This page will contain blogs about Plastic, as they become available.PlasticPlastic is a term that covers a range of synthetic or semisynthetic polymerization products. They are composed of organic condensation or addition polymers and may contain other substances to improve performance or economics. There are few natural polymers generally considered to be "plastics". Plastics can be formed into objects or films or fibers. Their name is derived from the fact that many are malleable, having the property of plasticity. Plastics are designed with immense variation in properties such as heat tolerance, hardness, resiliency and many others. Combined with this adaptability, the general uniformity of composition and light weight of plastics ensures their use in almost all industrial segments. Plastic may also refer to any material characterized by deformation or failure under shear stress; see plasticity and ductility. Plastic can be classified in many ways but most commonly by their polymer backbone (polyvinyl chloride, polyethylene, acrylic, silicone, urethane, etc.). Other classifications include thermoplastic vs. thermoset, elastomer, engineering plastic, addition or condensation, and Glass transition temperature or Tg. Many plastics are partially crystalline and partially amorphous in molecular structure, giving them both a melting point (the temperature at which the covalent bonds dissolve) and one or more glass transitions (temperatures at which the degree of cross-linking is substantially reduced). Plastics are polymers: long chains of atoms bonded to one another. These chains are made up of many repeating molecular units, or "monomers". The vast majority of plastics are composed of polymers of carbon alone or with oxygen, nitrogen, chlorine or sulfur in the backbone. (Some of commercial interest are silicon based.) The backbone is that part of the chain on the main "path" linking the multitude of monomer units together. To customize the properties of a plastic, different molecular groups "hang" from the backbone (usually they are "hung" as part of the monomers before linking monomers together to form the polymer chain). This customization by pendant groups has allowed plastics to become such an indispensable part of twenty first-century life by fine tuning the properties of the polymer. People experimented with plastics based on natural polymers for centuries. In the nineteenth century the discovered plastics based on chemically modified natural polymers: Charles Goodyear discovered vulcanization of rubber (1839) and Alexander Parkes discovered cellulose-based plastics in 1860s. The first plastic based on a synthetic polymer was called Bakelite and was created by Leo Hendrik Baekeland in 1907. The development of plastics has come from the use of natural materials (e.g., chewing gum, shellac) to the use of chemically modified natural materials (e.g., natural rubber, nitrocellulose) and finally to completely manmade molecules (e.g., epoxy, polyvinyl chloride, polyethylene). Natural polymersPeople have been using natural organic polymers for centuries in the form of waxes and shellacs. A plant polymer named "cellulose" provides the structural strength for natural fibers and ropes, and by the early 19th century natural rubber, tapped from rubber trees, was widespread use. Eventually, inventors learned to improve the properties of natural polymers. Natural rubber was sensitive to temperature, becoming sticky and smelly in hot weather and brittle in cold weather. In 1834, two inventors, Friedrich Ludersdorf of Germany and Nathaniel Hayward of the U.S., independently discovered that adding sulfur to raw rubber helped prevent the material from becoming sticky. In 1839, the American inventor Charles Goodyear was experimenting with the sulfur treatment of natural rubber when, according to legend, he dropped a piece of sulfur-treated rubber on a stove. The rubber seemed to have improved properties; Goodyear followed up with further experiments, and developed a process known as "vulcanization" that involved cooking the rubber with sulfur. Compared to untreated natural rubber, Goodyear's "vulcanized rubber" was stronger, more resistant to abrasion, more elastic, much less sensitive to temperature, impermeable to gases, and highly resistant to chemicals and electric current. Vulcanization remains an important industrial process for the manufacture of rubber in both natural and artificial forms. Natural rubber is composed of an organic polymer named "isoprene". Vulcanization creates sulfur bonds that link separate isoprene polymers together, improving the material's structural integrity and its other properties. Cellulose-based plastics: celluloid and rayonAll Goodyear had done with vulcanization was improve the properties of a natural polymer. The next logical step was to use a natural polymer, cellulose, as the basis for a new material. Inventors were particularly interested in developing synthetic substitutes for those natural materials that were expensive and in short supply, since that meant a profitable market to exploit. Ivory was a particularly attractive target for a synthetic replacement. An Englishman from Birmingham named Alexander Parkes developed a "synthetic ivory" named "pyroxlin", which he marketed under the trade name "Parkesine", and which won a bronze medal at the 1862 World's fair in London. Parkesine was made from cellulose treated with nitric acid and a solvent. The output of the process hardened into a hard, ivory-like material that could be molded when heated. However, Parkes was not able to scale up the process to an industrial level, and products made from Parkesine quickly warped and cracked after a short period of use. An American printer and amateur inventor named John Wesley Hyatt took up where Parkes left off. Parkes had failed for lack of a proper softener, but Hyatt discovered that camphor would do the job very nicely. Hyatt was something of an industrial genius who understood what could be done with such a shapeable, or "plastic", material, and proceeded to design much of the basic industrial machinery needed to produce good-quality plastic materials in quantity. Since cellulose was the main constituent used in the synthesis of his new material, Hyatt named it "celluloid". It was introduced in 1863. One of the first products were dental pieces, and sets of false teeth built around celluloid proved cheaper than existing rubber dentures. However, celluloid dentures tended to soften when hot, making tea drinking tricky, and the camphor taste tended to be difficult to suppress. Celluloid's real breakthrough products were waterproof shirt collars, cuffs, and the false shirtfronts known as "dickies", whose unmanageable nature later became a stock joke in silent-movie comedies. They did not wilt and did not stain easily, and Hyatt sold them by trainloads. Corsets made with celluloid stays also proved popular, since perspiration did not rust the stays, as it would if they had been made of metal. Celluloid proved extremely versatile in its field of application, providing a cheap and attractive replacement for ivory, tortoiseshell, and bone, and traditional products that had used these materials were much easier to fabricate with plastics. Some of the items made with cellulose in the nineteenth century were beautifully designed and implemented. For example, celluloid combs made to tie up the long tresses of hair fashionable at the time are now jewellike museum pieces. Such pretty trinkets were no longer only for the rich. Celluloid could also be used in entirely new applications. Hyatt figured out how to fabricate the material in a strip format for movie film. By the year 1900, movie film was a major market for celluloid. However, celluloid still tended to yellow and crack over time, and it had another more dangerous defect: it burned very easily and spectacularly, unsurprising given that mixtures of nitric acid and cellulose are also used to synthesize smokeless powder. Ping-pong balls, one of the few products still made with celluloid, sizzle and burn if set on fire, and Hyatt liked to tell stories about celluloid billiard balls exploding when struck very hard. These stories might have had a basis in fact, since the billiard balls were often celluloid covered with paints based on another, even more flammable, nitrocellulose product known as "collodion". If the balls had been imperfectly manufactured, the paints might have acted as primer to set the rest of the ball off with a bang. Cellulose was also used to produce cloth. While the men who developed celluloid were interested in replacing ivory, those who developed the new fibers were interested in replacing another expensive material, silk. In 1884, a French chemist, the Comte de Chardonnay, introduced a cellulose-based fabric that became known as "Chardonnay silk". It was an attractive cloth, but like celluloid it was very flammable, a property completely unacceptable in clothing. After some ghastly accidents, Chardonnay silk was taken off the market. In 1894, three British inventors, Charles Cross, Edward Bevan, and Clayton Beadle, patented a new "artificial silk" or "art silk" that was much safer. The three men sold the rights for the new fabric to the French Courtauld company, a major manufacturer of silk, which put it into production in 1905, using cellulose from wood pulp as the "feedstock" material. Art silk became well known under the trade name "rayon", and was produced in great quantities through the 1930s, when it was supplanted by better artificial fabrics. It still remains in production today, often in blends with other natural and artificial fibers. It is cheap and feels smooth on the skin, though it is weak when wet and creases easily. It could also be produced in a transparent sheet form known as "cellophane". Bakelite (phenolic)The limitations of celluloid led to the next major advance, known as "phenolic" or "phenol-formaldehyde" plastics. A chemist named Leo Hendrik Baekeland, a Belgian-born American living in New York state, was searching for an insulating shellac to coat wires in electric motors and generators. Baekeland found that mixtures of phenol (C6H5OH) and formaldehyde (HCOH) formed a sticky mass when mixed together and heated, and the mass became extremely hard if allowed to cool and dry. He continued his investigations and found that the material could be mixed with wood flour, asbestos, or slate dust to create "composite" materials with different properties. Most of these compositions were