- US polymer chemist
who was awarded the 1974 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his investigations
of synthetic and natural macromolecules. With
Wallace Carothers, he
developed nylon, the first synthetic polyamide, and the synthetic rubber
neoprene.
Flory was born in Sterling, Illinois, and educated at Manchester College,
Indiana, and Ohio State University. He then embarked on a career as
an industrial research chemist, working successively for Du Pont (with
Carothers), Esso, and the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. He was professor
of chemistry at Cornell University 1948-56 and at Stanford University
from 1961.
Flory pioneered research substances made up of giant molecules, such
as rubbers, plastics, fibres, films, and proteins. In addition to developing
polymerization techniques, he discovered ways of analysing polymers.
Many of these substances are able to increase the lengths of their component
molecular chains and Flory found that one extending molecule can stop
growing and pass on its growing ability to another molecule.
Flory's later researches looked for and found similarities between the
elasticity of natural organic tissues - such as ligaments, muscles,
and blood vessels - and synthetic and natural plastic materials.
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