Chemical synthesis



In chemistry, chemical synthesis is purposeful execution of chemical reactions in order to get a product, or several products. This happens by physical and chemical manipulations usually involving one or more reactions. In modern laboratory usage, this tends to imply that the process is reproducible, reliable, and established to work in multiple laboratories.

A chemical synthesis begins by selection of grams or as a percentage of the total theoretical quantity of product that could be produced. A side reaction is an unwanted chemical reaction taking place that diminishes the yield of the desired product.

The word synthesis in the present day meaning was first used by the chemist Adolph Wilhelm Hermann Kolbe.

Strategies

Many strategies exist in chemical synthesis that go beyond converting reactant A to reaction product B. In multi-component reactions up to 11 different reactants form a single reaction product and in a telescopic synthesis one reactant goes through multiple transformations without isolation of intermediates.

Organic synthesis

Main article: Organic synthesis

organic compounds. In the semisynthetic process.

Other meanings

The other meaning of chemical synthesis is narrow and restricted to a specific kind of chemical reaction, a direct combination reaction, in which two or more reactants combine to form a single product. The general form of a direct combination reaction is:

A + B → AB

where A and B are compounds, and AB is a compound consisting of A and B. Examples of combination reactions include:

2NaCl (formation of table salt)
SO2 (formation of sulfur dioxide)
4 Fe2O3 (iron rusting)
carbonic acid)

4 special synthesis rules:

metal-oxide + H2O → metal(OH)
non-metal-oxide + H2O → oxi-acid
metal-chloride + O2 → metal-chlorate
metal-oxide + CO2 → metal(CO3)

See also

References

  1. ^ Vogel, A.I., Tatchell, A.R., Furnis, B.S., Hannaford, A.J. and P.W.G. Smith. Vogel's Textbook of Practical Organic Chemistry, 5th Edition. Prentice Hall, 1996. ISBN 0582462363.
 
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