strong and fire resistant. The only problem was that the material tended to foam during synthesis, and the resulting product was of unacceptable quality. Baekeland built pressure vessels to force out the bubbles and provide a smooth, uniform product. He publicly announced his discovery in 1909, naming it "bakelite". It was originally used for electrical and mechanical parts, finally coming into widespread use in consumer goods in the 1920s. When the Bakelite patent expired in 1927, the Catalin Corporation acquired the patent and began manufacturing Catalin plastic using a different process that allowed a wider range of coloring. Bakelite was the first true plastic. It was a purely synthetic material, not based on any material or even molecule found in nature. It was also the first "thermoset" plastic. Conventional "thermoplastics" can be molded and then melted again, but thermoset plastics form bonds between polymers strands when "cured", creating a tangled matrix that cannot be undone without destroying the plastic. Thermoset plastics are tough and temperature resistant. Bakelite was cheap, strong, and durable. It was molded into thousands of forms, such as radios, telephones, clocks, and, of course, billiard balls. The U.S. government even considered making one-cent coins out of it when World War II caused a copper shortage. Phenolic plastics have been largely replaced by cheaper and less brittle plastics, but they are still used in applications requiring its insulating and heat-resistant properties. For example, some electronic circuit boards are made of sheets of paper or cloth impregnated with phenolic resin. Polystyrene and PVCAfter the First World War, improvements in chemical technology led to an explosion in new forms of plastics. Among the earliest examples in the wave of new plastics were "polystyrene" (PS) and "polyvinyl chloride" (PVC), developed by IG Farben of Germany. Polystyrene is a rigid, brittle plastic that is now used to make plastic model kits, disposable eating utensils, and similar knickknacks. It would also be the basis for one of the most popular "foamed" plastics, under the name "styrene foam" or "Styrofoam". Foam plastics can be synthesized in an "open cell" form, in which the foam bubbles are interconnected, as in an absorbent sponge, and "closed cell", in which all the bubbles are distinct, like tiny balloons, as in gas-filled foam insulation and floatation devices. H H H H H H / | | | | C==C -> -- C -- C -- C -- C -- / | | | | H R R H R H styrene monomer polystyrene polymer (R is a phenyl (benzene) group) PVC has side chains incorporating chlorine atoms, which form strong bonds. PVC in its normal form is stiff, strong, heat and weather resistant, and is now used for making plumbing, gutters, house siding, enclosures for computers and other electronics gear. PVC can also be softened with chemical processing, and in this form it is now used for shrink-wrap, food packaging, and raingear. H H H H H H / | | | | C==C -> -- C -- C -- C -- C -- / | | | | H Cl H Cl H Cl vinyl chloride monomer polyvinyl chloride polymer NylonThe real star of the plastics industry in the 1930s was "polyamide" (PA), far better known by its trade name, "nylon". Nylon was the first purely synthetic fiber, introduced by Du Pont Corporation at the 1939 World's Fair in New York City. In 1927, Du Pont had begun a secret development project designated "Fiber66", under the direction of a Harvard chemists Wallace Carothers and Chemistry Department director E.K. Bolton. Carothers had been hired to perform pure research, and not only investigated new materials, but worked to understand their molecular structure and how it related to material properties. He took some of the first steps on the road to "molecular design" of materials. His work led to the discovery of synthetic nylon fiber, which was very strong but also very flexible. The first application was for bristles for toothbrushes. However, Du Pont's real target was silk, particularly silk stockings. General condensation polymerization reaction for nylonIt took Du Pont twelve years and US$27 million to refine nylon and develop the industrial processes for bulk manufacture. With such a major investment, it was no surprise that Du Pont spared little expense to promote nylon after its introduction, creating a public sensation, or "nylon mania". Nylon mania came to an abrupt stop at the end of 1941 when the USA entered World War II. The production capacity that had been built up to produce nylon stockings, or just "nylons", for American women was taken over to manufacture vast numbers of parachutes for fliers and paratroopers. After the war ended, Du Pont went back to selling nylon to the public, engaging in another promotional campaign in 1946 that resulted in an even bigger craze, triggering off "nylon riots". Nylon still remains an important plastic, and not just for use in fabrics. In its bulk form it is very wear resistant, and so is used to build gears, bearings, bushings, and other mechanical parts. Synthetic rubberAnother plastic that was critical to the war effort was "synthetic rubber", which was produced in a variety of forms. The first synthetic rubber polymer was obtained by Lebedev in 1910. Practical synthetic rubber grew out of studies published in 1930 written independently by American Wallace Carothers, Russian scientist Lebedev and the German scientist Hermann Staudinger. These studies led in 1931 to one of the first successful synthetic rubbers, known as "neoprene", which was developed at DuPont under the direction of E.K. Bolton. Neoprene is highly resistant to heat and chemicals such as oil and gasoline, and is used in fuel hoses and as an insulating material in machinery. In 1935, German chemists synthesized the first of a series of synthetic rubbers known as "Buna rubbers". These were "copolymers", meaning that their polymers were made up from not one but two monomers, in alternating sequence. One such Buna rubber, known as "GR-S" ("Government Rubber Styrene), is a copolymer of butadiene and styrene, became the basis for U.S. synthetic rubber production during World War II. Worldwide natural rubber supplies were limited, and by mid-1942 most of the rubber-producing regions were under Japanese control. Military trucks needed rubber for tires, and rubber was used in almost every other war machine. The U.S. government launched a major (and largely secret) effort to develop and refine synthetic rubber. A principal scientist involved with the effort was Edward Robbins. By 1944 a total of 50 factories were manufacturing it, pouring out a volume of the material twice that of the world's natural rubber production before the beginning of the war. After the war, natural rubber plantations no longer had a stranglehold on rubber supplies, particularly after chemists learned to synthesize isoprene. GR-S remains the primary synthetic rubber for the manufacture of tires. Synthetic rubber would also play an important part in the space race and nuclear arms race. Solid rockets used during World War II used nitrocellulose explosives for propellants, but it was impractical and dangerous to make such rockets very big. During the war, California Institute of Technology (Caltech) researchers came up with a new solid fuel, based on asphalt fuel mixed with an oxidizer, such as potassium or ammonium percholorate, plus aluminium powder, which burns very hot. This new solid fuel burned more slowly and evenly than nitrocellulose explosives, and was much less dangerous to store and use, though it tended to flow slowly out of the rocket in storage and the rockets using it had to be stockpiled nose down. After the war, the Caltech researchers began to investigate the use of synthetic rubbers instead of asphalt as the fuel in the mixture. By the mid-1950s, large missiles were being built using solid fuels based on synthetic rubber, mixed with ammonium perchlorate and high proportions of aluminium powder. Such solid fuels could be cast into large, uniform blocks that had no cracks or other defects that would cause nonuniform burning. Ultimately, all large military rockets and missiles would use synthetic rubber based solid fuels, and they would also play a significant part in the civilian space effort. Plastics explosion: acrylic, polyethylene, etc.Other plastics emerged in the prewar period, though some would not come into widespread use until after the war. By 1936, American, British, and German companies were producing polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), better known as "acrylic". Although acrylics are now well known for their use in paints and synthetic fibers, such as "fake furs", in their bulk form they are actually very hard and more transparent than glass, and are sold as glass replacements under trade names such as "Plexiglas" and "Lucite". Plexiglas was used to build aircraft canopies during the war, and it is also now used as a marble replacement for countertops. Another important plastic, "polyethylene" (PE), sometimes known as "polythene", was discovered in 1933 by Reginald Gibson and Eric Fawcett at the British industrial giant Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI). This material evolved into two forms, "low density polyethylene" (LDPE), and "high density polyethylene" (HDPE). H H H H H / | | | C==C -> -- C -- C -- C -- / | | | H H H H H ethylene monomer polyethylene polymer
Polyethylene would lead after the war to an improved material, "polypropylene" (PP), which was discovered in the early 1950s by Giulio Natta. It is common in modern science and technology that the growth of the general body of knowledge can lead to the same inventions in different places at about the same time, but polypropylene was an extreme case of this phenomenon, being separately invented about nine times. It was a patent attorney's dream scenario, and litigation was not resolved until 1989. Polypropylene managed to survive the legal process, and two American chemists working for Phillips Petroleum, J. Paul Hogan and Robert Banks, are now generally credited as the "official" inventors of the material. Polypropylene is similar to its ancestor, polyethylene, and shares polyethylene's low cost, but it is much more robust. It is used in everything from plastic bottles to carpets to plastic furniture, and is very heavily used in automobiles. CH3 H CH3 H CH3 H / | | | | C==C -> -- C -- C -- C -- C -- / | | | | H H H H H H propylene monomer polypropylene polymer
