Chemical synthesis
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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.
Approach to synthesis
The range of compounds that are capable of being synthesized is essentially limitless. In practice, the synthesis of a preselected compound is made possible by particular functional groups undergoing transformations that, while they are dependent on the conditions applied to the compound, are largely independent of the structure of the remaining part of the molecule. Thus, the combination of knowledge of the structure of the compound to be synthesized and knowledge of the general types of transformation that compounds undergo enables a synthesis to be planned. The general approach, cut to its barest essentials, is to examine the structure of the desired end product—for example, Z—and to deduce the structure of some (slightly simpler) compound—for example, Y—that should be capable of transformation into Z by a reaction of known type. A possible precursor of Y is sought in similar manner, and in this way the chain of compounds is extended until a compound, A, is reached that is available for the work; the necessary transformations, beginning with A and ending with Z, are then carried out. Most individual steps in the sequence result in a change in only one bond; some result in changes in two bonds at a time, but it is unusual for more extensive changes to occur.
Evaluation of a synthetic method
Three factors must be borne in mind when evaluating a particular synthetic plan. The first is cost—of far greater importance in industrial, large-scale synthesis than in laboratory work in which a particular synthesis may be carried out only once, as in the total synthesis of a naturally occurring compound, and which in any case is likely to be on a relatively small scale. The environmental impact of chemical syntheses has become an important consideration. Syntheses or processes that have a benign environmental impact, whether by use of safe and commonly available reagents or by minimization of environmentally harmful waste products, have become an essential feature of so-called “green chemistry.”
Second, the yield in each step must be considered. A step in a synthesis may give a very low yield of the desired product. For example, a proportion of the reactant may be converted into a different product by an alternative process that competes with the desired one; some of the product may undergo a subsequent reaction; or some of the product may be lost in the separation processes required for its isolation in a pure state. The yield is usually defined, on a percentage basis, as the number of molecules of product obtained when 100 could in principle have been formed. A yield of about 80 percent or more is generally considered good, but some transformations can prove so difficult to achieve that even a yield of 10 or 20 percent may have to be accepted. The ultimate synthetic goal in a perfect synthesis is to achieve 100 percent “atom efficiency,” in which all atoms of all reagents are incorporated into the synthesized product without the formation of any by-products.
Naturally, the yield of a process affects the cost of the product, because the shortfall from a 100 percent yield represents wasted material. In addition, yield can be of the utmost importance in determining whether a synthesis is a practicable possibility, because the overall yield of a synthesis is the product of the yields of the individual steps. If these intermediate yields are mostly low, the ultimate product may not be obtainable in the necessary amount from the available starting material.
Finally, consideration must be given to the rate at which each step in the planned sequence occurs. In many instances, a desired reaction is possible in principle but in practice takes place so slowly as to be ineffective. It is then necessary to investigate whether the rate can be increased to a practicable level by altering the conditions of the reaction—for example, by raising the temperature or by adding an extra species, called a catalyst, that increases the rate without altering the course of the reaction.
Isolation and purification of products
The product of a synthesis is normally contaminated with reagents used in the synthesis, by-products, and possibly some unchanged starting material; these contaminants must be removed in order for a pure product to be obtained. In a multistep synthesis, it is normally desirable to purify the product from each step before proceeding to the next.
Richard O.C. Norman Melvyn C. UsselmanSpectroscopy of organic compounds
Until the mid-20th century, most organic compounds were distinguished from one another largely on the basis of simple physical and chemical properties. Knowledge of these properties, however, yields only superficial clues about a compound’s molecular structure, and the determination of that structure was a complicated process (for large molecules at least) that involved careful analysis of several reaction pathways. Chemists had no way to see what molecules looked like, because molecules are so small that no device such as a microscope could be developed that would give a complete image of a molecular structure. One technique, X-ray crystallography, can give precise structural data for some molecules, but only those that can be obtained in solid, crystalline form. Normally, a full X-ray structure determination is a costly, time-consuming endeavour that is applied to only the most puzzling structures. Sufficient information to decipher a molecule’s structure is much more easily obtained by the use of one or more spectroscopic techniques.
