In past Newsletters we have often referred to the relationship between molecular structure and
how it influences the properties of the polymer. The development of plastics has sometimes been
one of accidents and fortuitous mistakes. Fawcett and Gibson at Imperial Chemicals Industries
(ICI) Australia discovered polyethylene in 1931 after they noticed a small amount of a waxy solid
produced during their high-pressure gas experiments with ethylene. This substance was later
isolated to produce polyethylene and one of the great commodity polymers was “invented”.
Similarly, PTFE was discovered by mistake in 1938 when Roy Plunkett at DuPont noticed that a
supposedly full cylinder of tetrafluoroethylene appeared to have nothing in it. When the cylinder
was cut open, a white residue (polytetrafluoroethylene) was found on the inside of the cylinder
and PTFE was born.