Waldo Lionsbury Semon - Pioneer in PVC

Polj nyl chloride (PVC) has also been classified as a mature thermoplastic but its use also continues to increase. Over 9 billion pounds of PVC and related vinyl plastics were produced in the US in 1987. PVC is one of the few commercial plastics that contains more than 50 percent of nonhydrocarbon constituents. Vinyl chloride, like st5irene, remained a laboratory curiosity for a almost a century before it was introduced as a commercial product. 

Regnault who synthesized vinyl chloride in 1835 was considered by Liebig to be one of the most talented students at Ecole Polytechnic in Paris. Regnault s synthesis, which was used commercially a century later, was based on the dehydrochlorination of the oil of the Dutch chemists (Dieman, Trotswyck, Bondt and Laurverenburgh) which was first produced in 1795, by the addition of chlorine to olefiant gas . Kolbe used the term vinyl radical in 1854 and the term vinyl chloride was used without controversy in the 1860 s. 

In 1860, Hofman described the metamorphosis of vinyl bromide to pol3winyl bromide and Baumann repeated this conversion with vinyl chloride in 1872. However, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) was not patented until 1912, when Klatte used sunlight to initiate the polymerization of vinyl chloride. Klatte produced the monomer by the mercuric chloride catalyzed addition of HCl to acetylene. He also suggested the use of camphor and triphenyl phosphate as plasticizers for PVC. 

In 1926, Ostromislensky patented flexible film cast from a solution of PVC and a plasticizer, such as 

The first patent on a moldable plasticized PVC was granted to Wolfe of B.F. Goodrich in 1932, Nevertheless, the key patent which was responsible for the commercialization of PVC was granted to Semon in the same year. 

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