Spectroscopy is a general term used for the instrumental processes by which information about molecular structure is obtained through careful analysis of the absorption, scattering, or emission of electromagnetic radiation by compounds. Electromagnetic radiation is the continuous spectrum of energy-bearing waves ranging from extremely short waves, such as high-energy X-rays (with wavelengths of about 10 nanometres [nm]), to very long, low-energy waves such as radio waves (with wavelengths of one metre [m] or more). Visible light, for example, is the range of electromagnetic radiation detectable by human vision, with wavelengths of roughly 400 to 700 nm. Objects appear coloured when they absorb visible light of certain wavelengths, and those absorbed wavelengths are consequently absent from light that passes from the coloured object to the eyes.
Molecules are able to absorb light of certain wavelengths because the energy content of the absorbed light is the precise value needed to cause a molecule to be excited from one energy state to a higher one. The myriad energy levels in a molecule are said to be quantized because each one differs from another by a discrete, measurable energy value, just as each step in a stairway is a fixed height above, or below, all others. Thus, by measuring the wavelengths of the electromagnetic radiation absorbed by a molecule, it is possible to gain information about the various energy levels within it. This information can then be correlated with specific details of molecular structure. Instruments called spectrometers measure the wavelengths of light that are absorbed by molecules in various regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. The most important spectroscopic techniques for structure determination are ultraviolet and visible spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy, and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. A fourth technique, termed mass spectrometry, does not depend on absorption of electromagnetic radiation, but it is valuable for the information it provides about the number and type of atoms present in a molecule. The following sections briefly describe the various applications of these techniques for organic compounds.
Ultraviolet and visible (UV-visible) spectroscopy
Most organic compounds are transparent to the relatively high-energy radiation that constitutes the ultraviolet (200–400 nm) and visible (400–700 nm) portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, and consequently they appear colourless in solution. This is because the electrons in the σ bonds of organic molecules require wavelengths of even higher energy (such as those of X-rays) to excite them to the next higher accessible energy level. Electrons in π bonds, however, can be promoted to higher energy levels by ultraviolet and visible light, and UV-visible spectroscopy consequently provides useful structural information for molecules that contain π bonds. When multiple π bonds are separated from each other by intervening single bonds, they are said to be conjugated.
The UV-visible spectrum of a molecule is dramatically affected by the presence of conjugation. As the number of conjugated π bonds increases, the UV-visible spectrum shows light absorption at a greater number of different wavelengths (i.e., the spectrum contains more absorption peaks), and light of longer wavelengths (and lower energy) is absorbed. The many individual peaks of UV-visible spectra normally coalesce to produce a continuous absorption spectrum, with some of the strongest individual absorption peaks appearing as sharp spikes. For example, the UV-visible spectrum of azulene, a molecule that contains five conjugated π bonds, shows a strong absorbance in the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum, which correlates with its intense blue colour.
Naturally occurring organic compounds that are highly coloured contain an extensive system of conjugated π bonds. The compound largely responsible for the bright orange colour of carrots, β-carotene, contains 11 conjugated π bonds. UV-visible spectroscopy is especially informative for molecules that contain conjugated π bonds.
Infrared (IR) spectroscopy
In organic compounds, atoms are said to be bonded to each other through a σ bond when the two bonded atoms are held together by mutual attraction for the shared electron pair that lies between them. The two atoms do not remain static at a fixed distance from one another, however. They are free to vibrate back and forth about an average separation distance known as the average bond length. These movements are termed stretching vibrations. In addition, the bond axis (defined as the line directly joining two bonded atoms) of one bond may rock back and forth within the plane it shares with another bond or bend back and forth outside that plane. These movements are called bending vibrations. Both stretching and bending vibrations represent different energy levels of a molecule. These energy differences match the energies of wavelengths in the infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum—i.e., those ranging from 2.5 to 15 micrometres (μm; 1 μm = 10−6m). An infrared spectrophotometer is an instrument that passes infrared light through an organic molecule and produces a spectrum that contains a plot of the amount of light transmitted on the vertical axis against the wavelength of infrared radiation on the horizontal axis. In infrared spectra the absorption peaks point downward because the vertical axis is the percent transmittance of the radiation through the sample. Absorption of radiation lowers the percent transmittance value. Since all bonds in an organic molecule interact with infrared radiation, IR spectra provide a great deal of structural data.
