Chemical Synthesis and Materials Discovery

TL;DR

This paper reviews how synthetic discoveries of functional materials have historically led to scientific breakthroughs, highlighting pathways like design principles, serendipity, and repurposing of known compounds, with many breakthroughs occurring decades after initial synthesis.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of the historical pathways leading to materials breakthroughs, emphasizing the importance of synthetic discovery in enabling scientific advances.

Findings

Design-based synthesis often leads to breakthroughs.

Serendipitous discoveries are rare but impactful.

Most breakthroughs involve repurposing known compounds.

Abstract

Functional materials impact every area of our lives ranging from electronic and computing devices to transportation and health. In this Perspective, we examine the relationship between synthetic discoveries and the scientific breakthroughs that they have enabled. By tracing the development of some important examples, we explore how and why the materials were initially synthesized and how their utility was subsequently recognised. Three common pathways to materials breakthroughs are identified. In a small number of cases, such as the aluminosilicate zeolite catalyst ZSM-5, an important advance is made by using design principles based upon earlier work. There are also rare cases of breakthroughs that are serendipitous, such as the buckyball and Teflon(R). Most commonly, however, the breakthrough repurposes a compound that is already known and was often made out of curiosity or for a different application. Typically, the synthetic discovery precedes the discovery of functionality by many decades; key examples include conducting polymers, topological insulators and electrodes for lithium-ion batteries.