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In 1920 a company called DuPont purchased a French rayon company called Comptroller De Textiles Artificial for 4 million dollars. This was when DuPont began working with fabrics and other textiles. However in 1926 the director of the chemical department proposed to simply do research for the sake of finding new scientific facts and in 1 927 the proposal was approved. He then hired 25 of the top researchers to work for him, and began his research.
One of these researchers was Wallace H Caruthers, a young organic chemistry structure at Harvard University. Caruthers and his team began researching popularization, a subject of which not much was known at the time. They succeeded soon after when, In 1930, the team successfully produced the first polyester made of a dialectal and a diacritical acid. Unfortunately the polyester had a very low boiling point which would not have succeeded as a commercial fiber because of the inability to iron or wash the material.
Research was difficult over the next 4 years as It was difficult to find polyester that would not melt or dissolve easily, so Caruthers began looking Into polypeptides instead. On May CDC 1934 the decision bore fruit when the team created the flirts 1 OFF nylon. However It was very Doolittle to make so ten team Kept looking. Walton a year they had narrowed it down to two options but eventually decided on polynomial 6, 6. This was the very first commercial nylon.
Chemical Structure of Nylon Nylon 6, 6 is a polynomial made from hexamethylenediamine and adapts acid. It has a very high melting point so that it can be washed and ironed with ease. Nylon 6, 6 is also a very resistant material due to its hydrogen bonding, so there are no runs in omen’s stockings. Because of its chemical characteristics nylon 6, 6 was a dream come true for women which was the reason for the polymers initial success. Social Impact Nylon is easy to make without having to import materials so it became a much wanted thing for women to wear.
On the very first day of sales, as many as 72 000 pairs of nylons were sold, and in only a year 64 million pairs were sold to women. However nylon quickly became more than Just women’s clothing. It became an integral component in tires, tents, rope, toothbrushes and many more commonly seed items. Without nylon, the research into polymers would never have been done, and several important aspects of today’s society would not be present.
A Tragic End Wallace Caruthers was born in Iowa and studied accounting before studying science while teaching accounting. He received his Masters and his PhD at the University of Illinois before becoming an organic chemistry professor at Harvard University. In 1928 Caruthers began working at DuPont science department and spearheaded the research of polymers, with his most famous invention being nylon, UT despite his success Caruthers was a severe manic depressive.
A DuPont researcher claimed that Caruthers could even list every famous scientist who committed suicide. In April 1937, Caruthers committed suicide himself and became a member of his own list.