Synthon

In chemistry, a synthon is an imaginary or hypothetical chemical species used in retrosynthetic analysis, a method of breaking apart complicated organic compounds to plan out how to make them with organic synthesis. The term was coined by chemist E. J. Corey, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on synthesis.

Most synthons are too unstable to exist in a real reaction. A real synthesis instead uses a synthetic equivalent for a synthon. For example, Grignard reagents like methylmagnesium chloride () are synthetic equivalents of carbanions like methylide ().

References

Category:Organic chemistry