ABSTRACT
Vinyl ether was first converted into a resinous polymer more than a century ago. Between 1920 and 1930, it became readily accessible by the techniques of Reppe chemistry and thus attracted industrial interest. Means were then investigated for polymerizing it. In 1938 the large-scale production of vinyl ether polymers commenced in the Ludwigshafen works of the former IG-Farbenproduktion (now the main production site of BASF AG). GAF Corporation started production after 1940, followed by Union Carbide Corporation, which relinquished the field in 1976.
