What is Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC)?
Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is one of the most common thermoplastic polymers in the world (along with other widely used plastics such as PET and P.P.). This plastic is naturally white and very brittle (before adding plasticizers). It was first synthesized in 1872 and commercially produced by B.F. Goodrich in the 1920s. Many other common plastics were first synthesized in the 1940s and 1950s and became commercially viable. Polyvinyl is mainly used in the construction industry and also for signs, healthcare applications, and fibers for clothing. PVC was discovered accidentally twice, once in 1832 by French chemist Henri Victor Regnault, and then again in 1872 by a German man named Eugen Baumann.