- Trademark of:
- phenol-formaldehyde resin
- Key People:
- Leo Baekeland
- Related Topics:
- phenol-formaldehyde resin
Bakelite
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What is Bakelite?
Bakelite is a synthetic resin invented in 1907 by Leo Hendrik Baekeland. It is a hard, chemically resistant plastic made from phenol and formaldehyde. Bakelite was the first truly synthetic resin, a significant improvement over earlier plastics based on modified natural materials. Because of its excellent insulation, Bakelite was the first commercially produced synthetic resin, replacing shellac and hard rubber in the electric power industry and home appliances. In the 1920s, it was used in radios and automobiles. In the 1930s, it was used in colorful costume jewelry and novelties.
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Who invented Bakelite and when?
Leo Hendrik Baekeland, a Belgian-American chemist, invented Bakelite in 1907. Bakelite is a synthetic resin made from a chemical combination of phenol and formaldehyde.
Bakelite was the first commercially produced synthetic resin because of its excellent insulation properties. It replaced shellac and hard rubber in electrical parts and home appliances. By 1910, Baekeland had a semi-commercial production operation in his laboratory, and by 1911, his General Bakelite company began operations.
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How is Bakelite made?
Bakelite is a synthetic resin invented in 1907 by Leo Hendrik Baekeland. It is created through a chemical reaction between phenol and formaldehyde, two compounds derived from coal tar and wood alcohol.
To make Bakelite, formaldehyde reacts with either an excess of phenol using an acid catalyst or with an excess of formaldehyde using a base catalyst. The resulting polymer is a complex, thermosetting network polymer.
Bakelite was the first commercial synthetic resin, notable for its hardness, chemical resistance and insulating properties.
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What are the main properties of Bakelite?
Bakelite is a synthetic resin invented in 1907 by Leo Hendrik Baekeland. It is a hard, chemically resistant plastic made from phenol and formaldehyde. Because of its excellent insulating properties, Bakelite replaced shellac and hard rubber in the electric power industry and home appliances. In the 1920s, it was used in radio knobs, dials, circuitry panels, and cabinets and in automobile electrical systems. In the 1930s, cast Bakelite was used in colorful costume jewelry and novelties. Bakelite products are almost always opaque and dark-colored because of the inclusion of fillers and reinforcement.
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What was Bakelite used for in the past?
Bakelite, created in 1907 by Leo Hendrik Baekeland, was the first synthetic resin, marking a leap from earlier plastics derived from modified natural materials.
Bakelite's insulating properties led to its early adoption in the electric power industry and home appliances, replacing materials like shellac and hard rubber. During the 1920s, it was used for radio components such as knobs, dials, and circuitry panels, and in automobile electrical systems. In the 1930s, Bakelite gained popularity in colorful costume jewelry and novelties.
The expiration of the Bakelite patent in 1927 brought competition from other resins and thermoplastics that offered a wider array of colors and clarity. Today, Bakelite is still used in items like dominoes and chess pieces.
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Why was Bakelite important in the history of plastics?
Bakelite was a pivotal invention by Leo Hendrik Baekeland in 1907, marking the true beginning of the modern plastics industry. It was the first synthetic resin, a significant leap from plastics based on modified natural materials. Its creation involved a combination of phenol and formaldehyde, derived from coal tar and wood alcohol.
Bakelite's importance stemmed from its chemical resistance, infusibility, hardness, and excellent insulating properties, leading to its use in the electric power industry and home appliances, replacing materials like shellac and hard rubber. By 1910, Baekeland had established a semi-commercial production operation, and in 1911, General Bakelite began operations. The plastic found acceptance because it could be made insoluble and infusible, unlike the highly flammable celluloid that dominated the market.
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Bakelite, trademarked synthetic resin invented in 1907 by Belgian-born American chemist Leo Hendrik Baekeland. A hard, infusible, and chemically resistant plastic, Bakelite was based on a chemical combination of phenol and formaldehyde (phenol-formaldehyde resin), two compounds that were derived from coal tar and wood alcohol (methanol), respectively, at that time. This made it the first truly synthetic resin, representing a significant advance over earlier plastics that were based on modified natural materials. Because of its excellent insulating properties, Bakelite was also the first commercially produced synthetic resin, replacing shellac and hard rubber in parts for the electric power industry as well as in home appliances. In the 1920s it was widely used in knobs, dials, circuitry panels, and even cabinets for radios, and it was also employed in the electrical systems of automobiles. In the 1930s cast Bakelite, along with many other competing phenolic resins, enjoyed a vogue in colourful costume jewelry and novelties.
The beginning of the modern plastics industry is often dated to Baekeland’s first patent application in 1907 and to the founding of his General Bakelite Company in 1910. Experiments with phenolic resins had actually preceded Baekeland’s work, beginning in 1872 with the work of German chemist Adolf von Baeyer, but these trials had succeeded only in producing viscous liquids or brittle solids of no apparent value. It was Baekeland who succeeded in controlling the phenol-formaldehyde condensation reaction to produce the first synthetic resin. Baekeland was able to stop the reaction while the resin was still in a liquid state, which he called the A stage. The A resin (resol) could be made directly into a usable plastic, or it could be brought to a solid B stage (resitol) in which, though almost infusible and insoluble, it could still be ground into powder and then softened by heat to a final shape in a mold. Both stages A and B could be brought to a completely cured thermoset C stage (Bakelite C, or true Bakelite) by being heated under pressure.
In 1909 Baekeland made the first public announcement of his invention, in a lecture before the New York section of the American Chemical Society. By 1910 Baekland had a semicommercial production operation established in his laboratory, and in 1911 General Bakelite began operations in Perth Amboy, N.J., U.S. In a plastics market virtually monopolized by celluloid, a highly flammable material that dissolved readily and softened with heat, Bakelite found ready acceptance because it could be made insoluble and infusible. Moreover, the resin would tolerate considerable amounts of inert ingredients and therefore could be modified through the incorporation of various fillers. For general molded parts, wood flour was preferred, but, where heat resistance, impact strength, or electrical properties were involved, other fillers such as cotton flock, asbestos, and chopped fabric were used. For the making of laminated structures, sheets of paper or fabric were impregnated with the resin in an alcohol solution and then heated under pressure to form tough, rigid assemblies. Owing to the inclusion of fillers and reinforcement, Bakelite products were almost always opaque and dark-coloured.
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In 1927 the Bakelite patent expired. In the growing consumer market of the 1930s and after, Bakelite faced competition from other thermosetting resins such as urea formaldehyde and melamine formaldehyde and from new thermoplastic resins such as cellulose acetate, polyvinyl chloride, polymethyl methacrylate, and polystyrene. These new plastics could be used to produce household products in virtually any hue and in varying degrees of clarity. In 1939 Baekeland sold the Bakelite trademark to the Union Carbide and Carbon Corporation (now Union Carbide Corporation). Union Carbide sold the trademark in 1992 to the Georgia-Pacific Corporation, which employed Bakelite as a bonding agent for plywood and particleboard. Bakelite is still commonly used for dominoes, mah-jongg tiles, checkers, and chess pieces.