Series Editor’s Foreword

Synthesis is the central area of organic chemistry where the chemist’s art and imagination are involved as much as his knowledge. As a consequence synthesis is a crucial topic for all students of chemistry but one they often find difficult.

Oxford Chemistry Primers have been designed to provide concise introductions relevant to all students of chemistry and contain only the essential material that would be covered in an 8-10 lecture course. This present primer by Christine Willis and Martin Wills presents the concepts of synthesis in a very logical and student-friendly fashion. This primer will be of interest to apprentice and master chemist alike.

Preface

The synthesis of a particular compound from commercially available starting materials is fundamental to nearly all aspects of organic chemistry. There are usually many possible routes for the synthesis of even simple molecules but which is preferred?

The aim of this short text is to give guidelines to enable you to design strategies for the efficient synthesis of a range of molecules including simple mono and disubstituted compound and even more complex molecules such as the pyrrolizidine alkaloids. Our approach is based upon retro synthetic analysis and the importance of bond polarity is emphasized throughout the discussion. In addition we have highlighted some of the mild reagents which are now available to effect chemo-regio-and stereo selective reactions.