Everything about Chemical Synthesis totally explained
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
compounds that are known as
reagents or
reactants.
Various reaction types can be applied to these to synthesize the product, or an intermediate product. This requires mixing the compounds in a reaction vessel such as a
chemical reactor or a simple
round-bottom flask. Many reactions require some form of
work-up procedure before the final product is isolated . The amount of product in a chemical synthesis is the
reaction yield. Typically,
chemical yields are expressed as a weight in
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
cascade reactions multiple chemical transformations take place within a single reactant, 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
Organic synthesis is a special branch of chemical synthesis dealing with the synthesis of
organic compounds.
In the
total synthesis of a complex product it may take multiple steps to synthesize the product of interest, and inordinate amounts of time. Skill in
organic synthesis is prized among chemists and the synthesis of exceptionally valuable or difficult compounds has won chemists such as
Robert Burns Woodward the
Nobel Prize for Chemistry. If a chemical synthesis starts from basic laboratory compounds and yields something new, it's a purely
synthetic process. If it starts from a product isolated from plants or animals and then proceeds to a new compounds, the synthesis is described as a
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
elements or
compounds, and AB is a compound consisting of A and B. Examples of combination reactions include:
» 2
Na +
Cl2 → 2
NaCl (formation of table salt)
S +
O2 →
SO2 (formation of sulfur dioxide)
» 4
Fe + 3
O2 → 2
Fe2O3 (iron rusting)
CO2 +
H2O →
H2CO3 (
carbon dioxide dissolving and reacting with
water to form
carbonic acid)
4 special synthesis rules:
» metal-oxide + H
2O → metal(OH)
non-metal-oxide + H
2O → oxi-acid
» metal-chloride + O
2 → metal-chlorate
metal-oxide + CO
2 → metal(CO
3)
Further Information
Get more info on 'Chemical Synthesis'.
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