Importance of stereochemistry

The stereochemistry is of great importance in the area of ​​polymers. For example, natural rubber consists of repeating units of cis-polyisoprene, almost 100%, while the synthetic rubber consists of trans-polyisoprene units or a mixture thereof. The resilience of both is different and the physical properties of natural rubber remain well above the physical properties of synthetic.

Other important cases include polystyrene and polypropylene, whose physical properties are increased when its tacticity is correct.

In medicine, the most representative of the importance of stereochemistry case is called thalidomide disaster, a synthetic drug in 1957 in Germany, prescribed to pregnant women to treat morning sickness. However, it was shown that the drug could cause deformities in babies, after which he studied in depth the drug and concluded that an isomer was safe while the other was teratogenic, causing severe genetic damage to the embryo growing. The human body produces a racemic mixture of two isomers, even if only one of them is introduced.