Chem 335 - Winter 2000
Organic Chemistry II
Dr. Carl C. Wamser

Challenge Problem

Challenge problem: group work (3 - 4 people)

Using only ethylene as a source of carbon, show how to prepare 3-hexanol using Grignard reactions.

Besides using all correct reactions, syntheses are judged on "style" points:

* minimum number of steps
* minimum number of different reagents used

If you were actually carrying out this or a similar synthesis in lab, what criteria (beyond the number of steps and the number of reagents) would be involved in deciding whether your synthesis is a good one?