As early as 1872, German chemist Adolf von Baer discovered that there were some stubborn residues at the bottom of the glass tube after the reaction between phenol and formaldehyde. However, Bayer's eyes are on synthetic dyes, not insulating materials. For him, this sticky insoluble substance is a dead end. For Baekeland and others, this kind of thing is a bright road sign. Starting from 1904, Baekeland began to study this reaction. Initially, a kind of liquid phenol-formaldehyde shellac was obtained, which was called novolak, but the market was not successful. Three years later, he got a paste-like sticky substance, which became a translucent hard plastic-phenolic plastic after molding.
The widespread use of plastic products has brought people a lot of convenience and great wealth, but plastic waste has also brought people a lot of trouble and even brought people disaster.
At present, some countries regard degradable plastics as the fourth important application material after metal materials, inorganic materials and polymer materials, which has become the focus of research and development in developed countries. Especially in recent years, biodegradable plastics have developed rapidly in the world. Its products have been widely used in packaging field. But at present, no enterprise in the world can provide an effective, durable and market-acceptable degradable plastic. Only the United States, Britain, Italy and Japan can produce completely degradable plastics to monopolize the international market of billions of dollars. There are four major brands of biodegradable plastics in the world: NOVON in the United States, Mater-Bi in Italy, BLOPODT in Britain and BLONLE in Japan. Only Mater-Bi in Italy has truly formed industrial production. There are still some shortcomings in the product, and the price of the product is as high as more than 7000 US dollars/ton, so it is difficult to popularize and apply it on a large scale.
On June 1 2008, China implemented the "Plastic Restriction Order", prohibiting the use of ultra-thin plastic bags and providing plastic bags free of charge.
China uses 3 billion plastic bags every day, and the annual waste is more than 300 tons. The degradation needs 100~200 years.
In the objective world, it is difficult to find a purely inorganic environment. Even in soil, there are a lot of organic substances, such as amino acids and humus. There are many kinds of organic synthetic materials. Plastic, synthetic fiber and synthetic rubber are what we usually call the three major synthetic materials. Mainly refers to the synthesis of macromolecular polymers by chemical synthesis from small molecular organic substances such as olefins. Many things people use now are organic synthetic materials. For example, many glasses are made of plexiglass. Of course, the windows and tires on the car are plastic bags used in life, the chassis on the induction cooker and so on. It can be said that organic synthetic materials can replace the high temperature resistance of some metals in many aspects. Synthetic fiber and rubber are important organic synthetic materials. The appearance of organic synthetic materials is a supplement to natural resources, and chemistry plays an important role in the development of organic synthetic materials. New organic synthetic materials will surely create a better future for mankind. The use of organic synthetic materials will have an impact on the environment, such as "white pollution". Materials made of organic polymer compounds are organic polymer materials.
The difference is that celluloid comes from chemically treated collodion and other plant materials containing cellulose, while phenolic plastic is the first completely synthetic plastic in the world. Baekeland named it "Bakelite" after himself. Fortunately, his British colleague Sir James Swinburne filed a patent application only one day later, otherwise the English name of phenolic plastic might be "Swinburnet". 1909 On February 8th, Baekeland disclosed the plastic at a meeting of the American Chemical Society.
Phenolic plastics are insulating, stable, heat-resistant, corrosion-resistant and nonflammable. Baekeland claims to be a "multi-purpose material". Especially in the rapidly developing automobile, radio and electric power industries, it is made into plugs, sockets, radio and telephone housings, propellers, valves, gears and pipes. At home, it appears on billiards, handles, buttons, knife handles, desktops, pipes, thermos bottles, electric thermos bottles, pens and artificial jewelry. This is alchemy in the 20th century. From cheap products such as coal tar, materials with such a wide range of uses can be obtained. A cover story of Time Magazine 1924 said: People familiar with the potential of phenolic plastics say that it will appear in every kind of mechanical equipment in modern civilization in a few years. On May 20th, 1940, Time magazine called Baekeland "the father of plastics". Of course, phenolic plastics also have disadvantages. It will become dark after heating, with only three colors: brown, black or dark green, which are easy to break.
19 10, Baekeland established the General Phenolic Plastics Company, and started production in its factory in New Jersey. Soon there were competitors, especially Redmanol and Condensite, two solid plastics. Edison tried to control the market by making records with them, but failed. The appearance of counterfeit phenolic plastics also made Baekeland adopt genuine labels similar to today's "Intel Inside" on its products very early. 1926 patent protection expired, and a large number of similar products flooded into the market. After negotiation, Baekeland merged with its rivals and owned a real phenolic empire.
As a scientist, Baekeland is famous for his fame and fortune. He holds more than 65,438+000 patents and many honorary positions. He was also in the Science and Business Hall of Fame after his death. He not only has the business acumen that scientists rarely have, but also has too many dull lives. Besides movies and cars, his biggest hobby is hanging out on yachts in shirts and shorts. But it is said that he only has a formal suit and always wears a pair of old sports shoes. In order to make him change his clothes, the artist's wife picked out a British blue twill serge suit worth 125 in the clothing store and paid the shopkeeper 100 in advance to display the suit in the window and hang a $25 label. That night, Baekeland learned from his wife and son that such a good thing was cheap and good, and bought it the next day. On my way home, I met Samuel Antmeyer, a neighbor and lawyer. Baekeland's new clothes were immediately bought by the other party for 75 dollars, which became an example of his pride in his shrewdness towards his wife.
1939, when Baekeland retired, his son George Washington Baekeland had no intention of going to the sea to do business, and the company sold it to Union Carbide Company for1650,000 US dollars (equivalent to 200 million US dollars today). 1945, one year after Baekeland's death, the annual output of plastics in the United States exceeded 400,000 tons, 1979, surpassing the representative of the industrial age-steel. In this year's exhibition at the London Science Museum, Baekeland's great-grandson Xiu Calaque holds a 1930s urea-formaldehyde plastic mobile phone in one hand and a mobile phone made of biodegradable plastic in the other.