In 1939, IG Farben filed a patent for "polyepoxide" or "epoxy". Epoxies are a class of thermoset plastic that form cross-links and "cure" when a catalyzing agent, or "hardener", is added. After the war they would come into wide use for coatings, "adhesives", and composite materials. Composites using epoxy as a matrix include glass-reinforced plastic, where the structural element is glass fiber, and "carbon-epoxy composites", in which the structural element is carbon fiber. Fiberglass is now often used to build sport boats, and carbon-epoxy composites are an increasingly important structural element in aircraft, as they are lightweight, strong, and heat resistant. Two chemists named Rex Whinfield and James Dickson, working at a small English company with the quaint name of the "Calico Printer's Association" in Manchester, developed "polyethylene terephthalate" (PET or PETE) in 1941, and it would be used for synthetic fibers in the postwar era, with names such as "polyester", "dacron", and "terylene". PET is more impermeable than other low-cost plastics and so is a popular material for making bottles for Coca-Cola and other "fizzy drinks", since carbonation tends to attack other plastics, and for acidic drinks such as fruit or vegetable juices. PET is also strong and abrasion resistant, and is used for making mechanical parts, food trays, and other items that have to endure abuse. PET films, trade named "Mylar®", are used to make recording tape. One of the most impressive plastics used in the war, and a top secret, was "polytetrafluoroethylene" (PTFE), better known as "Teflon", which could be deposited on metal surfaces as a scratchproof and corrosion-resistant, low-friction protective coating. The polyfluoroethylene surface layer created by exposing a polyethylene container to fluorine gas is very similar to Teflon. A Du Pont chemist named Roy Plunkett discovered Teflon by accident in 1938. During the war, it was used in gaseous-diffusion processes to refine uranium for the atomic bomb, as the process was highly corrosive. By the early 1960s, Teflon "nonstick" frying pans were a hot consumer item. F F F F F / | | | C==C -> -- C -- C -- C -- / | | | F F F F F tetrafluoroethylene monomer teflon polymer
After the war, the new plastics that had been developed entered the consumer mainstream in a flood. New manufacturing were developed, using various forming, molding, casting, and extrusion processes, to churn out plastic products in vast quantities. American consumers enthusiastically adopted the endless range of colorful, cheap, and durable plastic gimmicks being produced for new suburban home life. One of the most visible parts of this plastics invasion was Earl Tupper's "Tupperware", a complete line of sealable polyethylene food containers that Tupper cleverly promoted through a network of housewives who sold Tupperware as a means of bringing in some money. The Tupperware line of products was well thought out and highly effective, greatly reducing spoilage of foods in storage. Thin-film "plastic wrap" that could be purchased in rolls also helped keep food fresh. Another prominent element in 1950s homes was "Formica®", a plastic laminate that was used to surface furniture and cabinetry. Formica was durable and attractive. It was particularly useful in kitchens, as it did not absorb, and could be easily cleaned of stains from food preparation, such as blood or grease. With Formica, a very attractive and well-built table could be built using low-cost and lightweight plywood with Formica covering, rather than expensive and heavy hardwoods like oak or mahogany. Composite materials like fiberglass came into use for building boats and, in some cases, cars. Polyurethane foam was used to fill mattresses, and Styrofoam was used to line ice coolers and make float toys. Plastics continue to be improved. General Electric introduced "lexan", a high-impact "polycarbonate" plastic, in the 1970s. Du Pont developed "Kevlar", an extremely strong synthetic fiber that was best known for its use in bullet-proof vests and combat helmets. Kevlar was so remarkable that Du Pont officials actually had to release statements to deny rumors that the company had received the recipe for it from space aliens. The environmentAlthough plastics have had a remarkable impact globally, it has become increasingly obvious that there is a price to be paid for their use. Plastics are almost too good, as they are durable and degrade very slowly. In some cases, burning plastic can release toxic fumes. Also, the manufacturing of plastics often creates large quantities of chemical pollutants, and requires use of the Earth's limited supply of fossil fuels. However, it should be noted that plastics only consume 4% of the world's oil production. Furthermore, it can be claimed that the use of plastics helps the environment by saving water and oil. For example, plastics make cars lighter, thus saving oil and reducing CO2 emissions. By the 1990s, plastic recycling programs were common in the United States and elsewhere. Thermoplastics can be remelted and reused, and thermoset plastics can be ground up and used as filler, though the purity of the material tends to degrade with each reuse cycle. There are methods by which plastics can be broken back down to a feedstock state. To assist recycling of disposable items, the Plastic Bottle Institute of the Society of the Plastics Industry devised a now-familiar scheme to mark plastic bottles by plastic type. A recyclable plastic container using this scheme is marked with a triangle of three "chasing arrows", which enclose a number giving the plastic type: Plastics type marks: the resin identification code
Unfortunately, recycling plastics has proven difficult. The biggest problem with plastics recycling is that it is difficult to automate the sorting of plastic waste, and so it is labor intensive. Typically, workers sort the plastic by looking at the resin identification code, though common containers like soda bottles can be sorted from memory. Other recyclable materials, such as metals, are easier to process mechanically. While containers are usually made from a single type and color of plastic, making them relatively easy to sort out, a consumer product like a cellular phone may have many small parts consisting of over a dozen different types and colors of plastics. In a case like this, the resources it would take to separate the plastics far exceed their value, though complex items made of many types of plastics are not disposed of frequently. Recycling certain types of plastics can be unprofitable, as well. For example, polystyrene is rarely recycled because it is usually not cost effective. These unrecyclable wastes can be disposed of in landfills, incinerated or used to produce electricity at waste-to-energy plants. Currently, the percentage of plastics recycled in the U.S. is very small, somewhere around 5%. Even so the American Plastics Council spends about US$20 million a year on an ad campaign that tries to convince the public to recycle. Biodegradable PlasticsResearch has been done on biodegradable plastics that break down with exposure to sunlight. Starch can be mixed with plastic to allow it to degrade more easily, but it still does not lead to complete breakdown of the plastic. Some researchers have actually genetically engineered bacteria that synthesize a completely biodegradable plastic, but this material is expensive at present. BASF make Ecoflex, a fully biodegradable polyester for food packaging applications. The disadvantage of biodegradable plastics is that the carbon that is locked up in them is released into the atmosphere as the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide when they degrade, though if they are made from organic material there is no net gain in emissions. So far, these plastics have proven too costly and limited for general use, and critics have pointed out that the only real problem they address is roadside litter, which is regarded as a secondary issue. When such plastic materials are dumped into landfills, they can become "mummified" and persist for decades even if they are supposed to be biodegradable. In this regard, though, plastics are no worse than food or paper, which also fail to degrade in landfills. There have been some success stories. The Courtauld concern, the original producer of rayon, came up with a revised process for the material in the mid-1980s to produce "Tencel". Tencel has many superior properties over rayon, but is still produced from "biomass" feedstocks, and its manufacture is extraordinarily clean by the standards of plastic production. Price and the futureOne of the great appeals of plastics have been their low price as compared to other materials. However, in recent years the cost of plastics has been rising dramatically. The cause of the increase is the sharply rising cost of petroleum, the raw material that is chemically altered to form commercial plastics. As the cost of plastic hinges on the cost of petroleum, should petroleum prices continue to rise, so will the cost of plastic. In 2004, the higher price of plastic drove a number of plastic-toy manufacturers out of business. Fears of dwindling petroleum supplies are becoming very real, with publications such as USA Today reporting that current oil reserves will only last 40 years. Alternate reserves such as oil shale and tar oil (tar sand) do exist, but the cost of production is much higher than with current sources. Thus, even if alternative sources are used, costs will continue to rise. Scientists are seeking cheaper alternatives to plastic. Some plastic alternatives are: graphite, fiberglass, carbon fiber, graphene, carbon nanotubes, diamond, aerogel, carbon nanofoam, cellulose soybean plastic (bioplastic), and other carbon-based, non-petroleum materials. Some of these alternatives are too expensive or not malleable enough, but can be used in some plastic applications. Some are many times stronger than plastic, but crack if made thin like cellophane. The most promising alternatives to plastic are graphene, carbon nanotube, and carbon nanofoam. All three of these are made of nanocarbons, products of the new nanotechnology. Nanocarbons are very cheap, 100 times stronger than steel, slicker than Teflon, lightweight, and can be made very thin, made to stretch, and built into any shape—all the things plastic can do. In addition, nanocarbon manufacturing is low to nonpolluting. Already, bowling balls, golf balls, sports equipment, and waterproof cotton balls have been made of nanocarbons. Common plastics and their typical uses
