Brown Bag Lecture: “Crystal Clear, Tritan Tough: A Case Study in Polymer Development”
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Date:
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May 8, 2012
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Time:
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12:00 to 1:00 p.m.
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Location:
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CHF
315 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106 |
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Open to the Public |
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Fee:
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Free
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A talk by Benjamin Gross
In October 2007 Eastman Chemical Company unveiled a new copolyester called Tritan. This new compound possessed the strength and flexibility of existing plastics but offered higher temperature and impact resistance. These qualities rendered it ideally suited for use in housewares, medical equipment, and infant-care products, and by the end of 2011 Eastman was producing 65 million pounds of the material every year. Although Tritan is poised to become one of the most prominent new plastics of the 21st century, its success was hardly self-evident. In this talk Gross will describe how members of Eastman’s scientific, legal, and marketing staff ensured that Tritan made a smooth transition into the global marketplace.
Benjamin Gross is a postdoctoral research fellow in CHF’s Center for Contemporary History and Policy. His dissertation, “Crystallizing Innovation: RCA and the Emergence of the LCD, 1951–1976,” explored the development of the first liquid-crystal display devices by scientists at the Radio Corporation of America. He previously served as the 2009–2010 Price Dissertation Fellow in Polymer History at CHF. He recently earned his Ph.D. in the history of science from Princeton University.
About Brown Bag Lectures
Brown Bag Lectures (BBLs) are a series of weekly informal talks on the history of chemistry or related subjects, including the history and social studies of science, technology, and medicine. Based on original research (sometimes still in progress), these talks are given by local scholars for an audience of CHF staff and fellows and interested members of the public.
For more information, please call 215.873.8289, or e-mail bbl@chemheritage.org.
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