Combinatorial Chemistry-Challenge and Chance for the Development of New Catalysts and Materials

One should not underestimate the capability of the combinatorial method in solid-state chemistry; this is the opinion of the author. Combinatorial chemistry can provide a large number of new compounds, but once the components that are interesting for a certain application have been successfully selected, the techniques of conventional catalysis and materials research are required. The strengths of conventional chemistry lie in the optimization, systematic modification, and improvement of new lead structures. In contrast, discovery is the potential strength of combinatorial chemistry. Careful design is most important for the synthesis of useful libraries, since the diversity of the periodic table is much too large to be accessed comprehensively or systematically by such large libraries.