Leo Baekeland

Leo Hendrik Baekeland ( born November 14, 1863 in Ghent, † February 23, 1944 in Beacon, New York ) was a Belgian- American chemist and inventor. Baekeland developed in the years 1905 to 1907 the first mass-produced plastic Bakelite.

Life

The son of the shoemaker Charles Baekeland developed early natural science and economics interests. As a young student of a night school, he received awards in the fields of chemistry, physics and economics. A scholarship enabled him in 1880 to study chemistry at the University of Ghent. In 1884 he received his doctorate barely 20 years old. In addition to teaching at a secondary school, he worked from 1888 as associate professor of chemistry at the University of Ghent. In 1889 he married Celine Swarts, the daughter of his former professor of chemistry, Theodore Swarts.

During a study trip, he decided in 1889 to remain in the United States. From 1893 he ran a production company - the Nepera Chemical Company ( Nepera Park, NY). The rights of a developed his photographic paper ( Velox ) ( a paper type for quick Developing photos in artificial light ) he sold in 1899 for one million dollars to the Eastman Kodak. This money allowed him to continue his studies in a private laboratory. According to studies of electrochemical processes he turned to 1905 the well-known since 1872 ( Adolf von Baeyer ) condensation reaction of phenol and formaldehyde. The company developed an autoclave ( Bakelizer ), the optionally heated and can be cooled, allowed him a temperature control of chemical reaction under pressure. In numerous experiments, he identified the variables influencing the course of the reaction.

In 1907 he received the important heat - pressure - patent. In subsequent years it came to patent litigation, he could decide for themselves. The end of 1910 he founded with his adversaries process the General Bakelite Company, which was acquired by Union Carbide in 1939.

In Germany Rütgerswerke acquired a license and began in 1909 with the production of bakelite. Baekeland founded to on May 25, 1910 together with the business founded by Julius Rutgers Rutgers works, the Bakelite Gesellschaft mbH in Erkner near Berlin.

In the years after 1910 Baekeland took addition to his work as president of the Bakelite Corporation perceive numerous honorary positions.

For his services he was awarded numerous awards: in 1909 he receives the Nichols Medal of the American Chemical Society and 1940, the Franklin Medal of the Franklin Institute. Baekeland is on the published by the American magazine Time magazine on 29 March 1999 " list of the 20 greatest thinkers and scientists of the 20th century".

Baekeland is on the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery buried.

In his honor, the Leo Hendrik Baekeland Award of the ACS is named.

Works

• Velox, a photographic paper that can be illuminated by an artificial light source.
• Use of a heating and cooling means pressure vessel.
• Declaration of condensation processes that lead to the formation of phenolic resins. Together with H. Lebach introducing the concepts of novolak resin for under acidic conditions of condensation and excess formaldehyde, and resol ( bakelite A) for resins under alkaline reaction conditions and excess phenol. Furthermore resitol ( Bakelite B) for the curable molding composition of resol, and Resit ( bakelite C) for the cured resin.