Protecting Group Strategies in Organic Synthesis

Abstract The choice of protecting groups is one of the decisive factors in the successful realization of a complex, demanding synthetic project. The protecting groups used influence the length and efficiency of the synthesis and are often responsible for its success or failure. A wide range of blocking groups are currently available for the different functional groups; however, an overall strategy combining these different masking techniques in an advantageous and reliable manner has never been proposed or at best only for individual cases. This review attempts to make a contribution to filling this gap. First a very short overview of the most commonly used protecting groups will be given, in which they are classified according to their lability and not according to the functional group they protect. This classification clarifies coherent concepts for the development of blocking strategies. On the basis of this brief summary reliable strategies will then be illustrated and developed with selected examples from the recent literature by which protecting groups may be combined successfully and advantageously in synthetic projects of differing degrees of complexity and difficulty.