Hermann Staudinger and the Future of Polymer Research Jubilees-Beloved Occasions for Cultural Piety

摘要

Without any apprehension and without concern for the question still on occasion discussed today of who thought, knew, or wrote something about polymers when, where, and how in the initial phase of macromolecular chemistry, the Nobel Foundation awarded Hermann Staudinger (1881-1965, Figure 1) the Nobel Prize in 1953 for his discoveries in the field of macromolecular chemistry-that is, not for the discovery of macromolecules, and not for the establishment of macromolecular chemistry. Hermann Staudinger never claimed to have discovered macromolecules. He was aware that much was known about polymers, but he had to prove their existence as chain molecules within the context of Kekule valence theory with all his farsightedness, his brilliance, and his doggedness against the dominance of those who maintained that polymers were colloidal systems or aggregates of smaller molecules.