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PREFACESynthesis has a central role in the development of Science especially in Chemistry.The strategies adopted in synthesis of molecules and materials have undergoneconsiderable changes in recent times and it was felt that it may be necessary toassess and assimilate information on this topic in a single place. Though, nooriginality is claimed to the contents on this topic, the very fact that the availableinformation on this topic is available in one place itself is considered to be a majorstep forward. To the best of our knowledge, such an attempt has not yet been madeor available in literature, though various comprehensive assessment of variousmethods have been made and reported in literature.The contents of this ebook have been generated from the lectures delivered to thesummer programme for the Children’s Club during April 14 to April 30, 2008 atthe National Centre for Catalysis Research (NCCR). The members of the researchcommunity of NCCR are responsible for the compilation of information on each of the topics presented in this ebook.We have felt the need for a comprehensive compilation on this topic for variousreasons and we do hope the scientific community will also feel the same way. It ispossible that coverage may not be comprehensive. However, it is our first attemptto tread into an unknown territory in Science and make a compilation. In thissense this can be considered as our humble first attempt. The chapters have beencontributed by individuals and hence the language and style may not be uniformthough we tried very little to make it uniform.We are grateful to Mr. Narayanaswamy, Secretary, Children’s Club, Mylapore,Chennai 600 004 for his continuous faith in us and also for providing us opportunityyear after year to conduct such programmes. The members of NCCR consider thisas a privilege and wish to record their grateful thanks to him. They alsoacknowledge the support provided by the administration of IIT, Madras to conductsuch programmes.We do hope this ebook will receive the attention it deserves. We shall be grateful forany useful feedback on this exercise, so that we will be able to implement them inour future endeavours.Chennai 600 036April 18, 2008 B.Viswanathan