The stretching vibrations of strong carbon-hydrogen bonds cause the absorptions around 3.4 μm, with the sharp peak at 3.2 μm due to the hydrogen atom on the carbon-carbon double bond. The many bending vibrations of carbon-hydrogen bonds cause the complicated absorption pattern ranging from about 7 to 25 μm. This area of IR spectra is called the fingerprint region, because the absorption pattern is highly complex but unique to each organic structure. The stretching vibrations for both the carbon-carbon and carbon-oxygen double bonds are easily identified at 6.1 and 5.8 μm, respectively. Most of the functional groups have characteristic IR absorptions similar to those for carbon-oxygen and carbon-carbon double bonds. Infrared spectroscopy is therefore extremely useful for determining the types of functional groups present in organic molecules.
Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy
Absorption of long-wavelength (1–5 m) low-energy radiation in the radio-frequency region of the electromagnetic spectrum is due to the atomic nuclei in a molecule. Many (but not all) atomic nuclei have a small magnetic field, which makes them behave somewhat like tiny bar magnets. When placed in a strong external magnetic field, such nuclei can assume different energy states; in the simplest case, two energy states are possible. In the lower energy state, the magnetic field of the nucleus is aligned with the external magnetic field, and, in the higher energy state, it is aligned against the field. The energy difference between the two levels depends on the strength of the external magnetic field. In modern NMR spectrometers, organic compounds are placed in magnetic fields ranging from about 1.4 to 18.0 teslas (T) and are irradiated with radio-frequency waves. For comparison, the Earth’s magnetic field is about 0.00007 T. At a magnetic-field strength of 1.4 T, the energy difference between the lower and higher energy states of a 1H proton nucleus is only 0.024 J mol-1. Electromagnetic radiation with a frequency of about 60 megahertz (MHz) can supply the energy needed to convert the lower energy state to the higher one. The energy difference between the magnetic energy levels of a nucleus is measured as an absorption peak, or a resonance. Because the energy of the absorbed radiation depends on the environment around the absorbing nucleus in a molecule, NMR spectroscopy provides the most structural information of all the spectroscopic techniques used in chemistry. Especially valuable are proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy, which measures the resonances due to energy absorption by hydrogen atoms in organic compounds, and carbon-13 magnetic resonance spectroscopy, which yields the resonances due to absorption by atoms of carbon-13 (13C), a naturally occurring isotope of carbon that contains six protons and seven neutrons.
Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy
Proton NMR spectra yield a great deal of information about molecular structure because most organic molecules contain many hydrogen atoms, and the hydrogen atoms absorb energy of different wavelengths depending on their bonding environment.
NMR absorbances appear in a spectrum as a series of sharp spikes or peaks. Although there is no vertical scale on the spectrum, the relative height of each peak corresponds roughly to the strength of the absorption. The horizontal scale does not show proton resonances in simple wavelength units. Instead, the position of each peak is normally measured relative to the absorption of the protons in the compound tetramethylsilane, (CH3)4Si. Tetramethylsilane is an inert liquid added in small amounts to the compound being analyzed. All 12 of its hydrogen atoms absorb at the same position to give a single sharp peak, which is arbitrarily assigned a positional value of zero. This peak is then used as a reference point for all other peaks in the spectrum. The hydrogen atoms in the molecule being analyzed generally appear to the left of the reference peak because they absorb radiation of higher energy than the hydrogens of tetramethylsilane.
