Chapter 25 — Chapter 25 — Organic Synthesis

Organic chemistry is organised around functional groups; although millions of compounds are known, only a handful of functional groups exist and each defines a family. A functional group is the part of the compound where most reactions occur. In organic synthesis we design different possible ways to build a target molecule from simpler, easily available components; functional groups let chemists predict and control the reactions and predict properties — crucial for new products and for checking the purity of medicines and food additives. Before preparing a compound we must know the reactions, reagents and conditions for each step. A good synthesis converts cheap, easily available starting materials to the product by a route with the least number of steps and a high overall yield. Reactions used are either functional group interconversions (FGI) or carbon–carbon bond formation; C–C bond formation is particularly important because the strategy is to assemble the target from smaller starting materials.