Materials discovery combinatorial approach

In this artide, we review the new field of combinatorial materials science. We describe in detail our particular materials exploration approach that we call the continuous compositional spread (CCS) approach. This CCS approach allows the synthesis and characterization of a major fraction of a ternary or pseudo-ternary phase spread in about 24 hours. We compare the CCS approach with other schemes for rapid materials investigations. We also provide an example of the successful application of the CCS approach in the discovery of a new high dielectric constant thin-film material, an amorphous zirconium tin titanate, aZTT. New combinatorial approaches to materials research can allow us to do studies that would not have been possible using conventional techniques. 

Other scientists besides biomedical researchers have employed combinatorial chemistry. In 1995, X.-D. Xiang and Peter G. Schultz, then at the University of California, Berkeley, and their colleagues published a paper in Science describing a pioneering application of this technique in materials research. As described in A Combinatorial Approach to Materials Discovery, Schultz and his colleagues performed parallel synthesis—a lot of reactions at the same time—to make an ar-... 

Xiang, X.-D., Xiaodong Sun, Gabriel Briceno. Yulin Lou, Kai-An Wang, Hauyee Chang, William G. Wallace-Freedman, et al. A Combinatorial Approach to Materials Discovery. Science 268 (June 23, 1995) 1,738-1,740. The researchers performed parallel synthesis to make an array of different combinations of elements such as bismuth, strontium, barium, yttrium, oxygen, and others. 

Cohan, P. E., Combinatorial materials science applied - mini case studies, lessons and strategies, In Combi 2002 - the 4th Annual International Symposium on Combinatorial Approaches for New Materials Discovery, Knowledge Foundation Arlington, VA, 2002... 

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