High throughput technology: approaches of research in homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis

Abstract

High throughput experimentation (HTE) approaches and the choice of the design of experiment (DoE) tools are discussed with regard to their convenience and applicability in homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis as a concerted workflow. Much attention is given to diverse methodologies and strategies, which are fundamental for the experimental planning. For two target reactions in two case studies presented in this chapter, HTE methods were applied to create and evaluate catalyst libraries. A homogeneous catalyst case study is illustrated first, which deals with parallel synthesis and screening of organometallic catalysts in the polymerisation of ethylene. The second case study (heterogeneous catalysis) focuses on coherent synthesis and testing of dopant effects on the performance of oxidation catalysts in a reaction of transformation of n-butane to maleic anhydride. Supporting examples from the literature described here show that careful planning of libraries and test conditions is vital in high throughput experimentation in order to deliver meaningful results leading to performance improvements or disruptive new findings.