Overview of Polyolefin (Polyolefin) including background, history, advantages, limitations and typical applications.

Background: Polyolefins are the largest group of thermoplastics, the two most important and common types of polyolefins are polyethylene and polypropylene. Polyethylene was discovered as an unexpected experimental result in 1931 at the research laboratory of Imperial Chemical Industries. The research was continued because polyethylene was seen to have many suitable properties, and the first plant went online in 1939 just before World War II. High density polyethylene was produced in the mid 1950s followed shortly by the discovery and rapid exploration of polypropylene.