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Fig. 1.2 Synthesis of synthetic (a) and natural (b) caoutchouc
rubber was organized. In the United States, a group of researchers led by the famous
chemist Carothers synthesized neoprene—a product of polymerization of chlori-
nated butadiene. But despite the large-scale production of these synthetic rubbers,
the synthesis of natural rubber remained a pressing task because its properties were
far superior to the properties of substitutes. This problem was solved only in the
postwar years when the molecular structure of natural rubber was determined. It
turned out that only one of the four possible isomers occurring in the process of
isoprene polymerization corresponded to the structure of the natural rubber. Only
after that, in the end of the 1950s, did it become possible to develop methods for
stereospecific synthesis—a complex process at the molecular level allowing to
selectively obtain the required polyisoprene isomer during polymerization—
which then became the basis for its bulk production.
1.2 Nanotechnology, Created in the Pages of Science
Fiction, Becomes the Basis of a New Industrial
Revolution
Starting from the middle of the last century the possibility of using natural micro-
objects or creating artificial ones capable of performing certain macroscopic actions
is being actively discussed among scientists. One of the pioneers was apparently
Erwin Schr¨dinger, the famous twentieth-century physicist, who in February 1943
delivered a lecture at Trinity College (Dublin) entitled “What Is Life?” In this
