What are the principal advantages of microwave-assisted organic synthesis over traditional methods?
One important advantage, which led to the initial adoption of microwave-enhanced chemistry, is simply the speed with which synthetic reactions can be performed. While advances in the analysis of synthetic compounds—for example, fast, fully automated equipment for performing HPLC—have shortened the overall synthetic process, there is still a bottleneck in the area of the chemical reactions themselves. Reactions that would take days with conventional methods can be completed in minutes in the microwave, eliminating that bottleneck.
