Bakelite

Bakelite, trademark name for the family of phenol-formaldehyde resins created by Belgian-born American chemist Leo Hendrik Baekeland, the founder of modern synthetic plastics.

Bakelite is a synthetic resin formed as a condensation polymer of formaldehyde and phenol. The resulting prepolymer, called a resol, is combined with a filler and a pigment and then heated under pressure creating links between the polymer chains that result, on cooling and drying, in a strengthened matrix that cannot be undone without destroying the plastic.

As Bakelite is strong and temperature and chemically resistant it has a range of practical uses, and can be moulded to form whole objects or used in combination with other materials. Its various uses have included radios, phonograph records, billiard balls, clocks, buttons, lamps, umbrella handles, telephones, jewellery, adhesive, paints, enamel coatings, chemical equipment, industrial castings, and engine components such as gears. As a decorative and household material it is particularly associated with the art deco movement. Its practical value in a range of electrical domestic appliances is due to it being a non-conductor of electricity, and it is used extensively in industry as an electrical insulator. It is also used as a substitute for rubber and celluloid.

Baekeland invented Bakelite in New York in 1907 by mixing carbolic acid (phenol) with formaldehyde to produce a synthetic substitute for the shellac then used in electrical insulation. Bakelite is considered the first plastic and was introduced to the general public at a chemical conference in 1909.