# Synthetic plastics > Materials built from long molecules made in chemical plants - Date: 1907 - Era: Electric age - Domain: [Materials & Chemistry](https://lastcodex.org/en/domains/materials/) - Rebuild stage: V (Electric age) - Difficulty: 4/5 - URL: https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/synthetic-plastics/ Synthetic plastics are materials made of very long molecules built by chemists from small ones, which can be shaped while soft and then keep their form. Some soften again each time they are heated; others set for good in the mould. The first fully synthetic plastic was Bakelite, which Leo Baekeland made from phenol and formaldehyde in 1907. Today more than 400 million tonnes of plastics are produced each year, mostly from oil and natural gas. ![Synthetic plastics · Materials built from long molecules made in chemical plants](https://lastcodex.org/_astro/plate.YTPlPm3t_Z2dX99F.webp) ## Legend 1. Press ram 2. Heated platens 3. Lower half of the steel mould 4. Upper half of the steel mould 5. Charge of moulding powder 6. Moulded part ## What it is A plastic is a material made of polymers, molecules built as long chains of small units, often the same unit repeated many times over, sometimes several different ones. The length of these chains and the way they lie together let a plastic be shaped while it is soft and keep its form once it has set. Nature makes polymers too: cellulose in wood and cotton, the proteins of horn, the resin of shellac and the gum of rubber trees. ![A shallow glass bowl of loose, pea-sized plastic granules, some white, some black and some grey, beside a small heap of the same granules on a wooden table](https://lastcodex.org/_astro/v1.CWXv1EGi_2dyDgK.webp) _Plastics leave the chemical works as granules or powder, ready to be melted and moulded._ Plastics fall into three groups. Natural plastics are used much as they are found, like [horn](/en/inventions/horn-working/) or shellac. Semi-synthetic plastics are natural polymers changed by chemistry, like celluloid, made from cellulose, or [vulcanised rubber](/en/inventions/vulcanized-rubber/). In fully synthetic plastics, the polymer itself is made by chemical synthesis from small molecules instead of being taken from a natural polymer, even when fillers such as wood flour are added. Bakelite was the first; polyethylene, PVC, polystyrene and nylon followed. More than 400 million tonnes of plastics are made each year, most of them from fossil fuels, mainly oil and natural gas. Their lightness and low cost come with a problem of waste: studies by the OECD and by Roland Geyer's team both found that only a small share of plastic waste is recycled. Most of the rest is buried, burnt or lost to the environment. ## How it works Plastics split into two families by how their chains behave in heat. In a thermoplastic, the chains are held to each other only by weak forces. Heating loosens them, so the material softens and flows, and it hardens again as it cools; it can be remelted and reshaped many times. Polyethylene, PVC, nylon and most packaging are thermoplastics. In a thermoset, the chains are joined to each other by chemical bonds into one network while the part is being moulded. Once that has happened, the material cannot melt again: heated, it chars instead. Bakelite and melamine are thermosets. The two families are shaped differently. Thermoplastics are melted and forced into a cold mould by injection, pushed through a shaped opening as rods, tubes and film by extrusion, or blown into hollow shapes such as bottles. Thermosets are moulded only once. In compression moulding, the usual method for Bakelite, a measured charge of moulding powder is placed in a two-part steel mould held between heated platens. The ram of a press closes the mould, the heat and pressure soften the powder so that it fills the cavity, and the same heat completes the reaction that sets it. The moulding powder of Bakelite was the resin mixed with a filler, usually wood flour, which let it mould faster. Moulders pressed it in [hydraulic presses](/en/inventions/hydraulic-press/) into radio and telephone cases, electrical plugs, sockets and switches, saucepan handles, ashtrays and boxes, objects that had to stand heat and keep electricity in its wires. ## How to do it ![A bowl of steaming water with a few clear, merged lumps of plastic in it, a wooden spoon beside it and a small, finished white plastic hook resting