It's Elemental: The Hidden Chemistry in Everything by Kate Biberdorf

Author:Kate Biberdorf [Biberdorf, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: science, chemistry, General, Physical & Theoretical, Life Sciences, Biochemistry, history
ISBN: 9781488073953
Google: hMPkDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2021-07-13T23:50:40.631812+00:00

POLYAMIDE BY ANOTHER NAME

Have you ever heard of a scientist named Stephanie Kwolek? She’s an American chemist that passed away in 2014 after spending more than forty years working as an organic chemist at DuPont. Back in 1964, she was working on a new molecule that could replace steel in racing tires when she accidentally formed a bizarre solution in the lab.

Kwolek was so intrigued by the half-liquid, half-solid substance that she asked a colleague to run the material through a spinneret, which is a piece of equipment that tries to spin solutions into fibers. If the experiment was successful, long needlelike fibers would be produced that look just like glass wool. Luckily for Kwolek, that’s exactly what happened for her material. She was so happy with this result that she decided to test the new molecule for robustness, and to her surprise, found out that it was five times stronger (by weight) than steel.

After a few more experiments, Kwolek and her colleagues learned that the new substance could become even stronger after heating it. For those of you who have never worked in a lab, this result would be like watching Superman walk into a fire before miraculously turning into the Hulk. Somehow, the heat from the fire was forcing the molecules to rearrange in such a way that it gave the substance superhero strength.

The material Kwolek discovered is Kevlar. Today, we use this molecule in all sorts of things, from bulletproof vests and fiber-optic cables to the spacesuits astronauts will wear on Mars. This giant molecule is called poly-paraphenylene terephthalamide, and it is a synthetic fiber.

Kevlar is one of the strongest materials known to mankind. The atoms are packed so tightly together and bonded so strongly to all of its neighbors, that nothing—not even a bullet—can break them apart. In the Orlando nightclub shooting, one of the police officers that responded to the call was saved by his Kevlar helmet that stopped a bullet from entering his head. And in the Parkland shooting, a group of high school students hid behind Kevlar sheets they found in a Junior ROTC room.

This fabric saves lives. All because of the (exceptionally strong) attractions between molecules.

The elastic fibers in the polyamide were first invented in the 1930s, and were immediately recognized as excellent candidates for clothing (not makeup). For example, when nylon stockings were first released in 1939, they were a huge improvement over stockings made from cotton or wool. Women would wait in long lines to purchase just one pair of stockings—kind of like how lines form for Black Friday sales now.

Just like other fabrics, nylon is pulled into long, thin fibers before being grouped together like planks in a fence. Then those fibers are knitted together in an intricate pattern of loops to produce nylon fabric. While the fabric is very stretchy, it does not breathe as much as the polyester fabrics we discussed in the previous chapter because the molecules are so tightly bound together.

As mentioned, when these new nylon stockings were first produced, women of the time were obsessed with the groundbreaking fabric.

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