Retrosynthetic analysis

Retrosynthetic analysis plans a chemical synthesis by working backward from a target molecule, breaking it into simpler precursor structures until practical starting materials are reached.

Synthetic disconnection: A conceptual bond cleavage that divides a target molecule into simpler synthons or precursors. Each backward step proposes bonds to disconnect and the fragments that could form them.
Functional group: A recurring arrangement of atoms that gives organic molecules characteristic chemical properties and reactions. Recognizing functional groups reveals which transformations could create or modify the target's key features.
Computer-assisted synthesis planning: The use of computational methods to propose routes for making target molecules. Algorithms encode disconnections and reaction knowledge to generate candidate routes from a target.
Forward synthesis planning: The design of a chemical route by choosing sequential reactions from starting materials toward a target. It builds routes in reaction order, whereas retrosynthetic analysis begins with the target and works backward.
Synthon: An idealized fragment produced by a synthetic disconnection, representing a component needed to build a target. Synthons express the reactive roles implied by a proposed disconnection.
Organic reaction: A chemical transformation that changes the bonding or functional groups of an organic compound. Retrosynthetic steps are chosen by identifying known reactions that run forward to the target.
Elias James Corey: An American organic chemist who developed systematic methods for retrosynthetic analysis and received the 1990 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Corey's framework made backward synthesis planning a formal, teachable method.
Linear synthesis: A synthetic route in which each step follows the previous one along a single sequence of intermediates. A linear route contrasts with plans that exploit independently prepared fragments and convergent assembly.
Synthetic equivalent: A real reagent or compound that supplies the chemical behavior assigned to an idealized synthon. Practical planning replaces each imagined synthon with an available, chemically suitable equivalent.
Carbon–carbon bond formation: A chemical reaction that creates a bond between two carbon atoms. Many decisive disconnections ask which reaction could assemble the target's carbon skeleton.

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