on a cloth](https://lastcodex.org/_astro/v2.BSViLHbS_VfCPR.webp) _Polycaprolactone pellets turn clear in hot water and can then be shaped by hand into a hook._ A thermoplastic that softens in hot water shows what makes plastics workable. Polycaprolactone, a synthetic polyester made by Wallace Carothers's team at DuPont in the early 1930s, melts at about 60 °C and is sold in pellets for modelling and repairs, often under names such as polymorph. Bring water to the boil, pour it into a heatproof bowl and let it cool for a few minutes to about 60 °C. Tip in a spoonful of pellets and wait until they have all turned from white to clear and stuck together into one lump. Lift the lump out with a spoon or tongs and wait until it is cool enough to touch. Knead it and shape it: roll it into a rod, wrap one end round a pencil to make a hook, or press it round the end of a loose drawer handle. It turns white again and sets hard as it cools; a dip in cold water speeds this up. If the shape is wrong, put it back into hot water and start again. A thermoset could not be reworked this way. Water just off the boil scalds, and the inside of the lump stays hot after the outside feels cool. Handle the pellets with a spoon or tongs, test the lump against the back of your hand before kneading it, and keep the bowl out of reach of young children. ## History and evolution People shaped natural plastics long before chemistry made new ones. Horn and tortoiseshell were softened by heat and pressed into shape, and shellac, gutta-percha and vulcanised rubber were moulded in the nineteenth century. The first plastics made in a factory were semi-synthetic. In 1862 Alexander Parkes showed Parkesine, made from cellulose nitrate, at the International Exhibition in London, but the company he founded in 1866 to make it failed. In 1869, in the United States, John Wesley Hyatt softened cellulose nitrate with camphor and obtained celluloid, which could imitate ivory, horn and tortoiseshell. Hyatt and his brother began making it at Albany in 1870. ![A small black telephone of the 1930s with a rounded moulded body, a handset with a curled cord resting on its cradle and a round dial on the front](https://lastcodex.org/_astro/v3.Ch-KoM-M_Z2nwGOC.webp) _A telephone of the 1930s, one of the objects made of moulded Bakelite._ Leo Baekeland, a Belgian chemist working in New York, was looking for a substitute for shellac, a natural resin used as an electrical insulator. In 1907 he found how to control the heat and pressure applied to a resin made from phenol and formaldehyde, which then came from the [distillation](/en/inventions/distillation/) of coal tar and from [wood spirit](/en/inventions/wood-distillation/). The result, mixed with fillers, was a hard plastic that could be moulded and would not melt again. Bakelite was the first fully synthetic plastic. Baekeland filed his patent in 1907 and it was granted in 1909. The material found its first large markets in electrical goods, radios and cars. Chemists then learned what polymers were. Hermann Staudinger argued that they are giant molecules, or macromolecules, and received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1953 for this work. Chemical firms set out to design new plastics, and in 1935 Wallace Carothers at DuPont invented nylon, a synthetic substitute for silk. Production of plastics rose steeply after the Second World War. ## Key facts - First fully synthetic plastic: Bakelite, Leo Baekeland, 1907 - Bakelite patent: Filed 1907, granted 1909 - Earlier plastics: Parkesine (1862) and celluloid, made from cellulose - World production: More than 400 million tonnes a year - Nylon invented: Wallace Carothers, DuPont, 1935 ## Requires - [Distillation](https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/distillation/): Separating liquids by boiling and condensing (c. 300) - [Wood distillation](https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/wood-distillation/): Charcoal, tar, wood vinegar and methanol from wood heated without air (c. 1648) - [Hydraulic press](https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/hydraulic-press/): Multiplying force with water (1795) - [Steel](https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/steel/): Iron with just enough carbon (c. 1,000 BCE) ## Sources - [Plastic (Compendium of Chemical Terminology, Gold Book)](https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/13915), IUPAC - [History