Polyethylene was accidentally discovered in a laboratory of the ICI Co., Ltd in UK. From early 1940s, it started being produced in U.S., and was very favored as the representative product of petrochemical industry. Once there was a studying about producing Polyethylene from ethyl alcohol, but nowadays, it is made by ethylene polymerization with naphtha. The property of polyethylene changes as the molecular structures and the distribution of molecular weight differ, for example, the crystallinity and melting index change according to the molecular structure. Polyethylene gets divided into LDPE, LLDPE, and HDPE according to the density of it. The properties of those are shown here.


Polyethylene's usage is broad, because it doesn't lose it's elasticity under quite low
temperature, and has strong intensity, and strong against chemicals, and it also can be made to complicated shapes by molding. Especially it's usage on agriculture is plenty. It is widely used on vegetation fields,
orchards, and floriculture fields. Also, it is used on construction fields, for building's base formation to prevent water leakage.