Topic > The Impact of Paul J. Flory's Discoveries on Our Daily Lives

Paul J. Flory was an activist, scientist, journalist, chemist, and educator all rolled into one. He was born June 19, 1910, in Sterling, Illinois, to Ezra Flory and Martha Brumbaugh. His father, Ezra Flory, was a priest-educator of the Brothers, while his mother, Martha, was a teacher. Flory attended Elgin High School and then enrolled at Manchester College in Indiana where he graduated in 1931. There, his interest in science, particularly chemistry, was encouraged by a professor named Carl W. Holl. Holl then began trying to convince him to apply to graduate school at The Ohio State University in Columbus, which was home to one of the largest chemistry departments in the country. He enrolled in and completed a master's degree in organic chemistry because he found himself very unsure about what he really wanted to study, which was physical chemistry. For his doctorate, however, he eventually switched to physical chemistry. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Flory's career included many accomplishments and positions, both academic and technical. In July 1934, he began working in the Central Research Department of EI du Pont de Nemours and Company under the American chemist Wallace Carothers. Flory was given the task of studying the physical chemistry of macromolecules, or polymers, which became part of his life studies, and the reason he won the Nobel Prize. Wallace Carother, died unexpectedly in 1937, and a year later Flory moved to the University of Cincinnati in Ohio. He later went to work in an oil company and a tire and rubber company. In 1948 he accepted a professorship in chemistry at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. That year, this position became a full-time professorship. After several years at Cornell, Flory became executive director of research at the Mellon Institute in Pittsburgh, which he left four years later for a position at Stanford University in California. Paul J. Flory is known for his work and studies in the field of macromolecules and polymers, but he also did research in the fields of photochemistry and spectroscopy. Photochemistry is the branch of chemistry that deals with the chemical effects of light, while spectroscopy is the branch of science that deals with the investigation and measurement of the spectra produced when matter interacts with or emits electromagnetic radiation. Wallace Hume Carothers was the first to show him that polymeric substances (such as rubber, cellulose, proteins, plastics, and nylon) could be treated in terms of ordinary chemistry, an approach that later inspired Flory. Flory came up with the “principle of equal reactivity,” according to which chains do not lose their propensity to grow when they stretch, as previously assumed. He calculated a chain length distribution curve, which was curved experimentally later. Additionally, during his years at DuPont, Flory developed his idea of ​​"chain transfer," which determined that a growing addition polymer can transfer its growth site to a nearby molecule by taking over one of its atoms. This observation allowed chemists to control the average chain length of polymer products by adding a growth-stopping substance, an ability that was exploited during World War II for the U.S. synthetic rubber program, to which Flory later contributed at Standard Oil and Goodyear.Flory worked during the periods of World War II, which greatly affected his work. His research and discoveries have had a great impact on the world today. He worked with polymer products that are known.