Leo Hendrik Baekeland was born on November 14th 1863 in Ghent, Belgium and died on February 23rd 1944 in Beacon, New York. Leo Baekeland graduated with a B.S. in chemistry from the University of Ghent in 1882 and a received a doctor’s degree in 1884. He was later awarded honorary degrees from the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. Leo Baekeland was a professor of chemistry at the University of Ghent from 1882 to 1889 and was a professor of chemistry and physics at the Government Higher Normal School of Science, Bruges, Belgium from 1885 to 1887.

            In 1893 he founded Nepera Chemical Company, which he operated until 1899. Leo Baekeland was also a member of the U.S. Naval Consulting Board and the U.S. Nitrate Supply Commission, chairman of the committee on patents of the National Research Council, trustee of the Institute of International Education, and a member of the advisory board of the Chemical Division of the U.S. Department of Commerce, is that amazing or what? Leo Baekeland was truly a super human!!!

Leo Baekeland was an industrial chemist who helped to discover the modern plastics industry through his invention of Bakelite, the first thermosetting plastic (a plastic that does not soften or lose its shape when it is heated). Leo Baekeland later on moved to the United States and set up his own company to manufacture his invention, Velox. Velox was a photographic paper that could be developed under artificial light. Velox was the first commercially successful photographic paper ever developed. In 1899 Leo Baekeland sold his company and rights to the paper to the U.S. inventor George Eastman for $1,000,000 (U.S. Dollars), that’s a lot of money in 1899 if you think about it!!!

Quicktime Movie of Bakelite Formation:-  Leo Baekeland’s search for something big began in 1905, for a synthetic substitute for shellac. Using money from his first invention, Velox photographic paper, he established a laboratory, where in 1909 he synthesized a resin he named in honour of himself, Bakelite (Patent Number 942,699). Bakelite is a three-dimensional product synthesized by the condensation polymerization of formaldehyde and phenol. All this ends up with the loss of a water molecule for each combination of two phenols and one formaldehyde (see above image for a portion of Bakelite and how its synthesized). Bakelite is also synthesized at high temperatures and pressure. Bakelite was the first fully synthetic polymer ever produced and was a nonflammable (that’s good) material that was cheaper (safe and cheap, what else could you ask for?) and more versatile (this thing is great as Leo himself) than any other known plastics. Bakelite is a hard, sturdy material that is resistant to heat and electricity and is also not easily burned or scorched.

            Though this material had been reported earlier, Leo Baekeland was the first to find a process of forming it into the thermosetting plastic which is very important because we don’t want things melting and getting soft when we don’t want them to. On top of this the use of other aldehydes and of other phenols, bearing groups other than hydrogens here and there on the Bakelite Ring can cause variations of Bakelite (cousins in a way). This has created an entire class of phenolic resins that are used today primarily as adhesives and fillers in the manufacture of plywood and fiberboard and in the production of insulation materials. A little more than 45% of all thermosetting polymers produced today belong to his class of resin.

[Music Records made of Bakelite, a condensation polymer of formaldehyde and phenol]

            Bakelite has since been used in everything from engine parts to jewelry to electronics and those music records (see above image) from the good old days. This once again shows the possibilities of polymers and why we use them. Leo Baekeland then went on to receive many honours for his invention and served as president of the American Chemical Society in 1924. Leo Baekeland was president of the Bakelite Corporation from 1910 to 1939. Leo Baekeland is well known today for his research in electric insulation, synthetic resins, plastics, and mainly Bakelite of all these things.