Resumen de Microwave-Assisted Carbonyl Chemistry for the Undergraduate Laboratory

S. Shaun Murphree, C. Oliver Kappe

• An instructional laboratory module suitable for a second- or third-year organic chemistry curriculum has been developed using microwave-assisted synthetic techniques. The module, which contains six discrete experiments, explores various aspects of carbonyl chemistry. Reaction times range from 3 minutes to 1 hour (two steps), and yields are consistently high (78–99%). Starting materials are inexpensive and readily available, and straightforward workup and purification (via extraction or recrystallization) provides products of acceptable purity without the need for chromatography.