The DuPont Experimental Station is the main research and development site of DuPont and Chemours, located along Delaware Route 141. The site map is shown in the Figure and the buildings are numbered. The map is not fixed in time in that not all of the building shown existed in the same time frame. Some were demolished before other were built.
The site was initiated along the banks of the Brandywine River so the lowest numbers are in the lower left of the map. Expansion has taken place toward the upper right, slowly displacing the DuPont Country Club, so those are the more modern buildings and the more recent history of the site. Each of the business units of the company have had research facilities at the Experimental Station, so the inventions listed below reflect the nature of the research carried out in each building.[1]
By building
editBuilding 1
Alkyd resins for automotive finishes
Building 228
Nylon polyamide synthetic polymers[2]
Polyvinyl chloride development
Polyethylene terephthalate development
Neoprene, the world's first synthetic rubber
Dacron polyester Polyethylene terephthalate fibers
Teflon Polytetrafluoroethylene dispersions
2,4-d 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid herbicides
Sulfonylurea herbicides and preemergent herbicides
Ludox colloidal silica
Vazo free radical initiators
The Bunker (building number not recorded)
Though it is not shown on the map, there was an underground bunker between buildings 228 and 262. That bunker housed a shooting range that was used to test DuPont powders and other explosives. In later years, it housed a golf ball cannon and high speed photography equipment to measure the Coefficient of Restitution of golf balls made with various DuPont elastomers.
Building 256
Teflon FEP Fluorinated ethylene propylene
Elvax ethylene vinyl acetate copolymers
Elvaloy copolymers http://www2.dupont.com/Elvaloy/en_US/
Nafion fluorinated ionomers
Vespel SP polyimide parts
Building 262
Nylon and polyester process development
Chlorofluorocarbon alternatives
Butane to intermediates for Lycra Spandex
Building 293
Kapton polyimide films
Building 302
Kevlar high-strength fibers for body armor[3][4]
Nomex flame-resistant fibers
Lycra spandex fibers
Tyvek spun-bonded olefin housewrap and envelopes
Orlon acrylic fiber
Building 304
Polyethylene terephthalate PET bottles
Thomas H. Chilton's unit operations for chemical engineering
Solamet PV17x, PV18x, PV19x, and PV20x photovoltaic metallization pastes
Building 307
Qualicon Bax riboprinter to ensure food safety
Building 320
Suva HCFC refrigerants
Building 323
Hypalon chlorosulfonated polyethylene synthetic rubber
Elvacite
Elvamide nylon multipolymer resins
Butacite polyvinyl butyral for laminated safety glass[5]
Selar RB hydrocarbon barrier nylon resins
Minlon mineral-reinforced nylon engineering resins
Supertough high-impact nylon
Supertough Delrin® polyoxymethylene engineering resin
DuPont's glass reinforced nylon
Zenite liquid crystal polymers
Zytel Thermoplastic Polyamides
Building 328
Nylon intermediates
TiPure Titanium dioxide process
Ink jet ink technology
H2SO4 process
New Harvest omega-3 fatty acid supplements
Sorona polyester
Hylamer UHMW polyethylene for joint replacements
Building 352
Riston photoresists for printed circuit boards
Cyrel digital flexography for printing
Building 353
Nordel EPDM rubber
Hytrel thermoplastic elastomer
Kalrez perfluoroelastomer
Vamac ethylene acrylic elastomer
Nobel Prize work on crown ethers by Charles J. Pedersen
Plenish high oleic acid soybean oil
Building 356
Potassium titanyl phosphate frequency doubling crystals for eye and prostate surgery, and green laser pointers
Cronex X-ray image intensifier phosphors and screens
Building 400
Hyzaar combination drug to treat hypertension
Cozaar Losartan angiotensin II receptor antagonist to treat hypertension
Sustiva Efavirenz reverse transcriptase inhibitor for human immunodeficiency virus HIV
Building 402
Reliance herbicides
Londax Preemergent herbicides
Glean herbicides
Accent post-emergent corn herbicide
Plenish high oleic acid soybeans
Building 500
Built for DuPont Pharmaceuticals, Building 500 is the newest building on site, and was instrumental in the development of Solamet PV17x, PV18x, PV19x, and PV20x photovoltaic metallization pastes
References
edit- ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-04-17. Retrieved 2012-08-08.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ History of Nylon Archived 2008-06-21 at the Wayback Machine US Patent 2,130,523 'Linear polyamides suitable for spinning into strong pliable fibers', U.S. Patent 2,130,947 'Diamine dicarboxylic acid salt' issued and U.S. Patent 2,130,948 'Synthetic fibers', all issued 20 September 1938
- ^ D. Tanner, J. A. Fitzgerald, B. R. Phillips, "The Kevlar Story - an Advanced Materials Case Study," Angewandte Chemie International Edition in English 28(5), 649 - 654 (1989)
- ^ E. E. Magat, "Fibres from Extended Chain Aromatic Polyamides, New Fibres and Their Composites," Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series A, 294(1411) 463-472 (1980)
- ^ For some unique applications of DuPont's safety glass see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6469941.stm for information about the Grand Canyon Skywalk and "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-02-02. Retrieved 2016-02-09.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) for a view of the glass stairway in the Apple store in New York.