Polyacrylates
Acrylic acid was first synthesised
in 1843 and polymerisation of its esters was well known - a
transparent polymethyl acrylate was prepared by Kahlbaum in
1880.
The polymerisation of acrylics was extensively studied by
Otto Rohm in 1901. The Rohm & Haas company was founded in 1907
in Esslingen and moved to Darmstadt in 1909. Rohm took out a
patent in 1915 for polyacrylic ester as a paint binder.
Early view of Darmstadt
Commercial production of acrylate polymers began about 1927
as Acryloid and Plexigum and as an intermediate
layer in 'safety glass' Luglas.
The discovery by Chalmers, in Canada, of the much harder
methacrylate polymers led to the development of polymethyl
methacrylate by Crawford of ICI in
the mid 1930s. Rohm & Haas became licensed to use the ICI process to
make Plexiglas sheet in Germany.
About 1934, Rohm & Haas developed the first stable acrylic
emulsion A paint laboratory was established in 1938 but aqueous
all-acrlyic emulsions were not commercially produced until the
1950s. Soon after, acrylic based stoving enamels were developed
and about 1970, weather resistant acrylic emulsion paints were
developed for use on timber, and have now largely replaced oil
based paints in many applications.
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