The challenges of inorganic chemistry in the 21st century

The problems being addressed by inorganic chemistry in the 1990s will continue to be challenges well into the 21st century. For example, coordination chemistry will continue to provide compounds with unusual properties and uses, and will become an increasingly important component in bioinorganic chemistry. Nuclear technology will continue to challenge the inorganic chemist in issues related to the treatment of nuclear wastes and the cleanup of environmental contamination. Organometallic chemistry will continue as one of the most active areas of catalysis research, especially in the chemical, energy, pharmaceuticals and pollution control industries. Solid-state chemistry will advance with the growing requirements for better batteries, electronic components, photovoltaic devices, etc., and the synthetic procedures being conducted at high pressures and temperatures will assist the needs of geochemists. Synthetic inorganic chemistry will tend to be more directed to meeting specific goals, such as new compounds as reagents in organic synthesis, compounds with superconducting properties and inorganic polymers with unusual mechanical and thermal properties. New methods to meet the needs of the production of inorganic chemicals will involve environmental friendly synthesis. Thus inorganic chemistry will continue in importance to meet the needs for chemical, energy and materials production.