The birth of the polymer age
Mike Sutton unravels Hermann Staudinger’s long hunt to understand macromolecules, which began 100 years ago
100 years ago, the German chemist Hermann Staudinger boldly proposed that many of these problematic substances were genuine compounds, composed of extremely large molecules.
Most of his contemporaries disagreed, arguing that what Staudinger called ‘macromolecules’ were merely loosely linked aggregates of smaller molecules. But eventually his view prevailed, and he received the Nobel chemistry award for 1953. The very next year, polypropylene was added to the list of commercially available polymers, joining polyethylene, polystyrene and polyvinyl chloride. In 2015 alone, some quarter of a billion tonnes of these four polymers were produced.
In the century since Staudinger first presented his ideas to a sceptical audience, macromolecules and the products made from them have become a part of everyday life for everyone around the world. They remain a wonder material for some, but a worry for others.