Technology-Push, Search for Market

Now that we have a technology to make a family of interesting materials, after this material has been used successfully for one product, how do we find more applications in other fields for this material  

Botulin, which is produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum, is among the most powerful poisons and can cause death in a very small dose of 0.0003 (xg/kg. It acts by paralyzing the muscles, so that breathing stops. In recent years, it was discovered that it can also be used to paralyze the muscles that cause skin wrinkles, and so has found use in the facial cosmetics industry for improving the appearances of aged people. 

The conservative Scottish textile manufacturers were slow to adapt to this new dye, and the leadership of innovation went to French textile manufacturers by default. When Empress Eugenie of France wore mauve in public, it impressed Queen Victoria to wear mauve at her daughter s wedding, so there was a wave of enthusiasm for synthetic dye. Perkin became very successful in commerce, and gave up business for chemistry research later in life. Fie was knighted in 1906, at the 50-year anniversary of his discovery, and died in 1907. Mauve had a short commercial life, as its early success led to further experimentations that produced many better dyes, particularly in Germany. This marked the beginning of the synthetic dye industry, which was the first modern chemical industry. 

Carothers decided to concentrate on the development of polyamides, as silk is also a polyamide (Houshell and Smith 1988). The best polymer should have a high enough melting point to be washed and ironed, but not too high to allow the polymer to be drawn and spun before it would decompose. The raw materials adipic acid and hexame-thylenediamine could be produced from benzene, which was plentiful, so it was the 6,6 -polyamide (nylon-66) that first went into production in 1939. Carothers committed 

The next stage of development went to polymer chemists and development engineers, as the expertise of Roy Plunkett was really in fluorine chemistry. The first great application was in the separation of the isotope U-235 from U-238 by gaseous diffusion of UFe to make atomic bombs, as the gas uranium hexafluoride was exceedingly corrosive and destroyed conventional gaskets and seals. PTFE was just what was needed to form the diffusion membrane, as it was not attacked by fluorine. When peace returned, PTFE registered the trademark of Teflon in 1944. 

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