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There are many interesting materials known to chemistry and materials science. A large group of materials, known as plastics, is one of the more interesting ones. However, many people do not realize that plastic materials haven’t been in use for such a long time. The year 1856 is considered to be the year when a first plastic known as parkesine was produced, however later it got a new name – celluloid, which was registered in 1870.

A typical celluloid material usually contains around 75 percent of nitrocellulose (usually nitrated to 10 or 11 percent of nitrogen), 30 percent of camphor, 1 to 5 percent of ethyl alcohol and various other substances like dye and stabilizers.

Celluloid is considerered to be the first man-made thermoplastic material. It can be easily shaped and molded, and in the start, it was most well known for being a replacement for ivory. The early types of celluloid were extremly flammable and easily decomposed, which often presented a relatively high risk, but gradually, new formulations have been created in which some additional substances were added to reduce flammabilty of this plastic. However, with time it was replaced with many other types of plastics that have better properties. Regardless of this fact, it remains one of the most important materials in the history of material technology. It is also interesting to mention that today celluloid is well known to be the most common material that is used in the production of table tennis balls and guitar picks.

Celluloid also has many other interesting properties. If one is interested in finding out even more related to the chemistry of celluloid, it’s always a good idea to start with some of the basic chemistry related tutorials.