Background
Ivan Kondakov was born on October 8, 1857, in Vilyuisk, Yakutia, Russia. He had seven siblings; four of them, including Kondakov, were able to receive higher education.
Krasnoyarsk Men's Gymnasium, Krasnoyarsk, Russia
Kondakov attended men's Gymnasium in Krasnoyarsk.
Saint Petersburg University, Saint Petersburg, Russia
Kondakov graduated from Saint Petersburg University in 1884.
Иван Лаврентьевич Кондаков
Ivan Kondakov was born on October 8, 1857, in Vilyuisk, Yakutia, Russia. He had seven siblings; four of them, including Kondakov, were able to receive higher education.
Kondakov attended a local Gymnasium in Vilyuisk and men's Gymnasium in Krasnoyarsk, and then graduated from Saint Petersburg University in 1884.
Kondakov’s scientific activity began at Saint Petersburg University in 1884. Continuing the traditional research of Butlerov, Kondakov thoroughly studied the transformation of trimethylethylene, establishing the possibility of a transition to a diene hydrocarbon, difficult to obtain at that time.
From 1886 to 1895 he worked at Warsaw University, systematically studying the syntheses of C5 olefins and their transformations. From 1895 to 1918 he was a professor at the University of Yurev (Tartu), where he continued his research, chiefly on the polymerization of unsaturated hydrocarbons.
In 1900 and 1901 Kondakov concluded that it was possible to synthesize rubber on the basis not only of isoprene but also of other diene hydrocarbons, including butadiene and diisopropenyl. He showed that the latter could be polymerized in three ways: by the catalytic action of alcoholic alkali, by raising the temperature, and by the action of light. In 1901, through the photopolymerization of diisopropenyl, Kondakov obtained rubber that was stable under the influence of hydrocarbon solvents. These methods of polymerization of diisopropenyl provided the basis of the industrial production of synthetic “methyl rubber,” accomplished in 1915 in Germany. Kondakov was also one of the first to discover that metallic sodium can serve as a catalyst for the polymerization of dienes. He is to be credited with the development of methods for synthesizing spirits, ethers, acyl chlorides, and other difficult-to-obtain compounds that are bases of olefins by means of zinc chloride.
Nothing is known about Kondakov's family.