Synthon

For Dutch pharmaceutical company, see Synthon (company).

In retrosynthetic analysis, a synthon is a hypothetical unit within a target molecule that represents a potential starting reagent in the retroactive synthesis of that target molecule. The term was coined in 1967 by E. J. Corey.[1] He noted in 1988 that the "word synthon has now come to be used to mean synthetic building block rather than retrosynthetic fragmentation structures".[2] It was noted in 1998[3] that the phrase did not feature very prominently in Corey's 1981 book The Logic of Chemical Synthesis,[4] as it was not included in the index. Because synthons are charged, when placed into a synthesis an uncharged form is found commercially instead of forming and using the potentially very unstable charged synthons.

  1. ^ E. J. Corey (1967). "General methods for the construction of complex molecules" (PDF). Pure and Applied Chemistry. 14: 30–37. doi:10.1351/pac196714010019. S2CID 73595158.
  2. ^ E. J. Corey (1988). "Robert Robinson Lecture. Retrosynthetic thinking—essentials and examples". Chem. Soc. Rev. 17: 111–133. doi:10.1039/CS9881700111.
  3. ^ W. A. Smit, A. F. Buchkov, R. Cople (1998). Organic Synthesis, the science behind the art. Royal Society of Chemistry. ISBN 0-85404-544-9.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ Elias James Corey; Xue-Min Cheng (1995). The logic of chemical synthesis. Wiley-Interscience. ISBN 0-471-11594-0.