Stephanie KWOLEK, the "mother" of KEVLAR
If not elsewhere, but we know this material, called Kevlar, from Batman films as Batman's clothes and car and other items of his equipment. It is supposed to be the Darth Vader's mask, so it did not burn...
Kevlar was the invention of the DuPont company's chemist, Stephanie Kwolek, in 1965. Kwolek was born as a child of Polish immigrant parents at the US suburb of Pittsburgh. The French founding DuPont has carried out important basic research since the late 1920s, and spent considerable amounts of money. The result was, for example, the development of nylon in 1933, later the teflon, the butacite and the neoprene.
In the east of Europe, she would have been driven back to the wooden spoon...
After DuPont was involved in the reconstruction of Europe with great force after the war, it also strengthened the research work in the sixties and seventies. Stephanie Kwolek was an active participant in this field, who focused on polymers. The aim was, however, to develop a tire with light, yet strong and elastic threads. Kwolek has worked out a liquid crystal solution with polyphenils and polybenzamide, which has come close to the solution and in which the Kevlar fantasy-named fiber born with its own special features. Kevlar is a specialty polymer, a type of aramid, all named para-phenylenediamine phthalamide. The most important feature of Kevlar fibers is that they can only be removed/torn with very great force. Five times as strong as steel fibers, and prevents the spread of cracks. However, they are very light, do not corrode, resist alkalis, acids and heat. Kwolek had a great deal of success with her nylon-twisted Kevlar fiber, demonstrating that while nylon is shrinking in hot water, Kevlar does not change.
DuPont patented the invention in 1966, and the Kevlar was launched on the road to the World Rock. It was first used in bulletproof vest. It saved thousands of policemen and soldiers. But the cover made of it protects the cables underneath the sea as it secures ruggedness and flexibility in the structure of spacecrafts and crafts, as they do in parachutes, various ropes, lines (such as fishing lines), tennis rackets, skis, cut-resistant and heat-resistant gloves, bridges, membrane loudspeakers, mobiles and fire-fighting boots.
Stephanie Kwolek lived a rich and long life, and when she died in 2014 when she was 90 years old, she just sold the one-millionth bulletproof waistcoat in her country. Her invention has become a symbol of almost perfect materials.
