylate)(PMMA). They are vinyl polymers synthesized by free radical polymerization. Later in the 1930s and the early 1940s other types of polymers were synthesized and marketed as plastics, e. g., unsaturated polyesters crosslinked with styrene in Germany (1941) and reinforced with glass fibers in the USA (1942), epoxy resins as Araldite in Switzerland (1936) and poly(tetrafluoroethylene) as Teflon in the USA (1939). All these plastic materials are still produced commercially and used all over the world [5.1].
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References
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Rånby, B. (1996). Plastics and Rubber. In: Ito, Y., Okamura, S., Rånby, B. (eds) Macromolecular Concept and Strategy for Humanity in Science, Technology and Industry. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-61036-3_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-61036-3_5
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