[hamil]

I am a high school math and science tutor. I feel comfortable tutoring students in high school chemistry where example chemical reaction problems are usually simple ionic reactions. BTW, I am not a chemist. However, I would like to learn how more complex compounds are synthesized. For example, How is aspirin or naproxen sodium synthesized. Also, how does a chemist even know what to synthesize. Is this trial and error or is there a specific procedure to synthesize a particular chemical formula. How are insecticides synthesized? Is a chemist given a problem and then he sets out to make a chemical to solve the problem?

Basically, could someone recommend a good reference on this subject? Something like Advanced Chemistry for Dummies?  Thanks

[Arkcon]

I am a high school math and science tutor. I feel comfortable tutoring students in high school chemistry where example chemical reaction problems are usually simple ionic reactions. BTW, I am not a chemist. However, I would like to learn how more complex compounds are synthesized.

OK, so, for tutoring purposes, you'd like a general run through.  OK, I moved the question to this sub board

For example, How is aspirin or naproxen sodium synthesized.

Something you have to try in a situation like this is the chemical's wikipedia page.  Sometimes the pathway is spelled out for you right there.  For example, for Naproxen http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naproxen#Compound_information

Also, how does a chemist even know what to synthesize. Is this trial and error or is there a specific procedure to synthesize a particular chemical formula. How are insecticides synthesized? Is a chemist given a problem and then he sets out to make a chemical to solve the problem?

Little hard to follow you here:  are you asking how the synthetic pathway is designed?  Then yes, the rules of organic synthetic chemistry are pretty well know, but new developments are always being made.  The organic chemistry forums on this board are good ways to get a general idea of the capabilities and shortcomings of various synthetic methods, even if you really can't understand the specifics.

Or are you asking how chemist sknow what to develop for a given application?  The answer to that question is a little bit more involved.

[zs3889]

It takes a very long time and effort, as well as investment to successfully produce a new drug. You could try searching information online for drug discovery, it might interest you, well at least I was interested by the drug discovery courses that I took in my undergrad.

These are the basic ideas that we were shown in the beginning of the class:

[fledarmus]

To tell the truth, the synthesis of complex compounds is the easy part of drug discovery. You learn a whole lot of different reactions and use them to build up structures like tinker toys. That isn't to say that it doesn't take a lot of time and effort, but it is at least relatively straightforward.

The "knowing what compound to synthesize" is the problem. This is driven a lot more by biology than by chemistry. It all comes down to "what are you trying to accomlish with the compound." And by that, I don't mean something that can be answered by anything as simple as "cure cancer". I mean, what specific biological transformation are you trying to modify, and how much does it need to be modified? The whole "disease pathway research" box is trying to find a single biological process which, if it was sped up or slowed down, would modify a disease. Of all the millions of different biochemical reactions constantly occurring inside an organism, we want to affect just one, in a very precise manner, and sometimes even only in a very specific part of the body. It's like trying to throw a handful of sand into a clock, but getting just exactly the right shape and size of sand grains that it will only affect one gear of the clock and will slow that gear down just enough that the clock will keep perfect time instead of running half a minute fast.