Introduction to Synthesis
Organic synthesis is the planned construction of a target molecule from simpler starting materials. Select a topic below, or proceed page by page:
Background — why multistep
synthesis is a hard problem, and Wöhler's accidental synthesis of urea.
Principles of Synthesis — building the
carbon skeleton, functional group strategy, cascade sequences, and the practice problems.
Retrosynthetic Analysis — working a
synthesis backwards from the target, with worked examples.
Stereoselective Synthesis —
controlling configuration at each stereogenic center.