Historical aspects of polyesters

During the 20th century, mankind faced several paradigm changes. One of the most pervasive changes that occurred in human society was represented by the discovery and widespread application of polymers. Among all of them, polyesters represent a wide family with very different properties from each other, containing a repetitive carboxylic unit bonded to an alcoholic moiety. Generally, polyesters are formed by the condensation of dicarboxylic acids and di-alcohols but also acid anhydride or acyl chloride as well as hydroxyacids may be employed. The type of monomer used determines the properties of the synthesized polymer for a specific application. Depending on the application, polyesters are divided into saturated and unsaturated. Anyhow, the definition of polyester is only a word container for describing a very complex set of materials with different properties and productive routes. The fascinating history of polyesters is tightly connected with the recent history of modern chemistry and material science. In the following section, we report a brief overview of the main discovery in polyester history together with an overview of the polymers that moved from the laboratory to the market.