ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the influence of microwave irradiation on the selectivities in organic reactions. Only examples with different and compared results on the selectivities under conventional heating conditions and microwave irradiation conditions are included. The chapter analyses the microwave-accelerated organic reactions without any changes in selectivities under conventional heating conditions and microwave irradiation conditions. It provides some useful information for organic and medicinal chemists who are interested in microwave-assisted organic reactions, especially controlling selectivities, including chemo-, regio-, diastereo-, and enantioselectivities, in organic reactions with microwave irradiation. In traditional organic synthetic chemistry, organic chemists generally regulate or change selectivity through changing reaction temperature, solvent, catalyst, and/or with photo irradiation instead of heating. The power of microwave irradiation affects the regioselectivity. The temperature influences the regioselectivity as well, revealing that the influence of microwave power on the regioselectivity is possibly attributed to the temperature difference.
