Know Your Plastics Series: Polypropylene (PP)
When looking up plastic material, have you ever come across the name Polypro? Polypropene? Or Molpen? Well, they all refer to the same thing – Polypropylene (PP). Polypropylene containers Polypropylene (PP) is a white, semi-crystalline, mechanically rugged thermoplastic polymer produced from the propene monomer called propylene. Ranked the second most widely produced commodity plastic after polyethylene, Polypropylene has similar properties and attributes with polyethylene as members of the polyolefin family. The very first preparation of Polypropylene was an accident. J. Paul Hogan and Robert Banks were trying to derive gasoline from propylene gas at Phillips Petroleum in 1951 when they stumbled on the polymer and its potential. In 1954, Giulio Natta and Karl Rehr had developed the highly crystalline isotactic polymer for the Montecatini Corporation, which was perfected and mass-produced for commercial and consumer use by 1957. Widely known as the “Steel” of plastics for its adaptabil