Wallace Carothers

Wallace Carothers (1896-1937), American chemist, whose innovative research pioneered the development of several major synthetic materials, including nylon and neoprene, a form of synthetic rubber.

Carothers was born in Burlington, Iowa. In 1914 he enrolled in an accounting course at his father’s small commercial college in Des Moines, Iowa, but he left after a year, transferring to Tarkio College in Missouri, where he pursued his interest in science. At Tarkio he studied and taught chemistry. Carothers went on to study organic chemistry at the University of Illinois, earning his doctorate in 1924. He taught for a short time at the University of Illinois and Harvard University but soon left academia to pursue his interest in research.

In 1928 the Du Pont Company hired Carothers as head of organic chemistry research at its laboratory in Wilmington, Delaware. Carothers’s main study interest was polymers (substances made of long chains of repeating molecules). His early investigations led to the development of neoprene, a type of synthetic rubber that is resistant to heat, light, and most solvents. This substance has become a standard component for products requiring flexible, rubberized, waterproof materials, such as scuba-diving equipment, wetsuits, and hoses.

In 1930 Carothers began work on producing a polymer that could be stretched out into a synthetic fibre similar to silk. In 1931 he found one fibre that, after stretching, became even stronger than silk. This material, which was called nylon, entered use in 1938 in stockings and as toothbrush bristles, and it ushered in a new era of synthetic materials. Although World War II delayed the production of nylon for the general public, it eventually appeared in an almost endless variety of products including textiles, and as a solid material. It has found many applications where a light material that is strong and resistant to heat, oils, grease, and water is needed. As a result of Carothers’s pioneering work, chemists worldwide have learned to design and produce a great number of large-molecule polymers, including the polyester Terylene. Carothers suffered from bouts of depression and committed suicide in 1937.