Challenges for chemical sciences in the 21st century

Abstract

Chemistry and chemical engineering have changed very significantly in the last half century. From classical sciences they have broadened their scope into biology, medicine, physics, material science, nanotechnology, computation and advanced methods of process engineering and control. The applications of chemical compounds, materials and knowledge have also dramatically increased. The development of chemical sciences in the scientifically most advanced countries, at the end of the last century was extrapolated to the next several decades in this review and challenges for chemists and chemical engineers are described. Research, discovery and invention across the entire spectrum of activities in the chemical sciences, from fundamental molecular-level chemistry to large-scale chemical processing technology are summarized. The strong integration of chemical science and engineering into all other natural sciences, agriculture, environmental science, medicine, as well as into physics, material science and information technology is discussed. Some challenges for chemists and chemical engineers are reviewed in the following fields: i) synthesis and manufacturing of chemical products, ii) chemistry for medicine and biology, iii) new materials, iv) chemical and physical transformations of materials, v) chemistry in the solving of energy problems (generation and savings), vi) environmental chemistry: fundamental and practical challenges.

Keywords

• challenges for chemists and chemical engineers
• synthesis and manufacture
• chemistry and medicine
• new materials
• environmental chemistry