ABSTRACT
Combinatorial synthetic methods allow for the preparation of large arrays of com pounds as mixtures or individual entities (1-14). In the latter case, split synthesis has proven to be ideal in maximizing the number of compounds generated per synthetic step (15). Although the composition of chemical libraries produced us ing this method is predictable with a high level of confidence, the structural eluci dation of potent members subsequent to an activity assay remains a challenge.*
To unravel the chemical nature of the active compounds several direct methods such as MAS-NMR (16), FTIR (17), MS (18), XPS (19), and X-ray diffraction (20) or indirect methods such as deconvolutive strategies (21-23), readout of chemical tags (24-27), bar codes (28), or radiofrequency signals (29,30) were developed. These screening and structural characterization phases have consistently been the bottleneck in the overall discovery process and still constitute in most cases a challenging task. This chapter summarizes our efforts toward the noninvasive and high throughput evaluation of spectroscopically selfencoded libraries using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and Raman multispec tral imaging.
