For example, only chemists make compounds and try to understand the reactions that produce the compounds. Indeed, a very large segment of chemists are employed by the chemical and pharmaceutical industry for the very purpose of preparing new plastics, coatings, ceramics, drugs, fillers, alloys, and so on. These synthetic chemists must first determine what reaction can be used to synthesize their target compound and then determine what conditions will optimize the yield of the compound in order to make the compound in the most cost-effective way. After the best reaction conditions have been determined, the chemist must determine how to purify the compound, and, finally, the chemist must identify it. This final process of identification usually includes not only being certain that the compound contains the right percentage of the various elements from which it is composed, but also involves the determination of the 3-dimensional structure of the compound.
Structural details are often crucial to the activity of the compound.
For example, the compounds dextrophane and levorphane differ in a very subtle way. In Figure 2, the same molecules are shown as computer generated molecular models. When you compare Figure 1 and Figure 2 you will find that the lines in the structural formulas indicate the attachment of atoms to one another. These lines are called bonds. Some bonds are single bonds, some are double bonds, others are triple bonds.