Organic peroxide have been known for some considerable time. BAYER and VILLIGER, for instance, mentioned Dibenzoyl as early as 1900. However, no usefull application was discovered for this product at the time.
    It was not until 1915 that Ostromilienski described the process of cross-linking natural rubber with peroxides. In the twenties and thirties,peroxides were used in research and development work as initiators for polymerisation reactions. It was only around 1950 when the petrochemical based polymer industry was successfully developed worldwide that peroxides began to be used on a major scale for industrial applications.
    The subsequent development of perxides was essentially parallel to that of petrochemicals. The oil crisis in 1974, for example, put a brake also on the production of peroxides. 
    The number of organic peroxides available on the market has increased from the few initially available to more than 100 different compounds and commercial grades, as initiator have been progressively developed with decomposition behaviour adapted to suit the wide variety of different polymer production processes.
    The organic peroxides used as initiators in the productin and modification of polymers are added in quite small quantities to trigger the radical reactions.
    Even though organic peroxides are used in relatively small amounts of 0.01% to 5%, they have a strong effect both on the rate of the reaction which they initiate-polymerisation, polyester curing and cross-linking of polymers and on the quanlity of the end production.