The first person who discovered the existence of plastic was the German chemist Bayer at the end of the 19th century. He once compounded phenol with formaldehyde to obtain a resin-like substance. Unfortunately, he didn’t know what it could be used for.
In 1907, the American industrial chemist Baekeland once again studied the reaction of phenol and formaldehyde, and added an appropriate amount of fillers, and found that the product was tough and had good insulation properties. Thus, in 1910, the first plastic product factory in history with an annual output of 1,000 tons was built. By 1939, the product had grown to more than 200,000 tons. Although vinyl chloride was discovered in 1912, it was made into plastic in 1932, and it was produced by the British company Benemen. In 1947, American chemists Gereriu and Kong Ning synthesized polystyrene. It was not until the 1950s that the German chemist Ziegler and the Italian chemist Nape invented new catalytic polymerization agents, which pushed the plastics manufacturing industry to its peak. Since then, high-performance plastic varieties have sprung up like bamboo shoots after a rain. The common ones are polypropylene, ABS, polysulfone, and polycarbonate. The world’s annual output has exceeded 60 million tons, which is equal to the total output of wood and cement.

Synthetic materials are materials that are compounded by two or more substances and have certain comprehensive properties. It is divided into structural composite materials and functional composite materials. Composite material is an emerging material developed with the advancement of material science and technology. Composite materials are a kind of promising emerging materials, which are widely used in aviation, aerospace, chemical, shipbuilding, automotive, electrical manufacturing and other industries.

As for synthetic fibers, they were first developed on the basis of transforming natural fibers.
In 1855, German chemist Antima first treated mulberry branches with concentrated nitric acid to obtain a fiber. Unfortunately, it was easy to flammable and could not be used. In 1884, the British chemist Swain used nitric acid and fiber to synthesize “safe rayon”, which was exhibited at the Paris Exposition in 1889 and was a sensation.
In 1935, American chemist Carozes first synthesized nylon-66 with hexylene glycol and adipic acid, and launched the world’s first synthetic fiber. In 1937, the German Organic Research Institute synthesized nylon-6.
In 1939, the Japanese chemist Ichiro Lou Tian synthesized nylon fiber that was resistant to water and heat. In 1940, the British chemist Dixon synthesized polyester fiber, which was put into production that year, with an output of 50,000 tons. Today, the output of synthetic fibers is increasing day by day, and the world’s annual output has reached 15 million tons, exceeding the output of natural fibers.

Synthetic rubber also started from imitating and modifying natural rubber.
In 1838, American worker Goodyi used turpentine, sulfur, and calcium carbonate to heat raw rubber at high temperatures to obtain rubber with excellent properties. Since then, rubber has become famous and has been widely used as tires and insulated wires. Due to the rapid development of the automobile and aircraft industries, the output of natural rubber is limited and cannot meet the increasing demand. Especially during the First World War, Germany was blocked by the British navy and could not obtain rubber from Southeast Asia and South America. It was in urgent need of substitutes to alleviate the urgent need. Therefore, synthetic rubber came into being. At that time, German chemists first used acetylene and acetone to synthesize 2,350 tons of 2,3-dimethylbutadiene rubber to meet the urgent needs of the war. In the 1930s after the war, scientists synthesized styrene butadiene rubber and nitrile rubber. Although the cost was higher than that of natural rubber, the quality was basically close to that of natural rubber. In 1932, the American chemist Newland first chlorinated and polymerized acetylene to obtain a-chloro-1,3-butadiene monomer, which was then polymerized into chloroprene rubber. It has the advantages of oxygen resistance, shock resistance, heat resistance, etc., and its performance has exceeded that of natural rubber. Since the 1950s, the output of synthetic rubber has more than doubled that of natural rubber, with an annual output of 6 million tons.