ABSTRACT. With electromechanical devices as connectors and switchgear, the contact material used is a crucial component to fulfill technical and commercial requirements. With connectors and switches for information technology, contact surface layers with thicknesses in the µm range are used in very most cases. Due to arcing with switching operations in power engineering applications, thin layers are not sufficient – thus, contact material thicknesses ranging from some hundred µm up to some cm are applied. The present paper gives an overview regarding different contact material families for power engineering as silver/nickel, silver/refractory, copper/tungsten, silver/metal oxide, and silver graphite, including the different physical mechanisms leading to their specific switching behavior. On the background of climate change and measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the generation and use of electrical power undergo remarkable changes. Thus, switching devices have to meet modified or new tasks as switching of highly energy-efficient electric motors, more demanding DC applications, and combinations of electromechanical and solid-state switching devices. This paper discusses possible consequences for contact materials to fit better to these changing requirements.