What is Polyethylene?
When Hogan and Banks first created a reaction between ethylene and benzaldehyde using two thousand atmospheres of internal pressure, their experiment went askew when all the pressure escaped due to a leak in the testing container. On opening the tube they were stunned to find a white waxy substance that looked a lot like some form of plastic. After repeating the experiment, they discovered that the loss of pressure was not due to a leak at all, but was a result of the polymerization process. The residue polyethylene (PE) resin was a milky white, translucent substance derived from ethylene (CH2=CH2). Polyethylene was produced with either a low or high density.
Polyethylene is a plastic polymer extensively used as packaging foam. It is a tough, resilient lightweight closed cell foam material commonly used for the cushioning of relatively high value and moderately fragile items. It is available in a wide range of densities and colors. It has high tensile and tear strength so that it withstands long periods of heavy use. Depending on it’s density it is generally very rigid, with less give in it then flexible polyurethane. It is a very strong and resilient cushioning material that is not damaged by initial impacts and recovers to maintain protection against repeated shocks. It can be cut into pads or blocks or custom die-cut to fit specific shapes.
Polyethylene is a type of polymer that is classified as a thermoplastic, meaning that it can be melted to a liquid and remolded as it returns to a solid state. As the name implies, polyethylene is chemically synthesized from molecules that contain long chains of ethylene, a monomer that provides the ability to double bond with other carbon-based monomers to form polymers. Polyethylene is known by other, non-official names, such as polythene in the United Kingdom. In addition, it is sometimes spelled as polyethylyne, or abbreviated to simply PE. The first laboratory creation of polyethylene occurred in 1898 by accident at the hands of Hans von Pechmann while applying heat to another compound the German chemist previously discovered — diazomethane. Ironically, the synthesis of polyethylene via extreme heat and pressure in an industrial setting was again made by accident, but 35 years later. A few years later, another chemist employed by the same England-based chemical company devised a m
The first industrially practical polyethylene synthesis was discovered (again by accident) by Eric Fawcett and Reginald Gibson at ICI Chemicals in 1933. Upon applying extremely high pressure (several hundred atmospheres) to a mixture of ethylene and benzaldehyde, they again produced a white waxy material. Since the reaction had been initiated by trace oxygen contamination in their apparatus, the experiment was at first difficult to reproduce. It was not until 1935 that another ICI chemist, Michael Perrin, developed this accident into a reproducible high-pressure synthesis for polyethylene that became the basis for industrial LDPE production beginning in 1939. Subsequent landmarks in polyethylene synthesis have centered around the development of several types of catalyst that promote ethylene polymerization at more mild temperatures and pressures. The first of these was a chromium trioxide based catalyst discovered in 1951 by Robert Banks and John Hogan at Phillips Petroleum. In 1953, t
