Formal Synthesis
A formal synthesis describes not the synthesis of the desired end product but the synthesis of a compound that is already known from the literature to be a precursor to that desired end product. If it is known from the literature that B can be converted to C then a novel route from compound A to compound B is a formal proof that A can also give access to C.
Read more about this topic: Total Synthesis
Famous quotes containing the words formal and/or synthesis:
“Two clergymen disputing whether ordination would be valid without the imposition of both hands, the more formal one said, “Do you think the Holy Dove could fly down with only one wing?””
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)
“Our art is the finest, the noblest, the most suggestive, for it is the synthesis of all the arts. Sculpture, painting, literature, elocution, architecture, and music are its natural tools. But while it needs all of those artistic manifestations in order to be its whole self, it asks of its priest or priestess one indispensable virtue: “faith.””
—Sarah Bernhardt (1845–1923)