Chemical approaches to the design of inorganic materials

Chemical methods of synthesis play a crucial role in designing and discovering new inorganic materials and also in providing better and less cumbersome methods for preparing known materials. We discuss here the various methods along with several examples, paying special attention to soft chemistry routes. Besides the conventional ceramic method, the methods examined are the precursor method, topochemical reactions, intercalation reactions, ion-exchange method, alkali flux method and electrochemical methods. We discuss cuprate superconductors as a case study in chemical synthesis.