Chemist who developed the polymer fibre Kevlar, used in bulletproof vests and body armour
Kevlar has become a household term, associated with police in bulletproof vests or soldiers in body armour. Yet when she invented Kevlar, Stephanie Kwolek, who has died aged 90, had no idea her invention would be credited with saving thousands of lives and would become quietly ubiquitous in modern life.
At the time, she was working for DuPont, the chemical company, trying to find a petroleum-based polymer fibre that would be lighter and harder-wearing than steel in radial tyres. The substance she created, lightweight, flexible, strong and heat-resistant, would prove to have hundreds of applications, in everything from space capsules to skis, fibre-optic cables to suspension bridges, firefighting suits to oven gloves.
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