Impact of High Throughput Experimentation on Homogeneous Catalysis Research

• Published in: Comments on modern chemistry. Part A, Comments on inorganic chemistry Comments on inorganic chemistry, 2014-01, Vol.34 (1-2), p.17-41
• Main Authors: Devore, David D., Jenkins, Roxanne M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Catalysis; Chemical industry; combinatorial chemistry; high throughput research; high throughput workflows; homogeneous catalysis; HTR
• ISSN: 0260-3594; 1548-9574
• DOI: 10.1080/02603594.2014.947027

As new tools and techniques have become available, the expansion of high throughput experimentation into the broader chemical community has occurred, with the application of this infrastructure moving beyond biologically focused research and into the mainstream of materials and catalytic research. The study of homogeneous catalysis has been significantly impacted by the application of high throughput research. For research problems where the number of variables are very high, these tools are ideally suited to significantly increase the experimental output and speed the time for discovery and development of new catalysts and catalytic applications. In addition, high throughput experimentation provides for an opportunity to conduct a much more diverse structure activity study of new catalyst families and, with the greater experimental throughput, allows researchers to explore more "out of the box" solutions. In this Comment, the impact of homogeneous catalysis high throughput research at The Dow Chemical Company and in the broader catalysis community will be reviewed and examples of high throughput research towards the major areas in this field will be highlighted.