Special purpose plastics
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Already, bowling balls, golf balls, sports equipment, and waterproof cotton balls have been made of nanocarbons. Republic of China (Taiwan). In addition, nanocarbon manufacturing is low to nonpolluting. Japan. Nanocarbons are very cheap, 100 times stronger than steel, slicker than Teflon, lightweight, and can be made very thin, made to stretch, and built into any shape—all the things plastic can do. North America. All three of these are made of nanocarbons, products of the new nanotechnology. (2) IEEE 1394 removed in SCPH-50000 and later hardware versions, and Infrared remote port added. The most promising alternatives to plastic are graphene, carbon nanotube, and carbon nanofoam. is around 7 million. Some are many times stronger than plastic, but crack if made thin like cellophane. The true polygons per second figure with full textures, effects etc. Some of these alternatives are too expensive or not malleable enough, but can be used in some plastic applications. Some criticize these figures for being unrealistic, and not indicative of real-world performance. Some plastic alternatives are: graphite, fiberglass, carbon fiber, graphene, carbon nanotubes, diamond, aerogel, carbon nanofoam, cellulose soybean plastic (bioplastic), and other carbon-based, non-petroleum materials. no texturing, lighting, or vertex colors applied). Scientists are seeking cheaper alternatives to plastic. (1) Polygons per second under ideal circumstances (e.g. Thus, even if alternative sources are used, costs will continue to rise. The specifications of the PlayStation 2 console are as follows, with hardware revisions:. Alternate reserves such as oil shale and tar oil (tar sand) do exist, but the cost of production is much higher than with current sources. Conversely, a court in the United Kingdom ruled [13] in 2004 that commercial possession, sale, installation or use of a modchip was illegal under the EU Copyright Directive. Fears of dwindling petroleum supplies are becoming very real, with publications such as USA Today reporting that current oil reserves will only last 40 years. However, in Australia, the court has ruled that using a modchip to play legally purchased game from another region is legal, thus making the modchip legal in Australia. In 2004, the higher price of plastic drove a number of plastic-toy manufacturers out of business. If this seal is broken (thus providing evidence that the console has been opened and possibly modified), Sony will refuse to repair the system. As the cost of plastic hinges on the cost of petroleum, should petroleum prices continue to rise, so will the cost of plastic. Because of the existence of these hazards, Sony has overlaid a seal onto each of their consoles. The cause of the increase is the sharply rising cost of petroleum, the raw material that is chemically altered to form commercial plastics. Many of these chips work on a different voltage than the console, risking damage to the unit. However, in recent years the cost of plastics has been rising dramatically. The obvious reason is piracy, but the chips also have several other drawbacks as well. One of the great appeals of plastics have been their low price as compared to other materials. The installation of modchips in PlayStation 2 consoles is widely discouraged by Sony and many user groups and technicians. Tencel has many superior properties over rayon, but is still produced from "biomass" feedstocks, and its manufacture is extraordinarily clean by the standards of plastic production. These devices, when installed, bypass the checks and allow the discs to run. The Courtauld concern, the original producer of rayon, came up with a revised process for the material in the mid-1980s to produce "Tencel". In response to this, a thriving "underground" grey market exists, selling modchips. There have been some success stories. The PlayStation 2, like the original PlayStation, incorporates circuitry to prevent the playing of copied or out-of-region discs. In this regard, though, plastics are no worse than food or paper, which also fail to degrade in landfills. More information: PS2 Settlement. When such plastic materials are dumped into landfills, they can become "mummified" and persist for decades even if they are supposed to be biodegradable. The first hearings are set to commence in April and May, 2006. So far, these plastics have proven too costly and limited for general use, and critics have pointed out that the only real problem they address is roadside litter, which is regarded as a secondary issue. A second lawsuit is being filed against Sony for all of the above, plus claims that defective hardware is damaging media discs. The disadvantage of biodegradable plastics is that the carbon that is locked up in them is released into the atmosphere as the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide when they degrade, though if they are made from organic material there is no net gain in emissions. [12] Sony chose the latter and, until February 2005, they honored their agreement. BASF make Ecoflex, a fully biodegradable polyester for food packaging applications. They had the option of either paying the requested fines in damages, or offering free repair and replacements at their discretion. Some researchers have actually genetically engineered bacteria that synthesize a completely biodegradable plastic, but this material is expensive at present. As time went on, more and more drives began breaking down and a class action lawsuit was filed against Sony. Starch can be mixed with plastic to allow it to degrade more easily, but it still does not lead to complete breakdown of the plastic. The second fix involved the use of an oscillator. Research has been done on biodegradable plastics that break down with exposure to sunlight. This usually didn't matter, as the warranty had already expired by the time such problems began to appear. Even so the American Plastics Council spends about US$20 million a year on an ad campaign that tries to convince the public to recycle. The first problem was relatively easy to remedy, but it required opening the machine's casing and tweaking a cog that controlled the lens' distance from the discs it was supposed to read, thus voiding the warranty. is very small, somewhere around 5%. The earliest drives suffered from a constantly misaligning laser lens but later defects were the result of a shift in voltage to the laser itself. Currently, the percentage of plastics recycled in the U.S. Owners of early PS2 models purchased from launch until spring 2002 commonly reported faulty optical drives in their consoles. These unrecyclable wastes can be disposed of in landfills, incinerated or used to produce electricity at waste-to-energy plants. Early versions of the Playstation 2 could be networked via an iLink port, though this had little game support and was dropped. For example, polystyrene is rarely recycled because it is usually not cost effective. Unlike the original Playstation, which required that the user use an official Sony Playstation mouse to play mouse-compatible games, the few Playstation 2 games with mouse support work with standard PC-compatible USB mice. Recycling certain types of plastics can be unprofitable, as well. Optional hardware include additional controllers ,a DVD remote control, a hard disk, an Ethernet adapter, memory cards, and various cables and interconnects: Multitap, YPbPr, S-Video, RGB SCART and composite video cables, RF modulator, USB camera ("EyeToy"), keyboard, mouse and a Headset. In a case like this, the resources it would take to separate the plastics far exceed their value, though complex items made of many types of plastics are not disposed of frequently. The fact that the design didn't change pleased some consumers who were already used to the PS1 controller, however, it disappointed others who were hoping for a more ergonomic design (the two analogue sticks being as they are in an awkward-to-use position for the thumbs to operate). While containers are usually made from a single type and color of plastic, making them relatively easy to sort out, a consumer product like a cellular phone may have many small parts consisting of over a dozen different types and colors of plastics. The PS2's controller is largely identical to the PlayStation's, with the same basic functionality; however, it includes analog pressure sensitivity on the face and shoulder buttons, is lighter and includes two more levels of vibration. Other recyclable materials, such as metals, are easier to process mechanically. Main articles: DualShock, PlayStation 2 Expansion Bay. Typically, workers sort the plastic by looking at the resin identification code, though common containers like soda bottles can be sorted from memory. [citation needed] A recyclable plastic container using this scheme is marked with a triangle of three "chasing arrows", which enclose a number giving the plastic type:. The machine's future continues to be uncertain, with North American and European launches considered to be distant if at all. To assist recycling of disposable items, the Plastic Bottle Institute of the Society of the Plastics Industry devised a now-familiar scheme to mark plastic bottles by plastic type. The device was poorly received, with some major features absent from the first revisions of the hardware, and has thus far experienced very weak sales in Japan, in spite of major price drops [11]. There are methods by which plastics can be broken back down to a feedstock state. Sony has also made a PVR/DVD burning consumer device that plays PlayStation 2 games called the PSX. Thermoplastics can be remelted and reused, and thermoset plastics can be ground up and used as filler, though the purity of the material tends to degrade with each reuse cycle. It also has a different lens and some compatibility issues documented by Sony for earlier PS2 games. By the 1990s, plastic recycling programs were common in the United States and elsewhere. There is also now a V14 model (SCPH-75001) which contains an integrated EE and GS (disputed — see talk page), and different ASICs compared to previous revisions, some chips having a copyright date of 2005 compared to 2000 or 2001 for earlier models. For example, plastics make cars lighter, thus saving oil and reducing CO2 emissions. It is unknown whether or not this will follow the color schemes of the older model. Furthermore, it can be claimed that the use of plastics helps the