Polypropylene

Polypropylene:

• Has a high melting point making it useful for food containers suitable for cooking.
• Does not react with water, detergents, or other corrosives.
• Resists cracks, making it useful for building supplies.

Natta and Ziegler (a long-time plastics researcher) worked together to innovate polypropylene, the second most commonly used plastic as of 2018. Afterwards, Natta secretly patented the innovation to himself in 1954. Natta came from a family of lawyers; he was the only scientist.

Subsequently, a long patent fight ensued in which many others claimed to have invented the plastic.

Thereupon, after countless fighting, Natta agreed to pay Ziegler 30 percent of royalties. Eventually, the two won the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1963.

No sooner was the commercial potential of polypropylene discovered than Phillips Petroleum engineers Paul Hogan and Robert Banks claim to have invented the plastic earlier, in 1951. Contrarily, it is unclear why staff engineers for a large, deep-pocketed corporation would neither disclose nor patent their invention.