Introductory Chapter: Chalcogen Chemistry - The Footprint into New Materials Development

Abstract

The study of chalcogen chemistry is just fascinating for two reasons. Firstly, they span the entire biotic communities connecting chemistry to many other scientific disciplines. These include biogeochemistry, biochemistry, biology, food, agriculture, and also medicine, as well as pharmacology. Secondly, the chalcogen elements known as chalcogens demonstrate extremely interesting properties forming new compounds endowed with sophisticated characteristics that are increasingly making a remarkable footprint in a new era of materials development. These two reasons have intensified worldwide exploration of chalcogen elements contained in natural compounds as minerals. Furthermore, the aforementioned reasons have motivated research focused on expanding knowledge on this special class of compounds. In the past few decades, the shift of interest has been toward the development of new materials (in combination with metals and ligands). The contribution of this field of chemistry to the development of new materials, and their impacts on the everyday life of mankind, has triggered a recent renaissance of the interconnectivity between new chemical concepts and reactivities, resulting in a multitude of multidisciplinary focused research niche areas. The unique structures and reactivity of the class of chalcogen compounds and materials [1, 2] as well as their fascinating optical [3, 4] and electronic properties [5, 6] confer onto them very wide potential applications [7–12].