he wealth of real-world detail in this remarkable textbook makes it
especially useful for chemists who have limited access to a chemistry research
library, and for those who have been volunteered into service
as organic chemists. Unlike most other organic chemistry textbooks, this book
describes procedures in exact detail, including the amounts of reagents,
reaction times, and handling of products. In contrast, most organic chemistry
texts only mention that the reaction exists and (if you're lucky) give a
literature citation. However, the discussion is not as detailed as that in
Organic Syntheses.
There are chapters on experimental techniques (228 pages), spectroscopic analyses (141 pages), common solvents and reagents, including their safe handling (75 pages), and characterization and derivatization of functional groups (102 pages), as well as a collection of useful tables (153 pages). However, the most important section is the collection of organic syntheses (726 pages). The reactions are mostly single-step reactions of general applicability. Typical examples are: the preparation and use of dipyridine chromium (VI) oxide, synthesis of benzyl methyl ketone from phenylacetic acid using thorium carbonate catalyst, and Claisen-Schmidt synthesis of 4-phenylbut-3-en-2-one. These are not particularly difficult reactions, but the practical details of the reactions are not intuitively obvious and are easily forgotten, even by experienced chemists. Hundreds of other reactions are also described.
The few problems include an occasional Britishism, such as calling ketene by its old name, "keten" (p. 694) and calling dry ice "Cardice". In matters straying from organic chemistry, the book does have some errors:
Of course, most people would probably not do electrical wiring based on information in a chemistry book. Another problem is that the drawbacks and limitations of the reactions are not discussed. Even with 1514 pages, not every reaction can be discussed, and the latest modifications to the reactions are not always present. For example, the section on Simmons-Smith cyclopropanation uses the obsolete method of zinc dust and sonication instead of diethylzinc. But for most reactions, the wealth of detail makes this book indispensable in the laboratory.
t first glance, this paperback compilation of 250 "named" reactions (that
is, reactions named after the originators) might appear to be aimed at the
Internet generation. The molecules are printed in all different colors, the
text is in sans-serif font with almost no page margins, and the products are
drawn in shadow boxes. In fact, despite the unusual appearance, the approach
is conventional. Each reaction gets two 8½ × 11 inch pages and
one page of references. A single, often gigantic paragraph, titled "Importance",
summarizes the salient features of the reaction, its current status, the most
recent variations and improvements, and the scope and limitations of the reaction.
Next is "Mechanism", followed by "Synthetic Applications", which consists of
examples from the literature of how the reaction has been used. No detailed
procedures are given.
This approach is completely different from Vogel's Textbook. Although Kürti and Czakó have written a very informative reference work, it would not be useful in the laboratory unless you have access to a library. Although many of the examples are multi-step reactions, to save space the authors often use a single arrow with the word "steps" printed over it. For students, this is often taken to mean "and then a miracle occurs."
The book also has an excellent index. For some reason, the entries in the index are also printed in random colors.
Disclaimer: I have not read either of these books in their entirety.
