acrylic

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acrylic, any of a broad array of synthetic resins and fibres that are based on derivatives of acrylic and methacrylic acid. Both acrylic acid (CH2=CHCO2H) and methacrylic acid (CH2=C[CH3]CO2H) have been synthesized since the mid-19th century, but the practical potential of materials related to these compounds became apparent only about 1901, when German chemist Otto Röhm published doctoral research on polymers of acrylic esters. Beginning on a commercial basis in the 1930s, esters of acrylic acid were polymerized to form the polyacrylate resins, which are now important constituents of acrylic paints, and methacrylic acid esters were polymerized to polymethyl methacrylate, a clear plastic sold under trademarks such as Plexiglas and Perspex. In 1950 Orlon, the first commercially successful acrylic fibre, was introduced by E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company (now DuPont Company). Acrylic and modacrylic fibres are based on polyacrylonitrile.

Other acrylics include cyanoacrylate resins, made into fast-acting adhesives; poly-2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate, abbreviated polyHEMA, made into soft contact lenses; polyacrylamide resins, used as flocculents in water clarification; and rubber products made of polyacrylate elastomer.

This article was most recently revised and updated by William L. Hosch.