Hochdurchsatz-Methoden in der Festkörperchemie. Schneller zum Ziel

High-throughput (HT) methods applied to materials discovery have attracted much attention over the last few years because they permit a fast and efficient investigation of parameter space while consuming only small amounts of starting materials. Nowadays, many different HT techniques in solid state science are employed in order to accelerate the discovery and optimization of materials. The degree of parallelisation, automation, and miniaturization determines the efficiency of a HT methodology. Systematic investigation of parameter space and careful data analysis allow the identification of reaction trends and may give important guidance in better understanding of reaction systems. The described HT methodology for solvothermal reactions allows the systematic investigation of 48 different hydrothermal reactions at a time. The methodology includes automatic dispensing of solids and liquids, followed by homogenization, pH measurement, synthesis, isolation, washing as well as automated phase analysis by X-ray diffraction without the manipulation of individual samples. The focus of this article is on the application of HT methods in the investigation of the parameter space in solid state sciences. Based on selected examples, the power of HT methods in the discovery of new compounds, the optimization of reactions, the identification of reaction trends, as well as the investigation of the influence of process parameters is described. The large amount of data obtained in a short time leads to an improvement towards the understanding of the role that synthesis and process parameters play in the formation of compounds and materials.