environment by saving water and oil. A silver edition is available in the United Kingdom and Germany exclusively. However, it should be noted that plastics only consume 4% of the world's oil production. The new V12 model was first released in black. Also, the manufacturing of plastics often creates large quantities of chemical pollutants, and requires use of the Earth's limited supply of fossil fuels. Currently, most people just use V12 for both models, or V12 for the old model and V13 for the newer one. In some cases, burning plastic can release toxic fumes. Two propositions were to name the old model (EE and GS, separate chips) V11.5 and the newer model V12, and to name the old model V12 and the newer model V13. Plastics are almost too good, as they are durable and degrade very slowly. Since the V12 version had already been established for this model, there were some disputes regarding these sub-versions. Although plastics have had a remarkable impact globally, it has become increasingly obvious that there is a price to be paid for their use. One of them includes the old EE and GS chips, and the other contains the newer unified EE+GS chip, otherwise being identical. Kevlar was so remarkable that Du Pont officials actually had to release statements to deny rumors that the company had received the recipe for it from space aliens. There are also some disputes on the numbering for this PS2 version, since there are actually two sub-versions of the SCPH-70000. Du Pont developed "Kevlar", an extremely strong synthetic fiber that was best known for its use in bullet-proof vests and combat helmets. It is widely believed that Sony has abandoned support for the hard drive. General Electric introduced "lexan", a high-impact "polycarbonate" plastic, in the 1970s. A product named HD Connect can be soldered into the unit giving hard drive support though. Plastics continue to be improved. For some consumers this is in fact a limitation, especially for the fans of titles such as Final Fantasy XI, which requires the use of this peripheral, and prevents the use of the official PS2 Linux kit. Polyurethane foam was used to fill mattresses, and Styrofoam was used to line ice coolers and make float toys. Although external USB 2.0 enclosures are affordable the lack of internal hard disk has implicated a problem for users with perhaps little knowledge of the software required to enable the external disk functionality. Composite materials like fiberglass came into use for building boats and, in some cases, cars. Due to its thinner profile, it does not contain the 3.5" expansion bay, and therefore does not support the internal hard disk drive but due to the presence of USB 2.0 ports an external USB Hard disk can still be used, and now uses an external power supply, like the Gamecube. With Formica, a very attractive and well-built table could be built using low-cost and lightweight plywood with Formica covering, rather than expensive and heavy hardwoods like oak or mahogany. In some markets it also integrates a modem. It was particularly useful in kitchens, as it did not absorb, and could be easily cleaned of stains from food preparation, such as blood or grease. Available in November 2004, it is smaller and thinner than the old version and includes a built-in Ethernet port. Formica was durable and attractive. In September 2004 Sony unveiled the third major hardware revision (V12, model number SCPH-70000). Another prominent element in 1950s homes was "Formica®", a plastic laminate that was used to surface furniture and cabinetry. V10 and V11 have minor changes. Thin-film "plastic wrap" that could be purchased in rolls also helped keep food fresh. Assembly of the PS2 moved to China with the V9 (model number SCPH-50000/SCPH-50001), which added the Infrared port for the optional DVD Remote Control, removed the widely unused FireWire port, added the capability to read DVD-RW and +RW discs, and a quieter fan. The Tupperware line of products was well thought out and highly effective, greatly reducing spoilage of foods in storage. V7 and V8 are also similar. One of the most visible parts of this plastics invasion was Earl Tupper's "Tupperware", a complete line of sealable polyethylene food containers that Tupper cleverly promoted through a network of housewives who sold Tupperware as a means of bringing in some money. V5 introduces minor internal changes and the only difference between V6 (sometimes called V5.1) and V5 is the orientation of the Power/Reset switch board connector, which was reversed to prevent the use of no-solder modchips. American consumers enthusiastically adopted the endless range of colorful, cheap, and durable plastic gimmicks being produced for new suburban home life. As of V4 everything was unified into one board, except the power supply. New manufacturing were developed, using various forming, molding, casting, and extrusion processes, to churn out plastic products in vast quantities. V3 has a substantially different internal structure from the subsequent revisions, featuring several interconnected printed circuit boards. After the war, the new plastics that had been developed entered the consumer mainstream in a flood. V0 did not have a built-in DVD player and instead relied on an encrypted player that was copied to a memory card from an included CD-ROM (normally, the PS2 will only execute encrypted software from its memory card, but see PS2 Independence Exploit). GoreTex is also used for surgical implants; Teflon strand is used to make dental floss; and Teflon mixed with fluorine compounds is used to make "decoy" flares dropped by aircraft to distract heat-seeking missiles. These included a PCMCIA slot instead of the Expansion Bay (DEV9) port of newer models. During the war, it was used in gaseous-diffusion processes to refine uranium for the atomic bomb, as the process was highly corrosive. It is also possible to listen to MP3 music and watch DivX movies with homebrew programs running in consoles that have a modchip installed or with network software like GameShark's Media Player. A Du Pont chemist named Roy Plunkett discovered Teflon by accident in 1938. A port of the NetBSD project is also available for the PS2. The polyfluoroethylene surface layer created by exposing a polyethylene container to fluorine gas is very similar to Teflon. This was included in a failed attempt to circumvent a UK tax by defining the console as a "computer" if it contained certain software. One of the most impressive plastics used in the war, and a top secret, was "polytetrafluoroethylene" (PTFE), better known as "Teflon", which could be deposited on metal surfaces as a scratchproof and corrosion-resistant, low-friction protective coating. This allows simple programs to be created for the PlayStation 2 by the end-user. PET films, trade named "Mylar®", are used to make recording tape. In Europe and Australia, the PlayStation 2 comes with a free Yabasic interpreter on the bundled demo disk. PET is also strong and abrasion resistant, and is used for making mechanical parts, food trays, and other items that have to endure abuse. (The kit boots by installing a proprietary interface, the Run-time environment which is on a region-coded DVD, so the European and USA kits each only work with a PS2 from that region). PET is more impermeable than other low-cost plastics and so is a popular material for making bottles for Coca-Cola and other "fizzy drinks", since carbonation tends to attack other plastics, and for acidic drinks such as fruit or vegetable juices. However as of July 2005, the European version was still available. Two chemists named Rex Whinfield and James Dickson, working at a small English company with the quaint name of the "Calico Printer's Association" in Manchester, developed "polyethylene terephthalate" (PET or PETE) in 1941, and it would be used for synthetic fibers in the postwar era, with names such as "polyester", "dacron", and "terylene". Currently, Sony's online store states that the Linux kit is no longer for sale in North America. Fiberglass is now often used to build sport boats, and carbon-epoxy composites are an increasingly important structural element in aircraft, as they are lightweight, strong, and heat resistant. Sony released a version of the Linux operating system for the PS2 in a package that also includes a keyboard, mouse, Ethernet adapter and hard disk drive. Composites using epoxy as a matrix include glass-reinforced plastic, where the structural element is glass fiber, and "carbon-epoxy composites", in which the structural element is carbon fiber. DNAS will prevent games from being played online if they are determined to be pirated copies, or if they have been modified. After the war they would come into wide use for coatings, "adhesives", and composite materials. The purpose of this system is to prevent piracy and online cheating. Epoxies are a class of thermoset plastic that form cross-links and "cure" when a catalyzing agent, or "hardener", is added. All newer online PS2 games (since 2003) are protected by the Dynamic Network Authentication System (DNAS). In 1939, IG Farben filed a patent for "polyepoxide" or "epoxy". Xbox Live exclusively requires broadband internet. It is also one of the components (in non-blown form) of the fiber spandex. Most recent PS2 online games have been developed to exclusively only support broadband internet access. It is used in everything from plastic bottles to carpets to plastic furniture, and is very heavily used in automobiles. With the purchase of a separate unit called the Network Adaptor (which is built into the newest system revision), some PS2 games support online multiplayer. Polypropylene is similar to its ancestor, polyethylene, and shares polyethylene's low cost, but it is much more robust. Software for all PlayStation consoles contains one of four region codes: for Japan and Asia: NTSC/J, North America: NTSC-U/C, Europe and Oceania: PAL, and China: NTSC/C[10]. Paul Hogan and Robert Banks, are now generally credited as the "official" inventors of the material. The anomalous failure of the above title at its disk swap screen may have given birth to this rumor. Polypropylene managed to survive the legal process, and two American chemists working for Phillips Petroleum, J. It is a common misconception that disk swapping in a game (for example, for multi-disk games or expansion packs) is not possible on the PS2. It was a patent attorney's dream scenario, and litigation was not resolved until 1989. This problem appears to have been rectified in