Inorganic chemistry is a highly practical area of science.  Traditionally, the scale of a nation's economy could be evaluated by their productivity of sulfuric acid.
An important man-made inorganic compound is ammonium nitrate, used for fertilization.  The ammonia is produced through the Haber process.  Nitric acid is prepared from the ammonia by oxidation.  Another large-scale inorganic material is portland cement. Inorganic compounds are used as catalysts such as vanadium(V) oxide for the oxidation of sulfur dioxide and titanium(III) chloride for the polymerization of alkenes. Many inorganic compounds are used as reagents in organic chemistry such as lithium aluminium hydride.