  Exploratory synthesis efforts for iron-based superconductors (FeSC) have been
driven by hopes of improving superconducting critical temperatures (TCs),
providing high-quality samples for in-depth studies of intrinsic properties,
and exploring potential superconductivity in similar families of materials.
This manuscript summarizes the synthesis routes that are used for producing
FeSC and their undoped parents, in single crystal and polycrystalline forms. A
few of the materials challenges are summarized.
