The last few decades have seen rapid development in computational and theoretical tools for fabricating, simulating, and characterizing material systems. In this applications note the potential of surface characterization by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy to provide rapid elemental and chemical state information is presented. The development of the group analysis array functionality is of significant importance in the application of XPS analysis to combinatorial materials discovery to allow the processing and display of large data sets. As will be demonstrated, group array analysis provides a more detailed understanding of the chemical distribution across the sample.