Production of Biodegradable Polymers - Research Paper Example

The first pioneer in plastic development was John Wesley Hyatt. He was a New York printer that was competing to find a substitute for ivory in billiard balls to win a $10,000 prize offered by Phelan and Collender. Although Hyatt didn’t find a substitute for billiard balls, he did make a very important discovery. He invented Celluloid, a chemically treated natural base plastic, which was the first of its kind in 1863. Hyatt mixed together collodion and camphor and this mixture yielded Celluloid.

Celluloid was too brittle for use in billiard balls but was used in ladies’ combs and gentlemen’s collars. Celluloid was later introduced to Eastman Kodak Company as a photographic film-base in 1884. In 1907, Leo Baekeland, a Belgian chemist who worked in New York City, created the world’s first synthetic, or made-to-order plastic. Baekeland was looking for substitutes for shellac, a sticky substance that is created by the Laccifer at a much slower rate than was needed. One pound of natural shellac could be produced in six months using approximately 150,000 Laccifer.

Baekeland created a polymer that was superior to shellac. He mixed phenol and formaldehyde, smelly derivatives of coal, and created a plastic called Bakelite, which was named after him. (Young 2000). Hermann Staudinger correctly explained the molecular makeup of polymers in 1920. Staudinger was a German chemist that made himself famous when he formed the macromolecular theory. This theory allowed chemists and scientists to invent new ways to make plastics as well as tailor them for specific uses.

Fourteen years after the macromolecular theory was put forth E.W. Fawcett, R.O. Gibson and co-workers polymerized low-density polyethylene for the first time.