ABSTRACT
There is no doubt that combinatorial chemistry owes a great debt to R. Bruce Merrifield for the establishment of the solid-phase method for the synthesis of peptides (1). Nowadays, it is possible to affirm that Merrifield’s prediction, “ [I]t seems quite clear that a gold mine is awaiting the organic chemist who would look to solid supports for controlling and directing his synthetic reactions” (2), is a reality. The power of the solid-phase approach is of such importance that it has recently become possible to find scientific papers dealing with the preparation of libraries of organic compounds where the title clearly indicates that the library was made in the solution phase* rather than in the solid phase (3). The most significant difference between the solid and solution phases is the presence of the solid support in the former. Thus, the success of a synthetic process is strongly related to the choice of support and its performance.