the slimline versions of the PS2, where most of the previously unplayable PSone games can now be played. It is common in modern science and technology that the growth of the general body of knowledge can lead to the same inventions in different places at about the same time, but polypropylene was an extreme case of this phenomenon, being separately invented about nine times. A handful of PlayStation titles (notably Metal Gear Solid: Special Missions) fail to run on the PS2 at all (Special Missions fails to recognise Metal Gear Solid at the disk swap screen, for example). Polyethylene would lead after the war to an improved material, "polypropylene" (PP), which was discovered in the early 1950s by Giulio Natta. While the texture smoothing was universally effective (albeit with odd effects where transparent textures are used), faster disk reading could cause some games to fail to load or play correctly. While PE has low resistance to chemical attack, it was found later that a PE container could be made much more robust by exposing it to fluorine gas, which modified the surface layer of the container into the much tougher "polyfluoroethylene". As an added bonus, the PS2 had the ability to enhance PlayStation games by speeding up disc read time and/or adding texture smoothing to improve graphics. LDPE is used to make films and packaging materials, while HDPE is used for containers, plumbing, and automotive fittings. Support for original PlayStation games was also an important selling point for the PS2, letting owners of an older system upgrade to the PlayStation 2 and keep their old software, and giving new users access to older games until a larger library was developed for the new system. Another important plastic, "polyethylene" (PE), sometimes known as "polythene", was discovered in 1933 by Reginald Gibson and Eric Fawcett at the British industrial giant Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI). It was not until late 2001 that the Microsoft Xbox became the second console with (non-standard) USB and DVD support. Plexiglas was used to build aircraft canopies during the war, and it is also now used as a marble replacement for countertops. When it was released, the PS2 had many advanced features that were not present in other contemporary video game consoles, including its DVD capabilities and USB and IEEE 1394 expansion ports. Although acrylics are now well known for their use in paints and synthetic fibers, such as "fake furs", in their bulk form they are actually very hard and more transparent than glass, and are sold as glass replacements under trade names such as "Plexiglas" and "Lucite". The PS2's Dual Shock 2 controller is essentially an upgraded PS1 Dual Shock; analog face, shoulder and D-pad buttons replaced the digital buttons of the original. By 1936, American, British, and German companies were producing polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), better known as "acrylic". The PS2 also supports PS1 memory cards (for PS1 game saves only) and controllers as well. Other plastics emerged in the prewar period, though some would not come into widespread use until after the war. The ability to play DVD movies allowed consumers to more easily justify the PS2's relatively high price tag (in October 2000, the MSRP was $300) as it removed the need to buy an external DVD player (indeed, it could be said that the success of the DVD format was partly due to the PS2's ability to play DVDs, as the format seemed to appeal more to consumers after the console's launch). Ultimately, all large military rockets and missiles would use synthetic rubber based solid fuels, and they would also play a significant part in the civilian space effort. It is backwards compatible with older PlayStation (PS1) games, allows for DVD Video playback, and will play PS2 games off cheap CD-ROMs or higher-capacity DVD-ROMs. Such solid fuels could be cast into large, uniform blocks that had no cracks or other defects that would cause nonuniform burning. The PS2 hardware can read both compact discs and DVDs. By the mid-1950s, large missiles were being built using solid fuels based on synthetic rubber, mixed with ammonium perchlorate and high proportions of aluminium powder. Critically acclaimed games on the machine are the Grand Theft Auto and the ever-popular Final Fantasy (Square Enix) series, the latest two Metal Gear Solid titles, all three Devil May Cry titles, the SSX series, latest three Ace Combat titles, the Square Enix/Disney collaboration Kingdom Hearts, and first-party Sony Computer Entertainment brands such as the Gran Turismo, SOCOM, Ratchet & Clank and Jak and Daxter series, ICO, Shadow of the Colossus, God of War and the Everquest spin-offs Champions of Norrath and Champions: Return to Arms. After the war, the Caltech researchers began to investigate the use of synthetic rubbers instead of asphalt as the fuel in the mixture. In several cases, Sony made exclusivity deals with publishers in order to pre-empt its competitors. This new solid fuel burned more slowly and evenly than nitrocellulose explosives, and was much less dangerous to store and use, though it tended to flow slowly out of the rocket in storage and the rockets using it had to be stockpiled nose down. Those PS2 titles helped the PS2 maintain and extend its lead in the video game console market, despite increased competition from the launches of the Microsoft Xbox and Nintendo GameCube. During the war, California Institute of Technology (Caltech) researchers came up with a new solid fuel, based on asphalt fuel mixed with an oxidizer, such as potassium or ammonium percholorate, plus aluminium powder, which burns very hot. Although the launch titles for the PS2 were unimpressive in 2000, the holiday season of 2001 saw the release of several best-selling and critically acclaimed games. Solid rockets used during World War II used nitrocellulose explosives for propellants, but it was impractical and dangerous to make such rockets very big. The PlayStation brand's strength has lead to strong third-party support for the system. Synthetic rubber would also play an important part in the space race and nuclear arms race. [9]. GR-S remains the primary synthetic rubber for the manufacture of tires. The PlayStation 2 holds the record of fastest selling video game console ever, 100 million PlayStation 2 units were shipped in only five years and nine months, shattering the previous record of nine years and six months by the PlayStation. After the war, natural rubber plantations no longer had a stranglehold on rubber supplies, particularly after chemists learned to synthesize isoprene. PS2's opening day console sales eclipsed the previous record of 225,000 made by the Sega Dreamcast in 1999. By 1944 a total of 50 factories were manufacturing it, pouring out a volume of the material twice that of the world's natural rubber production before the beginning of the war. To this day, the PS2 holds the record for the most consoles sold in a single day as well as the record for most consoles sold in launch day in America. A principal scientist involved with the effort was Edward Robbins. With a price of $299.99 per console, Sony made gross sales of roughly $153,000,000. government launched a major (and largely secret) effort to develop and refine synthetic rubber. When the PlayStation 2 launched in America in October 26, 2000, Sony sold 510,000 units within the first 24 hours. The U.S. [8]. Military trucks needed rubber for tires, and rubber was used in almost every other war machine. When the PlayStation 2 launched in Japan in March 2000, Sony sold 980,000 units over the opening weekend. Worldwide natural rubber supplies were limited, and by mid-1942 most of the rubber-producing regions were under Japanese control. [7]. synthetic rubber production during World War II. [6] Shortages in North America were also extremely severe; one retail chain in the U.S., GameStop, had just 186 PS2 and Xbox units on hand across more than 1700 stores on the day before Christmas. One such Buna rubber, known as "GR-S" ("Government Rubber Styrene), is a copolymer of butadiene and styrene, became the basis for U.S. During one week in November, sales in the entire country of Britain totalled 6,000 units — compared to 70,000 a few weeks prior. These were "copolymers", meaning that their polymers were made up from not one but two monomers, in alternating sequence. This led to further shortages, and the issue was compounded in Britain when a Russian oil tanker became stuck in the Suez Canal, blocking a ship from China carrying PS2s bound for the UK. In 1935, German chemists synthesized the first of a series of synthetic rubbers known as "Buna rubbers". After an apparent manufacturing issue caused some initial slowdown in producing the new unit, Sony reportedly underestimated demand, caused in part by shortages between the time the old units were cleared out and the new units were ready. Neoprene is highly resistant to heat and chemicals such as oil and gasoline, and is used in fuel hoses and as an insulating material in machinery. In preparation for the launch of a new, slimmer PlayStation 2 model (SCPH-70000), Sony had stopped making the older PS2 model (SCPH-5000x) sometime during the summer of 2004 to let the distribution channel empty out stock of the units. Bolton. In September of that year, in time for the launch of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (the best-selling game during the 2004 Holiday season), Sony revealed a new, smaller PS2 (see Hardware revisions). These studies led in 1931 to one of the first successful synthetic rubbers, known as "neoprene", which was developed at DuPont under the direction of E.K. Despite this, Sony console won the total 2004 sales by 600 thousands units of difference. Practical synthetic rubber grew out of studies published in 1930 written independently by American Wallace Carothers, Russian scientist Lebedev and the German scientist Hermann Staudinger. Acording to NPD Group the Xbox outsold PS2 during 5 months of 2004: April, July, August, November and December. The first synthetic rubber polymer was obtained by Lebedev in 1910. [5]. Another plastic that was critical to the war effort was "synthetic rubber", which was produced in a variety of forms. Its operating income slid to $650 million from $1 billion, losing $25 million in Q4 of 2004. In its bulk form it is very wear resistant, and so is used to build gears, bearings, bushings, and other mechanical parts. During that year, game sales fell to $7.5 