Wallace Carothers

Wallace Carothers was an American chemist whose research at DuPont helped establish polymer science and led to the development of neoprene and nylon.

Nylon: A family of synthetic polyamides first developed at DuPont in the 1930s. Carothers’s group developed nylon 6,6, a durable fiber made by condensation polymerization.
Polymerization: A chemical process that joins small molecules into larger molecules called polymers. Carothers investigated how reactions build long molecular chains from simpler compounds.
Harvard University: A private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, founded in 1636. Carothers completed his doctorate in organic chemistry at Harvard before joining DuPont.
Julian W. Hill: An American chemist who worked with Wallace Carothers at DuPont and helped develop nylon. Hill’s experiments helped transform Carothers’s polymer research into nylon fibers.
Great Depression: A severe global economic crisis that began in 1929 and lasted through much of the 1930s. Carothers’s career and final years unfolded during this period of widespread economic hardship.
Neoprene: A synthetic rubber made by polymerizing chloroprene. Carothers and his collaborators developed this commercially useful rubber at DuPont.
Condensation polymerization: A polymer-forming reaction in which monomers join while releasing small molecules such as water. This reaction type enabled the polyamides and polyesters studied by Carothers’s group.
DuPont: An American chemical company founded in 1802. DuPont recruited Carothers in 1928 to lead polymer research at its Experimental Station.
Paul J. Flory: An American chemist whose theoretical work explained polymerization and polymer structure. Flory joined the DuPont polymer group after Carothers and advanced its scientific foundations.
Mental health: A person’s psychological and emotional well-being, including conditions that affect thought and mood. Carothers experienced depression, which affected his life alongside his scientific achievements.

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