Chemistry in the 21st century

 Chemistry in the 21st century

Two more innovations of the late 20th century deserve at least brief mention, especially as they are special focuses of the chemical industry in the 21st century. The phenomenon of superconductivity (the ability to conduct electricity with no resistance) was discovered in 1911 at temperatures very close to absolute zero (0 K, −273.15 °C, or −459.67 °F). In 1986 two Swiss chemists discovered that lanthanum copper oxide doped with barium became superconducting at the “high” temperature of 35 K (−238 °C, or −397 °F). Since then, new superconducting materials have been discovered that operate well above the temperature of liquid nitrogen—77 K (−196 °C, or −321 °F). In addition to its purely scientific interest, much research focuses on practical applications of superconductivity.

In 1985 Richard Smalley and Robert Curl at Rice University in Houston, Tex., collaborating with Harold Kroto of the University of Sussex in Brighton, Eng., discovered a fundamental new form of carbon, possessing molecules consisting solely of 60 carbon atoms. They named it buckminsterfullerene (later nicknamed “buckyball”), after Buckminster Fuller, the inventor of the geodesic dome. Research on fullerenes has accelerated since 1990, when a method was announced for producing buckyballs in large quantities and practical applications appeared likely. In 1991 Science magazine named buckminsterfullerene their “molecule of the year.”

Two centuries ago, Lavoisier’s chemical revolution could still be questioned by the English émigré Joseph Priestley. A century ago, the physical reality of the atom was still doubted by some. Today, chemists can maneuver atoms one by one with a scanning tunneling microscope, and other techniques of what has become known as nanotechnology are in rapid development. The history of chemistry is an extraordinary story.