How can I write synthesis reactions in organic chemistry?

1 Answer
Sep 12, 2015

You need:

  • A starting reactant
  • Multiple stepwise products with the proper reaction's reagents, solvent, and conditions
  • A final product

Let's take the following (completely off-the-top-of-my-head) synthesis for example.

That's all you have to write out. You do not ever need to draw reaction mechanism steps or curved arrows (unless you're making up a reaction step not from your book and you are figuring it out on the fly, but not many people do that).

Note: You may or may not have learned tautomerization in Organic Chemistry I. This would be the mechanism in basic conditions: