{"id":10842,"date":"2018-03-27T16:57:06","date_gmt":"2018-03-27T14:57:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/plastics-the-first-synthetic-plastic-in-history\/"},"modified":"2025-03-13T17:24:19","modified_gmt":"2025-03-13T16:24:19","slug":"plastics-the-first-synthetic-plastic-in-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/plastics-the-first-synthetic-plastic-in-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Plastics-the first synthetic plastic in history"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><span class=\"fs13\">Back in 1909, Belgian-American chemist <strong>Leo Baekeland<\/strong> made a discovery for which he is still considered one of the most influential scientists in history: <strong>the discovery of Bakelite, the first thermosetting plastic material!<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span class=\"fs13\">Studying two petroleum derivatives, phenol and the formeldehyde, he invented a material that, when heated and subjected to pressure, could polymerize and remain in a well-defined form that was difficult to change by thermal induction.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span class=\"fs13\"> <\/span><\/div>\n<div><span class=\"fs13\">The main features of this <strong>first thermoset material<\/strong> include:<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span class=\"fs10\"> <\/span><\/div>\n<div><span class=\"fs13\">&#8211; Material hardness<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span class=\"fs13\">&#8211; Solvent resistance<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span class=\"fs13\">&#8211; Ease of processing<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span class=\"fs13\">&#8211; Versatility in fields of use: electromechanical and electrical sector (switches, sockets), design and furniture sector, automotive sector, etc etc.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span class=\"fs13\"> <\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span class=\"fs13\"> <\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><span class=\"fs13\">Leo Baekeland &#8211; Biography<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n<div><span class=\"fs10\"> <\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><span class=\"fs13\">The son of a shoemaker and a maid, Leo Baekeland became passionate about chemistry and physics early on, earning a PhD <em>maxima cum laude<\/em> at the sole age of 21 from the University of Ghent, Belgium. After marrying C\u00e9line Swarts in 1889, he moved to America. <\/span><\/div>\n<div><span class=\"fs10\"> <\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><span class=\"fs13\">In 1905 he began researching a synthetic alternative for shellac, a natural resin created from the excretion of a female insect, and invented <strong>Bakelite<\/strong>, the first synthetic plastic material in history.<\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><span class=\"fs13\">Time magazine ranked him among the 100 greatest figures of the 20th century precisely because of his great discovery.<\/span><\/div>\n<div id=\"s3gt_translate_tooltip_mini\" class=\"s3gt_translate_tooltip_mini_box\" style=\"background: initial !important; border: initial !important; border-radius: initial !important; border-spacing: initial !important; border-collapse: initial !important; direction: ltr !important; flex-direction: initial !important; font-weight: initial !important; height: initial !important; letter-spacing: initial !important; min-width: initial !important; max-width: initial !important; min-height: initial !important; max-height: initial !important; margin: auto !important; outline: initial !important; padding: initial !important; position: absolute; table-layout: initial !important; text-align: initial !important; text-shadow: initial !important; width: initial !important; word-break: initial !important; word-spacing: initial !important; overflow-wrap: initial !important; box-sizing: initial !important; display: initial !important; color: inherit !important; font-size: 13px !important; font-family: X-LocaleSpecific, sans-serif, Tahoma, Helvetica !important; line-height: 13px !important; vertical-align: top !important; white-space: inherit !important; left: 10px; top: 493px; opacity: 0.5;\">\n<div id=\"s3gt_translate_tooltip_mini_logo\" class=\"s3gt_translate_tooltip_mini\" title=\"Translate selected text\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"s3gt_translate_tooltip_mini_sound\" class=\"s3gt_translate_tooltip_mini\" title=\"Pronunciation\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"s3gt_translate_tooltip_mini_copy\" class=\"s3gt_translate_tooltip_mini\" title=\"Copy the text to the clipboard\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Back in 1909, Belgian-American chemist Leo Baekeland made a discovery for which he is still considered one of the most influential scientists in history: the discovery of Bakelite, the first thermosetting plastic material! Studying two petroleum derivatives, phenol and the formeldehyde, he invented a material that, when heated and subjected to pressure, could polymerize and&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/plastics-the-first-synthetic-plastic-in-history\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Plastics-the first synthetic plastic in history<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10603,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101,143],"tags":[152,112,123],"class_list":["post-10842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insights","category-insightsold","tag-concise","tag-plastic-en","tag-thermosetting-en-2","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Plastics-the first synthetic plastic in history - Ansa Compositi<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Way back in 1909, Belgian-American chemist Leo Baekeland made a discovery for which he is still considered one of the most influential scientists in history: the discovery of bakelite, the first thermosetting plastic material! By studying two petroleum derivatives, phenol and the formeldehyde, he invented a material\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/plastics-the-first-synthetic-plastic-in-history\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Plastics-the first synthetic plastic in history - Ansa Compositi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Way back in 1909, Belgian-American chemist Leo Baekeland made a discovery for which he is still considered one of the most influential scientists in history: the discovery of bakelite, the first thermosetting plastic material! By studying two petroleum derivatives, phenol and the formeldehyde, he invented a material\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/plastics-the-first-synthetic-plastic-in-history\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Ansa Compositi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/messADV\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-03-27T14:57:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-03-13T16:24:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Materie-plastiche-la-prima-plastica-sintetica-della-storia_770x385.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"770\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"385\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/plastics-the-first-synthetic-plastic-in-history\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/plastics-the-first-synthetic-plastic-in-history\/\",\"name\":\"Plastics-the first synthetic plastic in history - Ansa Compositi\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/plastics-the-first-synthetic-plastic-in-history\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/plastics-the-first-synthetic-plastic-in-history\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Materie-plastiche-la-prima-plastica-sintetica-della-storia_770x385.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-03-27T14:57:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-03-13T16:24:19+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/3ca0ed03cfd9657552b6687deb22ca05\"},\"description\":\"Way back in 1909, Belgian-American chemist Leo Baekeland made a discovery for which he is still considered one of the most influential scientists in history: the discovery of bakelite, the first thermosetting plastic material! By studying two petroleum derivatives, phenol and the formeldehyde, he invented a material\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/plastics-the-first-synthetic-plastic-in-history\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/plastics-the-first-synthetic-plastic-in-history\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/plastics-the-first-synthetic-plastic-in-history\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Materie-plastiche-la-prima-plastica-sintetica-della-storia_770x385.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Materie-plastiche-la-prima-plastica-sintetica-della-storia_770x385.jpg\",\"width\":770,\"height\":385},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/plastics-the-first-synthetic-plastic-in-history\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Plastics-the first synthetic plastic in history\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/\",\"name\":\"Ansa Compositi\",\"description\":\"The best Partner to shape your ideas\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/3ca0ed03cfd9657552b6687deb22ca05\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/79d32075e0ed3eec2a6c9a8aebe7bfb2?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/79d32075e0ed3eec2a6c9a8aebe7bfb2?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/author\/admin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Plastics-the first synthetic plastic in history - Ansa Compositi","description":"Way back in 1909, Belgian-American chemist Leo Baekeland made a discovery for which he is still considered one of the most influential scientists in history: the discovery of bakelite, the first thermosetting plastic material! By studying two petroleum derivatives, phenol and the formeldehyde, he invented a material","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/plastics-the-first-synthetic-plastic-in-history\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Plastics-the first synthetic plastic in history - Ansa Compositi","og_description":"Way back in 1909, Belgian-American chemist Leo Baekeland made a discovery for which he is still considered one of the most influential scientists in history: the discovery of bakelite, the first thermosetting plastic material! By studying two petroleum derivatives, phenol and the formeldehyde, he invented a material","og_url":"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/plastics-the-first-synthetic-plastic-in-history\/","og_site_name":"Ansa Compositi","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/messADV\/","article_published_time":"2018-03-27T14:57:06+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-03-13T16:24:19+00:00","og_image":[{"width":770,"height":385,"url":"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Materie-plastiche-la-prima-plastica-sintetica-della-storia_770x385.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/plastics-the-first-synthetic-plastic-in-history\/","url":"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/plastics-the-first-synthetic-plastic-in-history\/","name":"Plastics-the first synthetic plastic in history - Ansa Compositi","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/plastics-the-first-synthetic-plastic-in-history\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/plastics-the-first-synthetic-plastic-in-history\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Materie-plastiche-la-prima-plastica-sintetica-della-storia_770x385.jpg","datePublished":"2018-03-27T14:57:06+00:00","dateModified":"2025-03-13T16:24:19+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/3ca0ed03cfd9657552b6687deb22ca05"},"description":"Way back in 1909, Belgian-American chemist Leo Baekeland made a discovery for which he is still considered one of the most influential scientists in history: the discovery of bakelite, the first thermosetting plastic material! By studying two petroleum derivatives, phenol and the formeldehyde, he invented a material","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/plastics-the-first-synthetic-plastic-in-history\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/plastics-the-first-synthetic-plastic-in-history\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/plastics-the-first-synthetic-plastic-in-history\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Materie-plastiche-la-prima-plastica-sintetica-della-storia_770x385.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Materie-plastiche-la-prima-plastica-sintetica-della-storia_770x385.jpg","width":770,"height":385},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/plastics-the-first-synthetic-plastic-in-history\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Plastics-the first synthetic plastic in history"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/","name":"Ansa Compositi","description":"The best Partner to shape your ideas","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/3ca0ed03cfd9657552b6687deb22ca05","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/79d32075e0ed3eec2a6c9a8aebe7bfb2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/79d32075e0ed3eec2a6c9a8aebe7bfb2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"url":"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10842"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10844,"href":"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10842\/revisions\/10844"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.compositi.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}