The Logic of Chemistry Synthesis

"The Logic of Chemical Synthesis" is the first book to deal systematically with the fundamental principles of synthetic problem solving. It is the result of the development of a new and original way of thinking about chemical synthesis and more than twenty years of experience in the use of this approach in the teaching of chemical syntheses at Harvard University. Part One outlines the concepts of retrosynthetic analysis and the strategies for generating synthetic pathways by systematic reduction of molecular complexity. This approach to chemical synthesis provides a framework for simplifying synthetic problems. The second part contains information on many specific syntheses planned by retrosynthetic analysis and demonstrated in practice. It discusses the concurrent use of several strategies to solve problems and contains integrated information of synthetic pathways used for the construction of target molecules. Part Three provides a comprehensive guide to the synthesis of complex organic molecules. It contains structures of more than six hundred molecules which have been synthesized along with references to the relevant literature. Although the book deals almost exclusively with molecules of biological origin, which are ideal for developing the fundamental ideas of multistep synthetic design due to their architectural complexity and variety, the approach taken is fully applicable to other types of carbon-based structures. It defines strategies to guide the discovery of synthetic design using retrosynthetic planning. It bridges the gap between the level of knowledge attained after the first course in organic chemistry and the frontier of research on the synthesis of potentially useful molecules.