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)
“If in the opinion of the Tsars authors were to be the servants of the state, in the opinion of the radical critics writers were to be the servants of the masses. The two lines of thought were bound to meet and join forces when at last, in our times, a new kind of regime the synthesis of a Hegelian triad, combined the idea of the masses with the idea of the state.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)