Bakelite, now sought after as collectible jewelry and housewares, was the first entirely synthetic thermosetting plastic when it was invented in 1910.
Improving the plastics used in medical devices like this catheter helps advance the ease and efficacy of modern medical care. Courtesy Boston Scientific Corporation.
Consider the various combinations of properties you might find in different types of materials. This variation is what makes one material different from another. These properties may include
- Electrical properties,
- Thermal properties,
- Magnetic properties,
- Strength,
- Flexibility or rigidity, and
- Resistance to damage.
By manipulating and exploiting such properties, chemical engineers are able to develop and fabricate an ever-expanding array of desirable, imaginative, and revolutionary new end products.
Plastics
It is hard to go through an average day without coming into contact with at least some of the many different forms of plastic that currently abound. But it was only about 100 years ago that the first true plastic to be commercialized, Bakelite, was invented. Since then, owing to the adaptability of the physical properties of plastic, the development and the fabrication of plastic products have accelerated rapidly. Learn more >>
Computer chips
Computers have become thoroughly ingrained in our daily lives. And so the demand for smaller, faster, smarter, and cheaper computers has escalated. Revolutionary advances in materials science have been largely responsible for the evolution of progressively smaller semiconductor chips that boast ever-increasing speed, greater memory, and broader functionality. Learn more >>
Telecommunications
We have come to depend on instantaneous global telecommunications and data transmission. This reliance has come about in large part because of the contributions of chemical engineers working with fiber-optic cables. The enhancement of optical properties and the reduction of inherent brittleness have allowed many millions of miles of fiber-optic cable to be put to practical use. Learn more >>
Biomaterials
Innovative biocompatible materials have helped improve our quality of life and lengthen our life span. Chemical engineers have been at the forefront of these advances, creating materials for use in such familiar items as the ubiquitous gel cap, as well as in less common items, such as artificial joints, vascular meshes, and the membranes used in kidney dialysis. Learn more >>
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