Organic Synthesis Notes
Organic synthesis is split into two parts
· Justifying Reaction Steps
· Working out Reaction Steps
Justifying Reaction Steps
When deciding upon which reaction steps to take solvents and atom economy are often taken in to consideration.
If a reaction uses hazards solvents, like benzene or carbon tetrachloride, an alternative reaction may be chosen to limit the hazards for both the people performing the reactions and so disposal is not an issue.
If a reaction has a very low atom economy it means that many side products will be made, even at 100% yield there would be very little product made from the amount of reactant so again an alternative step may be considered.
Working out Reaction Steps
This chapter is both the easiest and most difficult. By using all of the previous reaction mechanisms and conditions we must be able to follow a reaction from one molecule through several reactions to a new molecule. By putting all of the mechanisms together we can create a reaction map.
Each arrow represents a reaction you must know, they are summarised below. You will need to be able to draw the mechanism for most of them.
The reaction map for arenes is much simpler.
A reaction path may start with ethane and end with ethanamine, using the reaction map we would go alkane to haloalkane to amine and that would produce the following reaction scheme.
A more complex reaction may be the production of a propanoic acid from a ethene. We could go from an alkene to a haloalkane to nitrile to carboxylic acid.
