is renaissance coming for the first-ever synthetic polymer?
Paul Ashford Caleb Management Services Ltd. Regulatory and marketing advisors to the Global Phenolic Resins Association (GPRA) An enviable past In recent days, the phenolic resins community has celebrated the fact that, a hundred years ago in 1907, Belgian national, Leo Hendrik Baekeland discovered the societal value of reacting phenol with formaldehyde to form a phenolic resin. The event was marked during September by a symposium organised by the University of Ghent which was the place where Baekeland completed his doctorate and taught for several years. The present phenolic resins industry was well represented, with the symposium itself being partially sponsored by both the European Phenolic Resins Association (EPRA) and the Global Phenolic Resins Association (GPRA). However, what has become of the technology which Baekeland had invented after he sold it to Union Carbide on his retirement in 1938? This article seeks to explore that question and highlight where phenolic resins might b
