![]() During further experiments, the team was successful in polymerizing the raw material in a controlled manner between conventional glass panes thereby producing thin acrylic panels. This reaction destroyed the bottle and left behind a block made of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA). The polymerization reaction was triggered as daylight hit the bottle. A sample of the methyl methacrylate (MMA) monomer was stored in a bottle placed by a window. Here, Röhm and his team achieved a decisive breakthrough: The chemists discovered that polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) was a harder, transparent material than the previously researched acrylates.Īnd an accident helped them along the way. After their success in the area of acrylates, they turned their attention to methacrylates. And Röhm & Haas also continued their research efforts. It took just one decade for them to develop today’s most important plastics. In the 1930s, chemists around the world accelerated their efforts in plastics research at a breathtaking pace. ![]() PLEXIGLAS® as the culmination of plastics research When compared to this strong competitor, it seemed that Röhm’s research department was understaffed and under-equipped. Farbenindustrie AG put just as much effort into their plastics research. At the same time, major companies such as I.G. But research was tiresome and costly – and explosions were a regular occurrence. Röhm & Haas established a department dedicated to this research. He named this field of research “rubber work”.Īfter World War I, the company was finally able to invest a greater amount of funds into plastics research. He was absolutely determined to begin the search for suitable processes for producing acrylic acid ester and its potential applications. Otto Röhm was convinced that commercially viable applications were possible with this material. In his dissertation on “Polymerization products of acrylic acid” (1901), he looked at the “fixed modification”, the acrylic acid ester polymerisate, a colorless, transparent, highly elastic and insoluble mass. In contrast, plastics research was extremely costly and at that time it offered little hope for commercial utilization.īut plastics research was always on Otto Röhm’s mind. The Röhm & Haas chemical company, founded in 1907, sold products for the leather and textile industry. This decision proved courageous as the previous focus of the Röhm & Haas activities had nothing to do with this field of research. But the greatest invention by Röhm and his staff was the invention of PLEXIGLAS® in 1933. Röhm was a true pioneer in the field of plastics, developing a large number of acrylate and methacrylate compounds. In 1901 he earned his PhD with a dissertation on “Polymerization products of acrylic acid.” Six years later he and Otto Haas founded the Röhm & Haas company. Trained as an assistant pharmacist, Röhm (picture above 1908) first studied Pharmacy and then Chemistry in Munich and Tübingen.
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