billion from $8.2 billion. Nylon still remains an important plastic, and not just for use in fabrics. The heavy dependence of Sony on its Computer Entertainment division was shown when dropping PlayStation 2 sales [3] caused the parent's profits to fall 89% [4]. After the war ended, Du Pont went back to selling nylon to the public, engaging in another promotional campaign in 1946 that resulted in an even bigger craze, triggering off "nylon riots". Hardware sales remained strong until 2004 saw the console apparently approaching saturation point, causing it to lose the top sales position for a time [2]. The production capacity that had been built up to produce nylon stockings, or just "nylons", for American women was taken over to manufacture vast numbers of parachutes for fliers and paratroopers. The Xbox Live system (with it's built in capabilities) is however the most successful of the three. Nylon mania came to an abrupt stop at the end of 1941 when the USA entered World War II. As a result, although Sony and Nintendo both started out late and although both followed a decentralized model of online gaming where the responsibility is up to the developer to provide the servers, Sony's attempt was the more successful between the two. With such a major investment, it was no surprise that Du Pont spared little expense to promote nylon after its introduction, creating a public sensation, or "nylon mania". Sony also advertised heavily, and its online model had the advantage of being supported by Electronic Arts. It took Du Pont twelve years and US$27 million to refine nylon and develop the industrial processes for bulk manufacture. Sony rolled a PS2 online adapter in late 2002 to compete with Microsoft, with several online first party online titles released alongside it, such as SOCOM US Navy SEALS in order to show that Sony was supporting this feature actively. However, Du Pont's real target was silk, particularly silk stockings. Although Sony placed little emphasis on online gaming during its first year, that changed upon the launch of the online-capable Xbox. The first application was for bristles for toothbrushes. [1]. His work led to the discovery of synthetic nylon fiber, which was very strong but also very flexible. Shortly afterwards, Sony also slashed PS2 prices greater than expected in order to maintain momentum and hold off its potential rivals. He took some of the first steps on the road to "molecular design" of materials. However, the release of several blockbuster games during the 2001 holiday season pushed the PS2 far in front even as the Xbox and GameCube made their impressive debuts. Carothers had been hired to perform pure research, and not only investigated new materials, but worked to understand their molecular structure and how it related to material properties. Many analysts predicted a close 3-way matchup between the PS2 and its soon-to-be-released competitors Microsoft Xbox and Nintendo GameCube, noting that the PS2's graphics were inferior but that it had the advantage of a head start, and had a wide assortment of games of every genre (Xbox's strength was in its hardware; GameCube was the cheapest of the 3 consoles). Bolton. Later, Sony gained steam with new development kits for game developers and more PlayStations for consumers. In 1927, Du Pont had begun a secret development project designated "Fiber66", under the direction of a Harvard chemists Wallace Carothers and Chemistry Department director E.K. Another major selling point over the Dreamcast was the PlayStation 2's ability to play DVDs, which gained it a presence in electronics stores which did not formerly sell video game consoles. Nylon was the first purely synthetic fiber, introduced by Du Pont Corporation at the 1939 World's Fair in New York City. This allowed the PS2 to tap the large install base established by the PlayStation. The real star of the plastics industry in the 1930s was "polyamide" (PA), far better known by its trade name, "nylon". Yet, the PS2 initially sold well solely on the basis of the strength of the PlayStation brand and its backwards compatibility, selling over 900,000 units in the first weekend in Japan. PVC can also be softened with chemical processing, and in this form it is now used for shrink-wrap, food packaging, and raingear. The PS2 launch seemed unimpressive and gaffe-prone, compared to the well-planned launch of the Sega Dreamcast, which was making a genuine attempt to woo developers and which had better launch titles. PVC in its normal form is stiff, strong, heat and weather resistant, and is now used for making plumbing, gutters, house siding, enclosures for computers and other electronics gear. Developers also complained that it was difficult to develop for the system, with little in the way of reference material from Sony for its exotic architecture. PVC has side chains incorporating chlorine atoms, which form strong bonds. The PlayStation 2 was such a hot item after its release that it was near impossible to find one on retailer shelves, leaving those wanting a PlayStation 2 to either wait or purchase the console online at sites such as eBay, where the console was being sold by many people for twice and sometimes five times as much as the manufacturer's listed price. It would also be the basis for one of the most popular "foamed" plastics, under the name "styrene foam" or "Styrofoam". The PS2 is part of the sixth generation era, and has become the fastest selling gaming console in history, with over 100 million units shipped by November 2005, beating the previous record holder, the PlayStation, by three years and nine months. Polystyrene is a rigid, brittle plastic that is now used to make plastic model kits, disposable eating utensils, and similar knickknacks. It was released in Europe on November 24, 2000. Among the earliest examples in the wave of new plastics were "polystyrene" (PS) and "polyvinyl chloride" (PVC), developed by IG Farben of Germany. Its development was announced in March 1999, and it was first released in Japan on March 4, 2000 and in North America and Puerto Rico on October 26, 2000. After the First World War, improvements in chemical technology led to an explosion in new forms of plastics. The PlayStation 2 (PS2) (Japanese: プレイステーション2) is Sony's second video game console, the successor to the PlayStation and the predecessor to the PlayStation 3. For example, some electronic circuit boards are made of sheets of paper or cloth impregnated with phenolic resin. NT$ 5,888 (November 3, 2004, SCPH-70007). Phenolic plastics have been largely replaced by cheaper and less brittle plastics, but they are still used in applications requiring its insulating and heat-resistant properties. NT$ 5,888 (June 1, 2004, SCPH-50007). government even considered making one-cent coins out of it when World War II caused a copper shortage. NT$ 6,480 (January 1, 2004, SCPH-50007). The U.S. NT$ 6,980 (October 10, 2003, SCPH-50007). It was molded into thousands of forms, such as radios, telephones, clocks, and, of course, billiard balls. NT$ 6,980 (2003, SCPH-39007). Bakelite was cheap, strong, and durable. NT$ 7,980 (January 1, 2003, SCPH-30007). Thermoset plastics are tough and temperature resistant. NT$10,900 (January 24, 2002, SCPH-30007, Launch Price). Conventional "thermoplastics" can be molded and then melted again, but thermoset plastics form bonds between polymers strands when "cured", creating a tangled matrix that cannot be undone without destroying the plastic. JP¥17,800 (June 2004). It was also the first "thermoset" plastic. JP¥19,800 (November 13, 2003). It was a purely synthetic material, not based on any material or even molecule found in nature. JP¥25,000 (2002). Bakelite was the first true plastic. JP¥29,800 (November 29, 2001). When the Bakelite patent expired in 1927, the Catalin Corporation acquired the patent and began manufacturing Catalin plastic using a different process that allowed a wider range of coloring. JP¥35,000 (June 29, 2001). It was originally used for electrical and mechanical parts, finally coming into widespread use in consumer goods in the 1920s. JP¥39,800 (March 2000, Launch Price). He publicly announced his discovery in 1909, naming it "bakelite". US$149.99 (May 11, 2004). Baekeland built pressure vessels to force out the bubbles and provide a smooth, uniform product. US$179.99 (May 13, 2003). The only problem was that the material tended to foam during synthesis, and the resulting product was of unacceptable quality. US$199.99 (May 14, 2002). Most of these compositions were strong and fire resistant. US$299.99 (October 26, 2000, Launch Price). He continued his investigations and found that the material could be mixed with wood flour, asbestos, or slate dust to create "composite" materials with different properties. 4.7GB capacity, a few are DVD-9 (8.5 GB). Baekeland found that mixtures of phenol (C6H5OH) and formaldehyde (HCOH) formed a sticky mass when mixed together and heated, and the mass became extremely hard if allowed to cool and dry. Disc Media: DVD-ROM (CD-ROM compatible) with copy protection. A chemist named Leo Hendrik Baekeland, a Belgian-born American living in New York state, was searching for an insulating shellac to coat wires in electric motors and generators. Interface Types: 2 proprietary PlayStation controller ports (250KHz clock for PS1 and 500KHz for PS2 controllers), 2 proprietary Memory Card slots using MagicGate encryption (250KHz for PS1 cards, up to 2MHz for PS2 cards -may be just 1MHz, please, confirmate it-), Expansion Bay (DEV9 or PCMCIA on early models) port for Network Adaptor, Modem and Hard Disk Drive, IEEE 1394 (2), Infrared remote control port (2), and 2 USB 1.1 ports with an OHCI-compatible controller. The limitations of celluloid led to the next major advance, known as "phenolic" or "phenol-formaldehyde" plastics. Connection to: SPU and CD/DVD controller. It could also be produced in a transparent sheet form known as "cellophane". Sub Bus: 32 Bit. It is cheap and feels smooth on the skin, though it is weak when wet and creases easily. CPU Core: Original PlayStation CPU (MIPS R3000A clocked at 33.8688 MHz or 37.5 MHz). It still remains in production today, often in blends with other natural and artificial fibers. I/O Processor
