Chemical synthesis

Chemical synthesis is concerned with the construction of complex chemical compounds from simpler ones. A synthesis usually is undertaken for one of three reasons. The first reason is to meet an industrial demand for a product. For example, ammonia is synthesized from nitrogen and hydrogen and is used to make, among other things, ammonium sulfate, employed as a fertilizer; vinyl chloride is made from ethylene and is used in the production of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic. In general, a vast range of chemical compounds are synthesized for applications as fibres and plastics, pharmaceuticals, dyestuffs, herbicides, insecticides, and other products.

Second, an enormous number of compounds of considerable molecular complexity occur naturally, in both living organisms and their degradation products; examples are proteins (in animals) and alkaloids (alkaline materials found in plants). The syntheses of these natural products have usually been undertaken in the context of the determination of the structures of the compounds; if a material is deduced to have a particular structure on the basis of its chemical reactions and physical properties, then the discovery that a compound synthesized by an unambiguous method for this structure is identical to the natural product provides confirmation of the validity of the assigned structure.

Third, a synthesis may be carried out to obtain a compound of specific structure that does not occur naturally and has not previously been made. This type of synthesis is performed in order to examine the properties of the compound and thereby test theories of chemical structure and reactivity.