Reagents that can provide the protecting groups are called protection reagents. At present, Alfa Chemistry provides various protective reagents, such as silylation reagents, acylation reagents, thioacetalization reagents, etc.
Benefits of Protecting Groups in Organic Synthesis
In organic synthesis, a molecule may contain two or more functional groups. In order to prevent
one of the functional groups from being destroyed by the reaction, a certain reagent is often
used to protect it first, and the protective agent will be removed after the reaction is completed.
The protection of hydroxyl, amino and amino groups are most commonly seen. There are many
types of protective reagents, which are widely used in the synthesis of drug molecules. Each
protective reagent has corresponding de-protection conditions.
What is protecting group?
As mentioned above, the protecting group is a group whose main purpose is to protect the
functional group (improve its stability) through a specific chemical reaction. Various protecting
groups have been developed to stabilize the chemical properties of the original site according to
the purpose.
In addition, protecting groups can also bring about many other benefits:
Improve solubility and reduce polarity
Sugars and amino acids are often used as the starting point for synthesis. However, such
compounds are highly polar, and most of them are insoluble in organic solvents, and some are
soluble in water, resulting in very low yields. In this case, this can be improved by protecting the
polar functional group.
Improve crystallinity
When refining synthetic intermediates, especially in the case of expanding the reaction, it is
desirable to avoid the column as much as possible. At this time, a suitable protective group can
be selected by recrystallization to improve the formation of crystals. The commonly used
functional groups here are –Br and −NO2.
Changes in biological activity
In physiologically active substances, biological polymers are very likely to interact with each other
due to the action of polar functional groups. By introducing protective groups, the lower polar
functional groups can be shielded and the biological activity can be reduced.
Changes in volatility
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