Art silk became well known under the trade name "rayon", and was produced in great quantities through the 1930s, when it was supplanted by better artificial fabrics. Sampling Frequency: 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz (selectable). The three men sold the rights for the new fabric to the French Courtauld company, a major manufacturer of silk, which put it into production in 1905, using cellulose from wood pulp as the "feedstock" material. Number of voices: 48 hardware channels of ADPCM on SPU2 plus software-mixed channels. In 1894, three British inventors, Charles Cross, Edward Bevan, and Clayton Beadle, patented a new "artificial silk" or "art silk" that was much safer. Sound: "SPU1+SPU2" (SPU1 is actually the CPU)
It was an attractive cloth, but like celluloid it was very flammable, a property completely unacceptable in clothing. Maximum Polygon Rate: 75 million polygons per second (1). In 1884, a French chemist, the Comte de Chardonnay, introduced a cellulose-based fabric that became known as "Chardonnay silk". Pixel Configuration: RGB:Alpha:Z Buffer (24:8, 15:1 for RGB, 16, 24, or 32-bit Z buffer). While the men who developed celluloid were interested in replacing ivory, those who developed the new fibers were interested in replacing another expensive material, silk. DRAM Bus width: 2560-bit (composed of three independendent buses: 1024-bit write, 1024-bit read, 512-bit read/write). Cellulose was also used to produce cloth. DRAM Bus bandwidth: 47.0GB per second. If the balls had been imperfectly manufactured, the paints might have acted as primer to set the rest of the ball off with a bang. Graphics: "Graphics Synthesizer" clocked at 147 MHz
By the year 1900, movie film was a major market for celluloid. 3D CG Geometric Transformation: 66 million polygons per second (1). Hyatt figured out how to fabricate the material in a strip format for movie film. Floating Point Performance: 6.2 GFLOPS (single precission 32-bit floating point). Celluloid could also be used in entirely new applications. Vector Units: VU0 and VU1 (Floating Point Multiply Accumulator × 9, Floating Point Divider × 1), 128 bit. Such pretty trinkets were no longer only for the rich. Co-Processor: FPU (Floating Point Multiply Accumulator × 1, Floating Point Divider × 1). For example, celluloid combs made to tie up the long tresses of hair fashionable at the time are now jewellike museum pieces. Main processor: MIPS R5900 CPU core, 64 bit. Some of the items made with cellulose in the nineteenth century were beautifully designed and implemented. Memory Bus Bandwidth: 3.2 GB per second. Celluloid proved extremely versatile in its field of application, providing a cheap and attractive replacement for ivory, tortoiseshell, and bone, and traditional products that had used these materials were much easier to fabricate with plastics. System Memory: 32 MB Direct Rambus or RDRAM (note that some computers use this type of RAM). Corsets made with celluloid stays also proved popular, since perspiration did not rust the stays, as it would if they had been made of metal. CPU: 128 bit "Emotion Engine" clocked at 294 MHz (later versions 299 MHz), 10.5 million transistors
They did not wilt and did not stain easily, and Hyatt sold them by trainloads. Celluloid's real breakthrough products were waterproof shirt collars, cuffs, and the false shirtfronts known as "dickies", whose unmanageable nature later became a stock joke in silent-movie comedies. However, celluloid dentures tended to soften when hot, making tea drinking tricky, and the camphor taste tended to be difficult to suppress. One of the first products were dental pieces, and sets of false teeth built around celluloid proved cheaper than existing rubber dentures. It was introduced in 1863. Since cellulose was the main constituent used in the synthesis of his new material, Hyatt named it "celluloid". Hyatt was something of an industrial genius who understood what could be done with such a shapeable, or "plastic", material, and proceeded to design much of the basic industrial machinery needed to produce good-quality plastic materials in quantity. Parkes had failed for lack of a proper softener, but Hyatt discovered that camphor would do the job very nicely. An American printer and amateur inventor named John Wesley Hyatt took up where Parkes left off. However, Parkes was not able to scale up the process to an industrial level, and products made from Parkesine quickly warped and cracked after a short period of use. The output of the process hardened into a hard, ivory-like material that could be molded when heated. Parkesine was made from cellulose treated with nitric acid and a solvent. An Englishman from Birmingham named Alexander Parkes developed a "synthetic ivory" named "pyroxlin", which he marketed under the trade name "Parkesine", and which won a bronze medal at the 1862 World's fair in London. Ivory was a particularly attractive target for a synthetic replacement. Inventors were particularly interested in developing synthetic substitutes for those natural materials that were expensive and in short supply, since that meant a profitable market to exploit. The next logical step was to use a natural polymer, cellulose, as the basis for a new material. All Goodyear had done with vulcanization was improve the properties of a natural polymer. Vulcanization creates sulfur bonds that link separate isoprene polymers together, improving the material's structural integrity and its other properties. Natural rubber is composed of an organic polymer named "isoprene". Vulcanization remains an important industrial process for the manufacture of rubber in both natural and artificial forms. Compared to untreated natural rubber, Goodyear's "vulcanized rubber" was stronger, more resistant to abrasion, more elastic, much less sensitive to temperature, impermeable to gases, and highly resistant to chemicals and electric current. The rubber seemed to have improved properties; Goodyear followed up with further experiments, and developed a process known as "vulcanization" that involved cooking the rubber with sulfur. In 1839, the American inventor Charles Goodyear was experimenting with the sulfur treatment of natural rubber when, according to legend, he dropped a piece of sulfur-treated rubber on a stove. In 1834, two inventors, Friedrich Ludersdorf of Germany and Nathaniel Hayward of the U.S., independently discovered that adding sulfur to raw rubber helped prevent the material from becoming sticky. Natural rubber was sensitive to temperature, becoming sticky and smelly in hot weather and brittle in cold weather. Eventually, inventors learned to improve the properties of natural polymers. A plant polymer named "cellulose" provides the structural strength for natural fibers and ropes, and by the early 19th century natural rubber, tapped from rubber trees, was widespread use. People have been using natural organic polymers for centuries in the form of waxes and shellacs. . The development of plastics has come from the use of natural materials (e.g., chewing gum, shellac) to the use of chemically modified natural materials (e.g., natural rubber, nitrocellulose) and finally to completely manmade molecules (e.g., epoxy, polyvinyl chloride, polyethylene). The first plastic based on a synthetic polymer was called Bakelite and was created by Leo Hendrik Baekeland in 1907. In the nineteenth century the discovered plastics based on chemically modified natural polymers: Charles Goodyear discovered vulcanization of rubber (1839) and Alexander Parkes discovered cellulose-based plastics in 1860s. People experimented with plastics based on natural polymers for centuries. This customization by pendant groups has allowed plastics to become such an indispensable part of twenty first-century life by fine tuning the properties of the polymer. To customize the properties of a plastic, different molecular groups "hang" from the backbone (usually they are "hung" as part of the monomers before linking monomers together to form the polymer chain). (Some of commercial interest are silicon based.) The backbone is that part of the chain on the main "path" linking the multitude of monomer units together. The vast majority of plastics are composed of polymers of carbon alone or with oxygen, nitrogen, chlorine or sulfur in the backbone. These chains are made up of many repeating molecular units, or "monomers". Plastics are polymers: long chains of atoms bonded to one another. Many plastics are partially crystalline and partially amorphous in molecular structure, giving them both a melting point (the temperature at which the covalent bonds dissolve) and one or more glass transitions (temperatures at which the degree of cross-linking is substantially reduced). thermoset, elastomer, engineering plastic, addition or condensation, and Glass transition temperature or Tg. Other classifications include thermoplastic vs. Plastic can be classified in many ways but most commonly by their polymer backbone (polyvinyl chloride, polyethylene, acrylic, silicone, urethane, etc.). Plastic may also refer to any material characterized by deformation or failure under shear stress; see plasticity and ductility. Combined with this adaptability, the general uniformity of composition and light weight of plastics ensures their use in almost all industrial segments. Plastics are designed with immense variation in properties such as heat tolerance, hardness, resiliency and many others. Their name is derived from the fact that many are malleable, having the property of plasticity. Plastics can be formed into objects or films or fibers. There are few natural polymers generally considered to be "plastics". They are composed of organic condensation or addition polymers and may contain other substances to improve performance or economics. Plastic is a term that covers a range of synthetic or semisynthetic polymerization products. OTHER: Other - This plastic category, as its name of "other" implies, is any plastic other than the named #1–#6, Commonly found on: certain kinds of food containers and Tupperware. PS: Polystyrene - Commonly found on: packaging pellets or "Styrofoam peanuts," cups, plastic tableware, meat trays, take-away food clamshell containers. PP: Polypropylene - Commonly found on: bottle caps, drinking straws. LDPE: Low Density Polyethylene - Commonly found on: dry-cleaning bags, produce bags, trash can liners, food storage containers. PVC: Polyvinyl Chloride - Commonly found on: plastic pipes, outdoor furniture, shrink-wrap, water bottles, salad dressing and liquid detergent containers. HDPE: High Density Polyethylene - Commonly found on: detergent bottles, milk jugs. PETE: Polyethylene Terephthalate - Commonly found on: 2-litre soft drink bottles, cooking oil bottles, peanut butter jars. |