The distance of the proton absorptions from the reference peak is given by a number called the chemical shift. Each unit of chemical shift represents a fractional increase of one part per million (ppm) in the energy of absorbed radiation, relative to the value for tetramethylsilane. For example, in the proton NMR spectrum of bromoethane, the hydrogen atoms of the CH3 group appear at about 1.6 ppm and the hydrogens of the CH2 group at about 3.3 ppm. Atoms in a molecule have different chemical shifts because they experience slightly different local magnetic fields owing to the presence of nearby electrons. Electrons generate a magnetic field of their own, which reduces the magnitude of the total field at the nucleus. Nuclei that are surrounded by regions of high electron density, such as the hydrogen atoms of tetramethylsilane, are said to be shielded from the applied field of the instrument’s magnet. The electronegative bromine atom in bromoethane pulls electrons away from the carbon and hydrogen atoms. The CH2 hydrogens are more strongly affected than the CH3 hydrogens and thus have a greater chemical shift, because they are closer to the bromine atom. All three hydrogens on the CH3 group are exposed to the same local magnetic field and consequently have the same chemical shift. Such hydrogens are said to be equivalent. The two hydrogens on the CH2 group are also equivalent. The chemical shift of hydrogen atoms is the most important piece of information provided by NMR spectroscopy, because it reveals a great deal about the nature of the bonds around the hydrogen.
Two more features of NMR spectra are important aids to structure assignment. The first is the area of space enclosed by the absorption peaks. The area under the peaks is directly proportional to the number of hydrogen atoms contributing to the peak. NMR spectrometers have a feature, called integration, which, when selected by the user, calculates the area under each peak and plots the result as a line that is displaced vertically at a peak by an amount proportional to the area under the peak. The integration of the bromoethane spectrum, for example, shows that the absorption peaks around 1.6 ppm have an area that is 1.5 times greater than the area of the peaks at 3.3 ppm. This is consistent with, and supports, the assignment of the peaks to the CH3 and CH2 groups because the ratio of the area of the CH3 peak to the CH2 peak is expected to be 3:2, or 1.5:1, for the numbers of hydrogen atoms are in a 3:2 ratio.
The second additional feature is the pattern of the absorption peaks. In the bromoethane example, the CH3 peak is split into three distinct peaks, called a triplet. The CH2 peak is split into four peaks, called a quartet. These multiple peaks are caused by nearby hydrogen atoms through a process termed spin-spin splitting. Each set of equivalent hydrogens on a given carbon is split into an n+1 multiplet by adjacent hydrogen atoms that are nonequivalent to the hydrogens of the given carbon. These splittings are generally observed for all nonequivalent hydrogens bonded to the one or two adjoining carbon atoms. In the bromoethane spectrum, the CH3 absorption appears as a triplet owing to the effects of the two hydrogens on the adjacent CH2 group. Reciprocally, the CH2 absorption is a quartet because of the effects of the three hydrogen atoms on the neighbouring CH3 group.
These three important features of a proton NMR spectrum—chemical shift, relative peak size, and spin-spin splitting—provide detailed information about the number and location of hydrogen atoms in a molecule. By incorporating information gained from carbon-13 magnetic resonance, chemists can often induce an unambiguous structure for a molecule whose molecular formula is known.
Carbon-13 magnetic resonance spectroscopy
Naturally occurring carbon is composed almost entirely of the carbon-12 isotope, which has no magnetic moment and thus is not detectable by NMR techniques. However, carbon-13 (13C) atoms, which make up about 1 percent of all carbon atoms, do absorb radio-frequency waves in a manner similar to hydrogen. Thus, 13C NMR is possible, and the technique provides valuable information about the structure of the carbon skeleton in organic molecules. Because, on average, only 1 out of every 100 carbon atoms in a molecule is a 13C isotope and because 13C atoms absorb electromagnetic radiation very weakly, 13C NMR signals are about 6,000 times weaker than proton signals. Modern instrumentation has overcome this handicap, and 13C NMR has become a readily accessible analytical technique. As in proton spectra, the 13C peaks are plotted as chemical shifts relative to an internal standard, such as the carbon resonance of tetramethylsilane.
The spectrum of the cyclic hydrocarbon methylcyclohexane serves as a useful example of 13C NMR spectroscopy. The chemical shifts of different carbon atoms are larger than for hydrogen atoms, and the five magnetically different 13C atoms appear as five distinct peaks. Unlike proton spectra, however, the peak areas are not directly proportional to the number of absorbing nuclei. Thus, each of the peaks at 35.8 ppm and 26.8 ppm (generated by the two carbon atoms at the positions labeled 3 and 4, respectively, in the figure) are larger than each of the peaks at 23.1 ppm, 33.1 ppm, and 26.8 ppm (generated by the single carbon atoms at positions 1, 2, and 5, respectively) but not in an exact 2:1 ratio. The two atoms labeled at position 3 are magnetically equivalent (as are the two at position 4), because the molecule is symmetrical about a line drawn vertically through its centre.
