Rubber is a natural polymer made from polyisoprene, derived from the sap of some plants such as Hevea brasiliensis or Euphorbia cerifera.

In the 19th century, rubber was a highly sought-after material due to its ability to keep water out and compressed air. And as the scientific community learned more about rubber as a material, they soon realized that certain chemicals could be added to create synthetic rubbers with beneficial new properties or at least properties of very peculiar interest!

Today, we’re going to be looking at some more exciting and exotic varieties of rubber: namely, human-made rubbers (or synthetic rubbers) that were invented to mimic rubber’s properties.

The first variety is something that you won’t find in your local hardware store or Walmart: it’s called C60 and was initially synthesized by University of Pittsburgh chemist Louis Fieser for his research on anti-fouling coatings. C60, also known as Fullerene, is a molecule composed entirely of carbon. It has been getting a lot of attention lately because it exhibits specific properties that scientists have never seen before in organic molecules!

Fullerenes are especially interesting because they display an incredibly high degree of stability against degradation, which means that they could potentially last billions of years! This may seem like a long time, but scientists estimate the Earth is only about 4.5 billion years old, so we’re talking about possibly prolonging the lifespan of specific molecules and materials by at least one-third!

Balloons are also made of rubber – specifically, they’re usually made of latex. In its natural state, latex is a liquid that has been coagulated into a rubbery solid by being exposed to the air! Scientists have been trying hard over the years to find ways to prolong the lifespan of specific balloons so they can be sold and used more than once.

Balloons were invented by British scientist Alex Montgomerie, who added various compounds to latex to make it more stable and less prone to degradation. While this allowed balloons to be used multiple times (instead of once like traditional rubber), it also made them much weaker than ancient Egyptian latex balloons found at Saqqara!