The history of polymer goes several
hundred years ago. The natural rubber is a good example for that. It was found
that the ancient Mayan civilization had used natural rubber. Other natural
polymers such as amber, tortoiseshell and horn etc, also were used in ancient
civilizations. In 1844 Charles Goodyear was discovered the vulcanizing
natural rubber with sulfur and heat.
In 1862, a
Briton Alexander Parkes was exhibited the first plastic in the world which is
early called Parkesine and then Xylonite. It was used in applications like ornaments,
handles, boxes cuffs and collars etc. Hyatt brothers from America were
developed Celluloid in 1870 using nitrate and cellulose mixture. That was used
for dental plates for artificial teeth.
Polymers can be divided as natural and synthetic. In 1907 Leo Baekeland
invented the first synthetic polymer, a thermosetting phenol-formaldehyde resin
called Bakelite. It was used in different applications than other types.
Hermann Staudinger a German chemist was published a new polymer theory in 1922
as polymers are made from chains of thousands of molecules linked together. PVC
was invented in 1914, but its mass productions were started in 1927. Some other
popular polymer types were discovered as follows, Polystyrene in 1930, Nylon in
1938, polyethylene in 1941, Kevlar in 1971 etc. Like this polymers are
developed up to now.
Now there are
different polymer types, different processing techniques and different
applications also.
