Eric Fawcett (chemist)
Eric William Fawcett (* 1908 ; † 1987 ) was a British chemist and with Reginald Oswald Gibson , the inventor of polyethylene at Imperial Chemical Industries 1933rd
Fawcett joined ICI as a young organic chemist in 1929 and was initially in a group that was supposed to extract gasoline from coal. To do this, he traveled to the USA in 1931 to study the composition of petroleum at the National Bureau of Standards . After returning to ICI in 1932, that was no longer of interest and he was assigned to Gibson's group at Winnington, Northwich, doing research under high pressures that might be of interest to the dyes division.
Polyethylene was found by accident as part of an ICI program to synthesize plastics under high pressure and temperature. Fawcett and Gibson allowed ethylene to react with benzaldehyde at a pressure of 2000 atmospheres and 175 degrees Celsius, whereupon a small amount of a white waxy mass (polyethylene) formed. It was fusible and strings could be drawn. In other cases, however, the result was not reproducible and only a black residue was obtained. The experiments were very dangerous and further development required safer equipment, which is why the experiments were stopped - and the merger with Akzo Nobel was just taking place. Fawcett was dissatisfied with this and leaked the discovery at a scientific conference in Cambridge, to the annoyance of the company in September 1935. He was not believed, however, since according to the opinion of the time breaking the double bonds during the polymerization of ethylene required very high temperatures. At ICI, technical improvements were made in the same year, which in 1935 led to reproducible production conditions for polyethylene by Michael Willcox Perrin at ICI - among other things, Perrin discovered by chance that small amounts of oxygen were necessary for production. Fawcett and Gibson had since been entrusted with other projects at ICI.
Web links
- Gibson and Fawcett , Plastics History Society (with photo)
Individual evidence
- ^ Pierre Laszlo: Plastiques. In: Encyclopaedia Universalis France SAS. Retrieved March 20, 2019 (French).
- ↑ Anthony Travis, Nitrogen Capture, Springer 2018, p. 354
- ^ Anna Jager: Polyethylene, discovered by accident 75 years ago , ICIS.
- ^ Martin Sherwood, Plastic explosion, New Scientist, March 24, 1983, p. 836
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Fawcett, Eric |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Fawcett, Eric William (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British chemist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1908 |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1987 |