Combinatorial Approaches for Bulk Solid‐State Synthesis of Oxides

Abstract

Combinatorial approaches have been developed to accelerate and improve the repetitive serial synthesis and analysis of individual samples. This chapter focuses on techniques that have been utilized to process inorganic solid‐state materials, particularly in bulk or particulate form. Combinatorial powder synthesis from liquid precursors is a commonly used route in bulk high‐throughput materials studies. Liquid deposition routes are attractive to researchers because implementation is usually straightforward and relatively inexpensive. Combinatorial processing from dry powders is appealing because it scales directly to common industrial practice. A significant advantage compared to some liquid routes is that one can realize a high yield from inexpensive reagents, and it can be easily scaled to large quantities. Polymer complex methods have also been used for combinatorial powder synthesis. These methods are widely used in the synthesis of complex oxides because they are simple to utilize and synthesis occurs at lower temperature and shorter reaction times than solid‐state routes.