and Future of Plastics](https://www.sciencehistory.org/education/classroom-activities/role-playing-games/case-of-plastics/history-and-future-of-plastics/), Science History Institute - [Leo Hendrik Baekeland](https://www.sciencehistory.org/education/scientific-biographies/leo-hendrik-baekeland/), Science History Institute - [Bakelite: The “Material of a Thousand Uses”](https://www.thehenryford.org/explore/blog/bakelite-the-material-of-a-thousand-uses), The Henry Ford - [Bakelite, “The Material of a Thousand Uses” (expert set)](https://www.thehenryford.org/collections/explore/sets/detail/bakelite-the-material-of-a-thousand-uses), The Henry Ford - [Bakelite](https://www.britannica.com/science/Bakelite), Encyclopaedia Britannica - [US 942,699: Method of making insoluble products of phenol and formaldehyde (filed 13 July 1907, granted 7 December 1909)](https://patents.google.com/patent/US942699A/en), L. H. Baekeland, United States Patent Office - [Leo Hendrik Baekeland](https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/science-and-technology/chemistry-biographies/leo-hendrik-baekeland), Encyclopedia.com (Encyclopedia of World Biography) - [Parkesine](https://plastiquarian.com/?page_id=14217), The Plastics Historical Society - [Celluloid](https://plastiquarian.com/?page_id=14221), The Plastics Historical Society - [Celluloid](https://www.britannica.com/technology/celluloid), Encyclopaedia Britannica - [Parkesine replica of the bronze medal awarded to Alexander Parkes at the International Exhibition, 1862](https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co8189842/parkesine-replica-of-bronze-medal-awarded-to-alexander-parkes-at-the-international-exhibition-in-1862-replica-medal), Science Museum Group - [Parkesine medal (PHSL: PAR 79)](https://www.modip.ac.uk/artefact/phsl-par-79), Museum of Design in Plastics, Arts University Bournemouth - [Compression moulding](https://www.modip.ac.uk/plastics/manufacturing-processes/compression-moulding), Museum of Design in Plastics, Arts University Bournemouth - [Phenol formaldehyde](https://www.modip.ac.uk/plastics/materials/phenol-formaldehyde), Museum of Design in Plastics, Arts University Bournemouth - [Compression Molding](https://pslc.ws/macrog/mpm/composit/fiber/process/compress.htm), Polymer Science Learning Center, University of Southern Mississippi - [Richard W. Seabury](https://plasticshof.org/members/richard-w-seabury/), Plastics Hall of Fame - [The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1953: Hermann Staudinger](https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1953/summary/), Nobel Prize Outreach - [Chemistry Chronicles: nylon (Today's Chemist at Work)](https://pubsapp.acs.org/subscribe/archive/tcaw/10/i04/html/TCAW04chemch.html), American Chemical Society - [Plastic pollution is growing relentlessly as waste management and recycling fall short (Global Plastics Outlook, 2022)](https://www.oecd.org/en/about/news/press-releases/2022/02/plastic-pollution-is-growing-relentlessly-as-waste-management-and-recycling-fall-short.html), OECD - [Production, use, and fate of all plastics ever made (Science Advances 3, 2017)](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5517107/), R. Geyer, J. R. Jambeck and K. L. Law - [Europe’s Plastics Industry in 2023 (summary of Plastics Europe, Plastics: the Fast Facts 2024)](https://www.plasticsengineering.org/2024/11/europes-plastics-industry-in-2023-007388/), Society of Plastics Engineers - [Studies of Polymerization and Ring Formation. XXIII. ε-Caprolactone and its Polymers (Journal of the American Chemical Society 56, 1934)](https://doi.org/10.1021/ja01317a053), F. J. van Natta, J. W. Hill and W. H. Carothers, American Chemical Society - [Polycaprolactone: How a Well-Known and Futuristic Polymer Has Become an Innovative Collagen-Stimulator in Esthetics (Clinical, Cosmetic and Investigational Dermatology 13, 2020)](https://www.dovepress.com/article/download/51255), M.-O. Christen and F. Vercesi, Dove Medical Press - [Reely Polymorph modelling pellets: operating instructions](https://asset.conrad.com/media10/add/160267/c1/-/gl/002391336ML00/navodila-za-uporabo-2391336-reely-polymorph-modelirne-perle-250-g.pdf), Conrad Electronic Fact-checked on 2026-10-22. --- The Last Codex · https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/synthetic-plastics/ · © The Last Codex. Texts, plates and figures: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.