As chemists, our job is to make new molecules. If our synthetic design works as planned, we will have success and the target product made. As we all know, along with our desired compound, by-products are often created as well. To remove the by-products, the reaction mixture requires purification, typically with flash chromatography.

Synthetic chemists continually seek ways to create novel compounds. Along the way they evaluate reagents, solvents, and reaction conditions giving rise to various reaction products and by-products.