Maybe that's true for biological compounds, but for the rest of the periodic table new potentials are constantly being developed (and some may even be improveme

Maybe that's true for biological compounds, but for the rest of the periodic table new potentials are constantly being developed (and some may even be improvements). Semiconductors, transition metals, heavy elements, ferromagnetics, you name it... its being worked on. Actually even for biological molecules there are still advances being made. Water is an excellent example seeing how there is a new potential released once every 6 months or so. Its difficult to say whether these actually show a quantifiable improvement over old potentials, but its still an area of constant effort and progress.