Encoding Strategies for Combinatorial Libraries

The tagging of chemical compounds first arose as a relevant topic when large numbers of compounds were prepared and conventional and convenient methods, e.g., writing with waterproof pens on reaction flasks and vials, became no longer appropriate. 

As a large number of chemical entities is involved in combinatorial chemistry, manual handling is either very tedious or simply not possible therefore, the tags should be readable by technical devices. Furthermore, for the efficient characterization of compound libraries, it is much more efficient to encode the planned structures before the synthesis than afterwards. The latter would require extensive analysis of the products using advanced techniques, and this again is either extremely tedious or impossible. 

Combinatorial Chemistry. Willi Bannwarth, Berthold Hinzen (Eds.) Copyright 2006 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH Co. KGaA, Weinheim ISBN 3-527-30693-5 

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