Polymers, formaldehyde Early history

Some polymers are easier to foam than others. Indeed, it was not until methods were found to circumvent the inclusion of cells in the early history of the phenol formaldehyde polymer that it gained any commercial significance. The development of foamed phenolic resins only became important much later when a specific need arose to produce rigid foam with reduced flammability. This consideration also led to the development of polyisocya-nurate foams and carbodiimide foams. On the other hand, the polypropylene family of polymers, although having a tonnage far exceeding that of phenol formaldehyde resins, is... 

The early history of polymers is really the conversion of natural polymers into useful materials. Examples include the vulcanization of rubber (Goodyear, 1839), celluloid (which is plasticized cellulose nitrate—Hyatt, 1868), and cellulose-derived fibres, e.g. cuprammonia rayon (Despeisses, 1890) and viscose rayon (Cross, Bevan and Beadle, 1892). The first truly synthetic polymer, that is, one made from laboratory chemicals, was Bakelite (Bakeland, 1907). This was made from phenol and formaldehyde. Bakeland probably did not know the chemical structure of the Bakelite, but he did realize that organic chemicals containing multiple functionality yielded insoluble materials. The various phenol-formaldehyde resins (PF), e.g. Bakelite and novolacs, were thus obtained in an empirical manner. 

The use of fillers in pol3uners has been going on for years. In the early history of filled pol5oners, fillers were added to the polymers rather empirically. Woodflour was one of the first fillers used in thermosetting phenol-formaldehyde resins because the combination was found to be valuable in enhancing certain properties whereas the addition of some other finely divided material to such resins conferred no benefit at all and hence was never done. The presence of the woodflour increased... 

The history of synthetic polymers is incredibly short. The term polymer was introduced in 1832. The first synthetic polymer (phenol-formaldehyde) was commercialized as Bakelite in 1909, while the first thermoplastic (polystyrene, Trolitul ), 6 years later. The early polymer industry was developed by entrepreneurs that had little if any technical background. The commercial successes (and... 

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