E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, commonly referred to as DuPont, was an American company that was founded in July 1802 in Wilmington, Delaware, as a gunpowder mill by French-American chemist and industrialist Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours. In the 20th century, DuPont developed many polymers such as Vespel, neoprene, nylon, Corian, Teflon, Mylar, Kapton, Kevlar, Zemdrain, M5 fiber, Nomex, Tyvek, Sorona, Corfam and Lycra. DuPont developed Freon for the refrigerant industry, and later other refrigerants. It also developed synthetic pigments and paints including ChromaFlair. In 2014, DuPont was the world's fourth-largest chemical company based on market capitalization and eighth-largest based on revenue. On August 31, 2017, it merged with the Dow Chemical Company to create DowDuPont.