Multianvil high-pressure high-temperature synthesis in solid state chemistry

During the last 60 years, new high pressure techniques and their exploitation have permitted the extension of attainable pressure/volume conditions, increased versatility of the apparatus, and hydrostaticity of the attained pressure in a remarkable way. In preparative solid state chemistry, high-pressure/high-temperature synthesis always played a minor role due to technical difficulties and costs. Piston-cylinder and Belt-apparatus both were limited to the working range up to 3 and 10 GPa, respectively. New technical developments, which allow synthesis up to 25 GPa, open up an enormous field of sample synthesis in solid state chemistry. In the following, a short overview on the most important developments in multianvil-techniques is given with respect to their applications for solid state chemistry under high-pressure conditions.