The 13C spectrum for methylcyclohexane does not show any multiplets arising from spin-spin splitting for two different reasons. The first reason is that spin-spin coupling between two adjacent 13C atoms is so weak that it does not show up on the spectrum. This is because nearly all the 13C atoms in a molecule are bonded to more abundant 12C atoms, which do not give rise to spin-spin splitting. The second reason is that the spin-spin splitting that does occur between 13C atoms bonded to hydrogen atoms has been removed from the spectrum by an instrumental technique termed proton decoupling. Proton decoupling eliminates all the splitting patterns that would normally be observed in a 13C spectrum for all carbon atoms bonded to one or more hydrogen atoms and is done routinely to simplify the spectrum.
Analyzed alone or in combination, proton and 13C NMR spectra allow correct structures to be assigned to many organic compounds, including most isomers.
Mass spectrometry
Mass spectrometry differs from the types of spectroscopy previously discussed because the molecular information that the technique provides does not depend on absorption of electromagnetic radiation. In a mass spectrometer, molecules are converted to charged fragments called ions, which are then separated according to their masses. The chart that records the masses of the fragments together with a measure of their relative abundance is known as a mass spectrum. From the masses and abundance of the peaks in a mass spectrum, it is often possible to determine the exact mass of the molecule being analyzed and to obtain clues about molecular structure. Today chemists can use one of several different types of mass spectrometer. A brief description of electron-ionization mass spectrometry, widely used for the analysis of relatively small molecules, illustrates the general principles.
In simple terms, a mass spectrometer (all components of which operate in a high vacuum) consists of an inlet chamber into which the compound to be analyzed is introduced and vaporized. The gaseous molecules then pass into an ionization chamber, where they are bombarded by a beam of high-energy electrons. The electron beam generates, among other things, a positively charged molecule known as a molecular ion, which results from the removal of one electron from the molecule. The molecular ion can subsequently break apart into smaller fragments. The positively charged fragments (which for simplicity are considered here to bear only a single positive charge) are then accelerated by an electric field and directed into a mass analyzer. The mass analyzer contains a strong magnetic field, through which the molecular ions must pass. As the ions pass through the magnetic field, they are deflected into a curved path that is dependent on both their charge and mass. Ions of different mass travel along a different trajectory before reaching a detector, which records the intensities and masses of the ions that strike it. The mass spectrum that is recorded shows the mass-to-charge ratio (m/z) along the horizontal axis and ion abundance along the vertical axis. For ions bearing a single positive charge, z equals 1, and the horizontal axis shows the masses of the fragments directly.
The mass spectrum of the ketone 2-butanone serves as an example. The strongest peak in the spectrum is known as the base peak, and its intensity is arbitrarily set at a value of 100. The peak at m/z= 72 is the molecular ion and as such gives the molecular mass of the molecule. In high-resolution mass spectrometry, the mass of the molecular ion can be measured to an accuracy of 4 ppm. In such an instrument, the molecular ion of 2-butanone would appear at m/z= 72.0575, which would unambiguously establish its molecular formula as C4H8O. High-resolution mass spectrometry is an excellent method for determining the molecular formulas of organic compounds.
Valuable information about molecular structure also can be obtained from the mass of the fragments present in the mass spectrum. Various functional groups cause molecules to break apart in characteristic ways. Ketones, for example, usually break apart at the bond in which the alkane chain is joined to the carbonyl group. Loss of the CH3 group (m/z= 15) from 2-butanone generates the fragment at m/z= 57. Loss of the heavier CH3CH2group (m/z= 29) from 2-butanone generates the base peak at m/z= 43.
The spectroscopic techniques discussed above are central to the modern study of chemistry; they allow chemists to determine the specific molecular architecture of many organic substances. For very complicated molecules, such as many natural products that occur in living organisms, even a complete set of spectra is insufficient to allow an unambiguous structural assignment. Molecular structure can then be determined only by a step-by-step synthesis of the molecule, followed by confirmation that the synthetic molecule is identical to the natural one.