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MJLPHD

A carbohydrate chemistry project

5/10/2014

1 Comment

 
PictureRing opening of sucralose
At the start of my PhD, my supervisor gave me a project in which I would try to do a ring opening of sucralose using periodate to get a tetra-aldehyde product.

PictureMolecular structure of Guar gum
The idea was to optimize this process and then to transfer these same conditions to convert guar gum to its tetra-aldehyde, convert the aldehyde groups to alkynes by a Corey–Fuchs reaction and then do click chemistry (copper catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition) with a variety of azides in order to functionalize guar gum.

Looking back on it now it seems a bit far fetched. I gave it a try but I eventually found my way into another project involving isocyanates and hydantoins. To begin my investigation, I carried out a solvent survey of sucralose and guar gum. The results, posted below, reminded me that carbohydrates really don't dissolve in much.
Picture
Solubility of sucralose and guar gum in selected solvents
While I didn't get any further than this, the next step would be to try blends of water with organic solvents. I would also like to try cyclohexanone.
1 Comment
George Dionne link
28/1/2015 09:42:33 am

Thank you for sharing the article. Hope to hear more from you.

Reply



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