Over the past few sections of the course, you have seen several uses and examples of organic synthesis.
Organic synthesis is simply the human-driven manufacture of organic
compounds. Considering that less than two-hundred years ago we assumed
that organic compounds had some sort of life-giving force and couldn’t
be synthesized by human power, we’re doing pretty well, creating
thousands of new compounds every year that, as far as we know, have
never existed in nature. Also, as we’ve already seen, we manufacture
literal tons upon tons of ethers, esters, and other simpler molecules
that might exist in nature, but not in quantities great enough to be
useful to our economy.

In this project, you’re going to pick a synthetic organic compound.
You’ve got hundreds of thousands from which to choose, so here are some
criteria:

• Its synthesis must involve at least two independent steps (so a simple ester won’t work, for example, because the dehydration reaction is just one step)
• It must have some sort of current use (we manufacture thousands of
  chemicals every year, and we have no idea what they might be useful
  for; they end up being tested as drugs, cleaners, and a number of other
  things. Don’t pick one of those. Pick one that we actually use)

Your compound may be:

• A pharmaceutical (like a drug. Please stay away from street
  drugs or other restricted substances. This isn’t the forum, and we
  don’t want anyone asking you any embarrassing questions about why
  you’re researching such things. There are many legal pharmaceuticals
  used by the medical community that would be perfectly appropriate)
• A plastic or other polymer (synthetic fabric, for example)
• A dye, flavouring, solvent, etc.
• Anything else that is an organic compound and is manufactured by humans as opposed to nature

In this report, you must describe:

• The chemical structure of the compound
• How the compound is manufactured (describe all of the steps. If
  the manufacture of the chemical requires a step that is not covered in
  this course, you’ll need to describe it. Write this paper as though
  it was to be read by a fellow student, with as much background in
  chemistry as you currently have)
• The physical and chemical properties of the compound, and some
  insight, based on the chemical’s molecular structure, why it might have
  these properties
• Numbers of people employed in the manufacture of this chemical,
  and/or the companies who manufacture it, and/or the sales (in Canadian
  dollars) per year of this chemical, and/or anything else you can report
  on its economic significance.
• The environmental impact of this chemical, in terms of its
  manufacture, use or disposal, and your assessment as to if these risks
  are worth the benefits of manufacturing the chemical

The internet’s a big place and all of the information you need should
be findable there. I highly recommend starting with a large database
like ChemSpider. Wikipedia can be a fantastic source for preliminary
research, but remember that for an academic essay, you must be able to
cite your complete source, including a clear author. Since Wikipedia seldom states who wrote the article (whether it was a person or a corporation), you can never completely vouch for its reliability.

Note the rubric below. The “challenge” category is simply to say that a
project where you’re researching the synthesis of a complex steroid
drug is going to be worth more, in that category, than if you research
some dye where you just have to lob off a hydroxyl group from an
existing compound. The rest should be self-explanatory.