In drug discovery, microwaves are common tools for heating reactions to high temperatures and pressures so that it is possible to synthesize compounds in minutes that might otherwise take hours by conventional heating. However, another environment where this is a considerable advantage is in the teaching laboratory. By greatly speeding reaction rates, students can try multi-step synthesis is a single day, and look at the effect of altering reaction conditions on products and yields.
Synthetic organic chemistry is the genesis of new pharmaceutical and commercial chemical products. In short, it is based on the idea that two or more carbon-based compounds can be forced to react using heat, or other energy source, to create a new, novel product – but this we already know.
Many chemists today find they need to synthesize molecules at higher temperatures in order to force difficult reactions to proceed. Solvents such as DMF, DMSO, and NMP are commonly used in these reactions as they facilitate the use of the high reaction temperatures. However, the same attributes that make these chemicals attractive as reaction solvents make compound recovery from them very difficult, including flash column chromatography. These high boiling solvents are typically polar and pose a challenge if purification is to be accomplished with normal-phase silica.