History of chemical industry

Chemical processing:

The history of chemical processing before the formation of industry can be traced back to ancient times from the middle of the 18th century. Since then, people have been able to use chemical processing methods to make some necessities of life, such as pottery, brewing, dyeing, smelting, paint, paper, and the manufacture of medicine, gunpowder and soap

There are pottery fragments in Neolithic caves in China. In the Yangshao culture around the 50th century BC, there were red pottery, gray pottery, black pottery, colored pottery, etc. (See color pictures [colored pottery pot fired in China's Neolithic period (2500 BC)],[three-colored pottery camel fired in the Sui Dynasty (581-618)],[moire paint made in the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC - 25 AD)], [Water notes of celadon fired in Yuezhou Kiln in Tang Dynasty (618 ~ 907)],[Chinese ancient alchemy sketch]). Among the cultural relics unearthed in Hemudu, Zhejiang, China, there are wooden bowls of the same period, painted with vermilion raw paint. Shang Dynasty (17th-11th century BC) ruins have pieces of lacquerware Warring States period (475-221 BC) lacquerware technology has been very exquisite

In the 20th century BC, Xia Yu drank wine and used it for sacrifices. In the 25th century BC, Egypt wrapped mummies in dye. In the 21st century BC, China has entered the Bronze Age, the 5th century BC, into the Iron Age, with smelting copper, iron to make weapons, farming tools, cooking utensils, tableware, Musical Instruments, currency and so on. Salt, early for consumption, in the 11th century BC, the Zhou Dynasty has been in charge of salt officials. From the 7th to 6th centuries BC, Phoenicians made soap from goat fat and plant ash. In the Eastern Han Dynasty of China in the 1st century AD, the papermaking process was quite perfect

Around AD, China and Europe entered alchemy, the period of alchemy. China researched medicine by refining the elixir of life. In the 16th century, Li Shizhen's Compendium of Materia Medica (Compendium of Materia Medica) summarized the great achievements of previous medicines, which was of high academic level. In addition, the mixing method of three ingredients has been recorded in the 7th to 9th centuries, and gunpowder was used for military purposes in the early Song Dynasty. Europe since the 3rd century superstitious alchemy, until the 15th century from alchemy gradually turned into medicine, the history of the 15th to 17th centuries for the pharmaceutical period. In pharmaceutical research, chemicals such as sulfuric, nitric, hydrochloric and organic acids are prepared in the laboratory to prepare drugs. Although it did not form an industry, it led to the development of chemical preparation methods, which prepared the conditions for the establishment of the chemical industry in the mid-18th century

Early chemical industry:

From the middle of the 18th century to the beginning of the 20th century was the primary stage of the chemical industry. At this stage, inorganic chemical industry has begun to take shape, organic chemical industry is forming, and polymer chemical industry is in the embryonic stage.

Inorganic chemical industry

The first typical chemical plant was the sulfuric acid plant established in England in the 1740s. First with sulfur as raw material, then with pyrite as raw material, the product is mainly used to make nitric acid, hydrochloric acid and drugs, at that time the output is not large. During the industrial revolution, the textile industry developed rapidly. It and glass, soap and other industries use a large number of alkali, while vegetative alkali and trona are in short supply. In 1791, under the reward of the French Academy of Sciences, he obtained a patent, built a factory with salt as raw materials, and led the development of sulfuric acid (one of the raw materials) industry; The hydrogen chloride produced in production is used to make hydrochloric acid, chlorine gas, bleaching powder and other substances urgently needed by the industry.

Soda ash can also be causticized to make full use of raw materials and by-products, which was the pioneering work of chemical enterprises at that time; Filling devices for the absorption of hydrogen chloride, rotary furnaces for calcination of raw materials and semi-finished products, and equipment for concentration, crystallization, filtration, etc., are gradually used in other chemical enterprises, laying the foundation for the operation of chemical units. The Luebblin process was gradually replaced by the Solvay process (see) in the early 20th century. Electrolysis of salt appeared in the late 19th century. In this way, the production of acids and alkalis, the basis of the entire chemical industry, has begun to take shape.

Organic chemical industry

After the development of textile industry, natural dyes can not meet the needs; With the development of iron and steel industry and coking industry, the by-product coal tar needs to be utilized. Chemists separated coal tar into,,,, anthracene, phenanthrene, etc. In 1856, the British synthesized aniline purple dye, and determined that the structure of natural alizarin was dihydroxyanthraquinone after analysis, then using the anthracene in coal tar as raw material, through oxidation, substitution, hydrolysis, rearrangement and other reactions, imitated the same product as natural alizarin. Similarly, the pharmaceutical industry and the fragrance industry have successively synthesized the same chemicals as the natural products, and the variety is increasing. In 1867, the Swedes invented dynamite (see), which is widely used in mining and military industry.