DuPont - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (often DuPont) is an American chemical company. Eleuthère Irénée du Pont founded it in July 1802 as a gunpowder mill. DuPont was the world's third largest chemical company based on market capitalization and ninth based on revenue in 2009. Its stock price is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
In the 20th century, DuPont developed many polymers such as Vespel, neoprene, nylon, Corian, Teflon, Mylar, Kevlar, Zemdrain, M5 fiber, Nomex, Tyvek, Sorona and Lycra. DuPont developed Freon (chlorofluorocarbons) for the cooling industry and later, more environmentally friendly refrigerants. It developed synthetic pigments and paints including ChromaFlair.
Some of DuPont's trademarked brands have become genericized. For instance, “neoprene” was originally intended to be a trademark, but quickly came into common usage.