There is much room for improvement in the predictability of reactions. One cannot synthesize everything that is desired and those syntheses that can be accomplished are very time consuming. The need for new, more powerful methods is clear. The field is rapidly developing and more exciting now than at any time in the past. Molecular recognition studies depend heavily on the ability to design and synthesis new types of molecules.
Medicinal chemistry requires the ability to design a drug as well as to synthesize.
Use of organic synthesis for the preparation of materials as in the synthesis of nanotubes and other nanoscale assemblies is a promising area. Most synthetic methods are still not as general as desired and may fail in key steps in the syntheses of complex molecules. Some of the powerful new methods developed during the past twenty years use toxic or expensive reagents or require low temperature or other reaction conditions that are not applicable to large scale work. The development of new catalysts are needed to carry out transformations efficiently and although much has been accomplished in the area of catalytic asymmetric transformations in the past decade, there is still much room for development in this essential field. The full utilization of this promising procedure will require further investigation and refinement of solid phase techniques for organic synthesis, and the development of analytical techniques for monitoring solid phase reactions, determining the structures of the products and evaluating the biological properties of the target compounds produced.